Andrew’s Judgmental Album Reviews: King’s X – Three Sides of One (2022)

Now I did say September was going to have a solid amount of metal, October may as well because of Spooky Season, so I’ll have to work on ending the year with a more eclectic spread. However, that brings us to this week’s album, the new one from King’s X! By this point you’re expecting some grand serendipity or gap in time from me listening to them, but Nay, they are a band after my own inconsistent interests!

Their last studio album was XV (2008) and that was the last album I listened to once I heard Pray. King’s X is a progressive metal/alt rock style of band, which honestly peaked in the 90s. Dogman (1994) is my favorite album of theirs and many consider it to be the best in their catalogue. Known mostly as a “musician’s musicians”, this trio has heavily influenced many bands and are probably some of the most respected musicians you’ve never heard of. Let’s also not overstate this may very well be the only band that has had the same 3 members and only these 3 members on all of their studio albums. So the longevity has to be worth something since they’ve been a group since 1979 and their first recording in 1983.

King’s X is: Doug Pinnick (Bass, vocals), Jerry Gaskill (Drums, Percussions, vocals) & Ty Tabor (Guitar, vocals)

• Artist: King’s X
• Album: Three Sides of One
• Label: InsideOut Music
• Total Track Time: 46:42

Let It Rain has a sparse little drum beat with an interesting western/jazz bassline. The song exemplifies one of King’s X’s biggest lyrical themes, and that is; they like to use faith and religious imagery, so wanting the rain to wash the fear away and calling for saviors means this could have something to do with the past few years or just a general call for absolution. It has a nice groove, feels a little boring though honestly. Flood, Pt. 1 even though I don’t love the weird white noise to start with, the rhythm comes in crunchy and nice, before completely flipping into like a 70s psychedelic rock bass groove. The lyrics are insanely sparse in the entire song, and I mean like 8 total lines. But I really like what you would probably consider the hook; “I used to say that all we needed was love, Now I’m thinking that what we need is a flood”, interesting song and continued the wash away/water imagery from the first song. So it definitely works. Nothing But the Truth is a fantastic song. A slow Blues driven song about wanting someone to talk to you, tell you the truth and not having to drag it out of them; “My heart can feel, Oh, a little too much, But oh, in my soul, oh, you have touched, I think too much, Oh, it’s just my fault, I hold it in, and you hold it up”.

Give It Up is funky and groovy and just a great little song. Lyrically it has a very fun almost like funk fused punk vibe to it about not giving up what brings you joy. The last verse is pretty great though; “Life really is a bitch, I’m stupid, is what I’m learning, Some people call me wise, born today and soon be dying, So live another day, that’s the battle it’s true, And if you find your groove, hang on to whatever keeps you”. So it has an obvious lightness in the vocal delivery, positivity and it’s a danceable tune as well so it’s very easy to just bop to this. All God’s Children now is a good time to remind readers that this is not a Christian Rock band. They use faith and religious imagery a bit, but don’t classify themselves in that category. This song however, lingers…is supposed to sound ethereal and probably be evocative to a degree; but I’m falling asleep here. They use hymnal group vocals to transition the chorus into the verses, a bit of acoustic guitar and a weird guitar tone…I like absolutely nothing about this song. Is it offensive to my ears? No. But this is Doctor’s Waiting Room music. Take the Time sounds like something The Beatles or Barenaked Ladies would do. It’s very light, nearly folky with an interesting orchestral ensemble during a portion of the song. I’ll admit it feels a little weird, though their early work did have a bit of Beatles-esque songs, so it’s not a bad song, actually pretty interesting and insightful.

Festival starts off with a megaphone intro and kicks into more of a punk style of tempo. This almost sounds like it could’ve been on the last Billy Talent album. While I think it’s a little jarring to come off two slower tempo songs into more of a punk song, it’s still a groovy song that picks the energy back up. Swipe Up okay this song gives me Promised Land era Queensryche vibes musically. Lyrically it’s all about how fast misinformation spreads because of the internet and how the world has become customizable to your little slice of reality. So you just swipe up to unlock anything you want, because you control your narrative…so to speak. Interesting song with a cool little arrangement. Holidays brings back more Beatles reference since I’m immediately reminded of Because with the arrangement and the group harmonies. It’s not a bad song to get across the passage of time and how people use holidays and weekends as goalposts to satisfy the lie that is the monotony of life.

Watcher definitely has this feeling they were going for a song that could fit on Dogman or Ear Candy, and sonically it hits that 90s alt rock sound, but the lyrics are a little too abstract. Also due to how abstract the lyrics are the song feels very open and not well defined. So when it ends it just drifts into the silence instead of feeling like a complete thought. She Called Me Home a song that feels weird. Lyrically it’s about something happening, so the tragedy possibly calling the singer home even though they were told to go pursue other things. We definitely hit the real thinkers of songs that are vague enough to allow the listener to relate to it how they want. Which there’s something insanely clever about that, but also a bit frustrating from my perspective. Every Everywhere we return to more of the Beatles/indie approach to rock music. While I can appreciate the sentiment of “ The whole world is crying for love, Every, everywhere”, it’s a bit too optimistic and idealistic for my liking. So it’s one of those songs like a 1st grade play would sing and you’d say ‘that’s adorable’.

Let me start my summation with getting across, just because I said they peaked in the 90s doesn’t make them bad now. They have shown a great level of consistency in musicianship and of course a steady lineup helps. But peaks and valleys happen, can’t fight the facts. As for this album, I was pleasantly surprised and will admit that the album does get better after a few listens. Now that’s not to say I don’t have issues. The fact that the middle songs in the album jump around a little too much from tempo to tone and it ends with kind of a questionable wet fart; I’m just conflicted in my feelings.

Musically nothing was offensive and Three Sides of One is a clever analogy to the fact they’ve been a trio for nearly 40 years and you could almost break apart the song styles into 3 types (Prog Metal, Alt Rock and Beatles-esque). So you got a little bit of everything everywhere, but it just didn’t quit seem to fit all the time. Still a good album, and even though Doug Pinnick has said King’s X was never a profitable band; I think they’ve shown they still have a solid enough grasp on who they are to make some quality music.

Final Judgment: 7/10