Bringing their considerable experience in the rock trenches to bear on the music world, KXM make their self-titled debut with an album of sprawling hard rock. Made up of the Lynch Mob's George Lynch, King's X member dUg Pinnick, and Korn drummer Ray Luzier, the veteran rock trio's first outing feels appropriately tight, with each of its members' expertise shining through on track after track. KXM feels like a bluesier, more plaintive outing than some of its members' other projects, but the sound is one that works for the band. Luzier's playing is rock-solid, providing a firm foundation for Pinnick and Lynch to wander around. That said, however, the one weakness of KXM is a decided lack of self-editing. Born from jam sessions, the songs here tend to suffer from long running times. With only two of the album's thirteen (though one of those is a radio edit of "Rescue Me") tracks running under four minutes, KXM's hour-long run time becomes a bit of a slog. In a way, the band's power trio setup feels like it's working against them here, so although there's plenty of punch to their sound, there's just not enough going on to justify the track lengths. KXM have plenty of talent at their disposal, but it feels like the band needs to decide whether they want to cut totally loose or trim things down to their bare essentials. By trying to stand in both worlds, we're left with an album that, despite the excellent playing at work, never seems to build any momentum. However, if these three inveterate rockers can choose a single direction to take their sound, the results could be devastating.
© Gregory Heaney /TiVo