Longtime
King's X fans can attest, quite a few tracks from early in the trio's career had gone unreleased. With many of the songs never properly recorded (only existing as demos or live bootlegs), these early tracks were in danger of going forever unnoticed, until the boys decided to do something about it. Entering the studio in 2002, the band finally recorded 14 of these rare compositions, resulting in the release of
Black Like Sunday a year later. The first release by the group via its own Brop! label (distributed by Metal Blade),
Black Like Sunday unsurprisingly sounds quite a lot like the group's early works (the straight-ahead rockers
Out of the Silent Planet and
Gretchen Goes to Nebraska), before the group began stretching out a bit more on latter releases. Standouts include such meaty riff rockers as the title track, "Finished," and "Bad Luck," as well as the more melodic tunes "Danger Zone" and "Working Man." Also included as "CD Rom Extras" are lyrics, pictures, a screensaver, and even a video of the band performing "Dreams" from back in 1986. [Note: the jumbled track listing on the back of the CD cover does not match the actual sequence of songs.]