ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 22, 1988
By Steve Newton
I don’t know about these guys. Displaying your respect for a classic rock band by showing its influence is one thing, but to make a deliberate attempt at being a clone is another. Not to worry, though, because Kingdom Come isn’t capable of capturing the essence of Led Zep anyway.
Not that they don’t try hard. Vocalist Lenny Wolf sounds enough like Robert Plant to fool most people, and lead guitarist Danny Stag has obviously spent many hours locked away in his room learning Jimmy Page-style licks (their single “Get It On” starts with a riff similar to “Black Dog” before going into a complete rip-off of “Kashmir”).
But what Kingdom Come is missing (and will probably never find) is the genuine bluesy soulfulness of its idols. The groups sounds too much like what we’d hear from Bon Jovi should that whole band wake up one morning and find they’d been possessed by the spirits of Messrs. Page, Plant, Bonham, and Jones.
I can’t figure out why these guys want to be the new Led Zeppelin anyway. Their own sound, as heard on such nifty tunes as “Now Forever After” and “Shout it Out”, has enough mainstream hard-rock appeal to win them plenty of fans.