Master Heartache
Hard Rain Fallin'
Lady of Fire
Lake Isle of Innersfree
Pumped Up
Kingdom Come
I Got a Woman
Hell Hound
Helium Head (I Got a Love)
Ain't Got Hung on You
Many argue over exactly when the term ‘heavy metal’ was born as a musical reference. A Creem magazine review of this debut album from Brooklyn trio Sir Lord Baltimore, often cited as the ground zero of ‘stoner rock’, was possibly its earliest use, and the music was certainly different. The use of heavy distortion and multi-tracked guitars made it unusual for the era, as a result of which the band were overlooked, even though they opened for Black Sabbath.
"We went to the Virginia Dome," lead vocalist and drummer John Garner told Classic Rock. My manager made a deal with their manager to let us use their PA system. That was a big mistake. We were playing to over 6,000 people and we were doing a great job. And all of a sudden the power went out. Somebody pulled the plug. Then we started again. People were going crazy, they loved us. And they pulled the plug again.
"Three times they pulled the plug on us. Now, who knew people were gonna be that treacherous back then? We were into love, peace, and happiness. What’s this shit? Unfortunately they came from Birmingham, and I guess they didn’t have any manners. If we knew that, we would have hired some strong guys to sit by those plugs and beat the shit out of anybody who tried to pull ’em.”
Subsequent reissues of Kingdom Come have introduced new generations to the band, and reinforced their pioneering importance. Mike Appel, who went on to manage Bruce Springsteen, co-wrote all the songs and co-produced the album.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in December 1970
- The End of an Ear - Robert Wyatt
- Wishbone Ash - Wishbone Ash
- Ginger Baker's Air Force 2 - Ginger Baker's Air Force
- John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - John Lennon
- Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band - Yoko Ono and Plastic Ono Band
- Lizard - King Crimson
- T. Rex - T. Rex
- The Black Man's Burdon - Eric Burdon and War
- Daughter of Time - Colosseum
- Desertshore - Nico
- The End of the Game - Peter Green
- False Start - Love
- H to He, Who Am the Only One - Van der Graaf Generator
- Highway - Free
- Pendulum - Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Lick My Decals Off, Baby - Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band
- Looking On - The Move
- Ry Cooder - Ry Cooder
- 'Til the Band Comes In - Scott Walker
- Watt - Ten Years After
- What About Me - Quicksilver Messenger Service
- Just Another Diamond Day - Vashti Bunyan
What they said...
"Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks in the book. Precisely, they sound like a mix between the uptempo noiseblasts of Led Zeppelin (instrumentally) and singing that’s like an unending Johnny Winter shriek: they have it all down cold, including medium or uptempo blasts a la LZ, a perfect carbon of early cataclysmic MC5 (Hard Rain Fallin’), and the one-soft-an-album concept originated by Jimmy Page and his gang." (Creem)
"True, John Garner’s vocals are a little too theatrical – but it was 1970 and aside from Arthur Brown (of “I am the God of Hellfire” fame), who else was doing this stuff? – and the guitarist, Louis Dambra, is probably metal’s greatest unsung hero. His playing, especially on tracks like Hell Hound and Pumped Up, is outstanding. He boasts killer chops, a unique tone and delivers an awesome performance." (Vinyl Me, Please)
"The album isn't perfect, but it’s short. Indeed, it’s exactly the same length as the first four Van Halen albums were: 17 minutes per side. Excellent. Yes, there's a terrible acoustic song on side one and I even used to think that the title track itself sucked big logs. But really, it's just as good as the rest, just more painful and strung out and more of everything. So, M’Luds, Ladies and Gentlemen, I here present you an album of sublime rock'n'roll – excruciatingly and gratingly sublime, and that's a fact." (Julian Cope)
What you said...
Greg Schwepe: Since joining this fun, friendly group of music geeks, I’ve been exposed to a range of “old, but new to me” stuff to review each week. And little did I know that I would end up really liking albums by “Obscure 70’s Hard Rock Never Made It Big” bands that seemed to get chosen a lot. Usually loud, angry, and with a lot of attitude, these “never made it” bands usually resonated with me.
Sir Lord Baltimore’s Kingdom Come (not to be confused with the band Kingdom Come whose debut we reviewed previously!) comes out of the gate in all its 70s fury and fuzzed-out freak out.
“Master Heartache, Hard Rain Fallin’, and Lady Of Fire are pretty much cut from the same cloth (most likely denim or leather!) as far as sound and formula.
That brings us to the outlier as far as style in Lake Isle of Innersfree. With its harpsichord and contemplative vocals, it sounds like a Spinal Tap spoof (guess that’s an oxymoron, as Spinal Tap was all a spoof). Funny thing, I like that song and it probably has the best vocal delivery on the album right there. Pumped Up and the title track are next in line. Kingdom Come probably contains the best set of riffs on the album.
The rest of the album was also to my liking and the songs met my usual measuring stick of being able listen all the way through without the need to bail.
Immediate thoughts? Well, what stuck it for me the most were the drums. Really active and very reminiscent of either Ginger Baker or Bill Ward. And I will have to say that Helium Head (I Got A Love) gave those drum heads and cymbals the biggest workout.
As for the “well, I really didn’t like that so much” part of this album were the vocals. A little too much “yelling” for my tastes. Not unlistenable, but if I were to rank the vocals of all these “Obscure 70’s Hard Rock Never Made It Big” bands that we’ve reviewed, this would probably rank lowest on the list for me. In this case we have “Vocal Lack of Delivery” instead of “Vocal Delivery.”
Now the funny part is that when I did my band research after listening, I found out that the things I liked the most and least about this album were caused by the same person! The same guy was the drummer and lead vocalist.
While not the best of this genre we’ve reviewed, another nice little find that I’ve since listened to a good 4-5 times so far. 7 out of 10 on this one for me.
Greg Schwepe: So, in addition to my normal full length review (above), included below is also my first (and last?) Haiku review version of Kingdom Come by Sir Lord Baltimore. Perfect for those strapped for time in reading the full-length version. And for us review writers, a shortcut for when we don't feel like pounding out something lengthy. And, all this because I was in a goofy mood this morning.
Sir Lord Baltimore
Drums good, Vocals not so hot
Never made it big
Clay Halford: I generally prefer a bit more melody in my rock music but put this on with an open mind. Heavy is definitely the right adjective to describe this. I don't know if 'good' is, though. There is some decent musicality in there, but towards the end the songs start to blend together in a samey fashion. The vocals are probably the biggest contributor to this - a lot of squawking that overshadows everything else.
There is definitely potential here, but I can understand why they didn't kick on. I was happy enough to listen to but don't really have any desire to revisit any time soon.
Gary Claydon: The story goes that Bill Graham once threw Sir Lord Baltimore off stage at the Fillmore East and later described them as "pus". Bit harsh.
Kingdom Come is raucous, raw and ramshackle. Featuring some nifty six-string work and 'Spinal Tap' - esque, over-the-top vocals. Punky, punchy, lacking finesse, maybe but a bucket load of heavyweight fun, nonetheless, despite their obvious lack of understanding as to how the British honours system works. 6.5.
John Davidson: Loud, raucous proto metal. Heavy riffs and a deep dose of the blues. I should love this but there is a little too much of that generic 60s sound still in there, particularly in the vocals, for me to really get behind it. It's very similar in that regard to Blue Cheer or Captain Beyond.
Interesting but not something I'm likely to play again.
When you compare it to contemporary works by Black Sabbath (Paranoid), Deep Purple (In Rock) and Led Zeppelin (III) you can see why those bands stood out from the crowd and became the founding fathers of the genre we all love.
Philip Qvist: It may have been written and released in 1970 but both Sir Lord Baltimore and Kingdom Come has 60s written all over. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I just felt they missed a trick or two as a result.
I didn't dislike the album, and the first two tracks, Master Headache and Hard Rain Fallin', definitely grabbed my attention but that momentum was lost the longer that record went on, particularly the second side.
I doubt it influenced the likes of Black Sabbath or Deep Purple - and it most certainly didn't influence Led Zeppelin, although there is a possibility that bands like Uriah Heep may have picked up something from Kingdom Come. But if they did then those bands took it to a higher level.
The musicianship and (if at times over the top) vocals are pretty good, the production could have been better but this is an album that, for all the hype, should have been better than the actual final product.
Good without being brilliant, which means it's a 6 from me.
Dale Munday: I could really get into this album if it was instrumental. There is some great stuff going on behind that dreadful singer.
Mike Canoe: Obscure loud and frenzied hard rock from the early seventies? Cool cover art to boot? I'm inclined to like Sir Lord Baltimore's Kingdom Come on principle alone.
The album is generally enjoyable but also a little hard to take seriously thanks to the over-the-top vocals of singer/drummer John Garner (Check out Lady of Fire, Hell Hound, Pumped Up and the seriously heavy title track - that's also heavily serious in that all-night bong session kind of way.) Even when he's not shrieking and freaking, it's hard to imagine Garner delivering the lyrics in the likes of faux madrigal, Lake Isle of Innersfree, with a straight face.
I am reminded of the MC5 but faster and without the post-hippie posturing. I am reminded of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown but faster and without the flame-helmeted one's surprising sublimeness. More than anything it reminds me of Cheech & Chong's classic rock star parody, Earache, My Eye.
But that's not a bad thing. Something can make you laugh your ass off at the same time said ass is getting kicked. And so it goes with Sir Lord Baltimore. Fun, but also funny - in a good way.
Final score: 6.00 (25 votes cast, total score 150)
Join the Album Of The Week Club on Facebook to join in. The history of rock, one album at a time.
