VICTOR PERAINO'S KINGDOM COME

On this album (in 2010 re-released on CD by the Italian prog label Black Widow Records) you can hear the wide range of influences when Victor made music as support-act in the USA and when he attended the concerts in the UK. Especially from Hawkwind (propulsive rhythms, fiery guitar and fat synthesizer flights), Jethro Tull (rock guitar and swirling flute),PFM (flute and Moog runs), Yes (powerful bass) and Atomic Rooster (in the track Demon Of Love). Victor is supported by outstanding musicians, like the dynamic drum work. The most remarkable element is the omnipresence of the majestic Mellotron flute - and choir section, especially in Empires Of Steel and Garden Of Death. But also other vintage keyboards, like the Moog, ARP and VCS-3 synthesizers,along with the Mellotron these distinctive keyboards embellish Victor his music. The sound range from space rock and symphonic rock to hardrock and even a wonderful ballad,Lady Of The Morning (exciting build-up and final part).

In 1981 Victor his band released the EP Were Next (as bonus on this CD): no Moog and Mellotron but again swinging and propulsive rhythms with fiery guitar, like late Seventies David Bowie. In the final track Athena the Hammond organ is the most important instrument, with powerful waves.

In 2009 Victor started to tour again and in 2014, he made another album entitled Journey In Time under the same group name, this time with guest appearances from Arthur Brown on five of the tracks.

If you want to enjoy the typical Sixties and Seventies 'progressive vibe' (layered with The Mighty Tron), this is an album to discover.

My rating: 3,5 star.

The keyboard player Victor Peraino has continued steering the space ship that used to travel under the name of Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come, releasing two albums this far. The legendary vocalist -- best remembered for the smash hit 'Fire' from the album The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968) -- is guesting on this release too, on five tracks out of ten. The science fiction spirited heavy prog dominated by over-the-top keyboards is bound to slip into childishness here and there on this rather uneven album. But especially with Brown's still powerful vocals it all works pretty nicely, if you're fond of this kind of acidy tradition.

Also cover tunes such as 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' or Leonard Cohen's 'Future' have been made to sound truly their own. The package contains a relatively short bonus DVD featuring live cuts from Detroit & Los Angeles. I agree with the former reviewer that it's far from being a must to anyone else than a die-hard fan.

This album wasn't among the best I received to be reviewed 2-3 years ago. I think I gave it to some of my prog-minded friends, but certainly I haven't been missing it ever since.

The music here has that 70s essence, it is progressive rock with a symphonic tendency but with some heavy rock hints that are reminiscent of British rock bands from that era. "We Only Come Up To Help You" is the opener track; loads of keyboards and guitar riffs can be found here creating a very good prog song with some spacey effects, that can be easily enjoyed. I think they chose a great first track. The following one is "Future" whose first minute is completely spacey, then some funeral drums enter, far voices can be perceived and also a violin is added. Male vocals appear first in a dark way, but later the color of the voice changes and becomes a bit friendlier. The music easily takes you back to the 70s, it is undeniable. The violin gives a raga sound, producing some oriental nuances.

"Journey in Time" is a very nice song full of keyboards. Symphonic heaven reminiscent of British and Italian bands from the 70s with a very good slice of spacey rock. This is a purely instrumental track. The next one is "I Put A Spell On You", which is sang by Arthur Brown and man, he did a great job! As you can imagine, the mood is bluesy but adapted to prog rock, however, the disarming essence lives here with a wonderful vocal performance. There is a nice instrumental passage where violins sound, but honestly this track's highlight is definitely the voice. Superb!

"Empires of Steel" is the longest composition here. It starts with some computer-spacey noises whose intensity increases until there is an explosion and keyboards & drums appear, creating a new structure with a fast bombastic sound. Vocals appear after two minutes and that heavy rock 70s feeling strikes again. Later it makes a change, it becomes slower and more melodic, the guitar makes beautiful solos and the music naturally flows. At minute 7 the rhythm changes again, but honestly I did not like that change, it sounds forced to my ears. "Walk with Angels" has again Brown's vocals that contrast a little bit with the violin and angelical voices as background. Not a bad track, but far from being memorable. I would skip it.

The next track is "Time Captives" which on the other hand, is one of the highlights of this album. The space rock element is element since the first seconds, and the symphonic sound joins later along with Brown's voice; here, the vocals help a lot and make the song better. This is like Hawkwind meets Eloy, a tune characteristic of Arthur Brown's and Victor Peraino's Kingdom Come. "Sunset Sail" is a nice track with Peraino's vocals, and as you can imagine, keyboards are everywhere creating different nuances. Here I like the bass work, very original, accurate.

The last two songs are "Demon of Love" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". The earlier has an Atomic Rooster meets Uriah Heep sound, it is a rockier piece with heavy rock moments and the inherent keyboard solo; the latter is a cover from The Animals, a nice rendition and adaptation to that classic song.

Journey in Time features also an extra DVD with live performance of the band and an interview. Honestly, I think it wasn't necessary to include this bonus material, and though it is nice to enjoy some minutes watching it, unless you are a die-hard fan of Kingdom Come, you could avoid it and nothing will change.

Enjoy it!

''No man's land'' is a strange album.However its quality is undenieable, even if the leading force is Hard/Psych Rock, not unlike Peraino's experience next to Arthur Brown on ''Journey'', along with some powerful doses of US-styled Pomp Rock.But this is some very dense, rich, passionate and 100% progressive music with Peraino becoming a star throughout, having an impressive arsenal of keyboards, including Moog and ARP synthesizers, Hammond organ and Mellotron.The music is impressive to say the least.One of the most energetic and instrumentally rich US Prog Rock albums of the period with many diverse influences, based on a Hard Prog style.Some tracks are very complex with tons of breaks and fantastic use of synthesizers, very fast flute lines akin to JETHRO TULL and grandiose, pompous vocals, not unlike NEW ENGLAND.Other pieces are straightforward Hard/Pomp Rock with a few proggy vibes, KANSAS could be an easy comparison during these cuts, with rough guitar moves, groovy passages and more clean singing lines.And of course there is some fair dose of Symphonic/Pomp Rock with dominant Mellotron waves, showered by the sharp ARP synths of Peraino with even some great guitar runs over the tracks' length.A couple of very short, instrumental pieces burst a more spacey mood, heavily relying on Peraino's psychedelic synth explorations.

I doubt this album got some serious notice around the time of its release, but one of the best reissues around is the one by Black Widow Records, which includes four tracks from the 81' EP ''We're next'', when the band was performing as Kingdom.Of course the music is more accesible with glamourous vocals, total lack of vintage keys in the sake of synthesizers and scratching, guitar riffs with a Proto-Metal/Hard/Glam Rock attitude.Some funky touches and a dull sax part are also present.One of the tracks is a new version of Arthur Brown's classic piece ''Fire''.

There are some more keyboard wizards in this world except Rick Wakeman, Tony Banks and Keith Emerson.Victor Peraino is definitely one of them and ''No man's land'' is a great document of pompous Hard/Symph/Psych Rock with plenty of amazing keyboard deliveries, not to mention the nice work on guitars and flute.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

Kingdom Come as of 2014 comes across as a band that still has a bit of development to do before they manage to combine their individual talents into a greater whole. Their brand of melodic vintage hard rock liberally flavored with cosmic effects and multi-layered keyboard arrangements does have its charm of course, and at best they explore some truly intriguing landscapes, but at this point the end result is somewhat uneven. If you enjoy this classic 70's band this album is worth taking a look at of course, and if you do find the description of the music interesting you can do a lot worse than giving this album a spin. A somewhat uneven production, but with some very fine moments worth experiencing.