King's X

While most bands start off hard and mellow and wimp out with age, this trio of God-fearing Texans continues to get heavier and harder with each release. On the curiously named Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous, the band's eighth release, they show not only a harder, edgier side, but a more experimental one as well. It's almost as if the record's ten tracks were written as a band during free-form jam sessions as opposed to the very structured songs we heard on Tape Heads and Ear Candy. On those records it was easy to tell which were bassist Doug Pinnock's songs and which were brought in by guitarist Ty Tabor. This time around, it's not quite as clear and the result is a more interesting and at times less conventional sounding King's X record. Of course, it still contains the trademark chugging grooves and lush vocal harmonies we've come to expect of the band, but this new found improvisational sound adds an exciting new element too.