Artist: KINGDOM COME
Album: OUTLIER (CD)

Release date: 2013
EAN/UPS: 886922605024
Media type: CD

Fame and fortune have always played a minor role in Kingdom Come mastermind Lenny Wolf’s longstanding career. In fact, his more than 30 years as an artist have been fuelled first and foremost by musical challenges and the desire to keep evolving. His credo has always been: authenticity before commercial considerations. “Naturally, nobody is happier than I am when my music is loved by as many fans as possible,” he says, “but these kinds of aspects are irrelevant when it comes to creating a new album. The only thing that matters is testing myself as an artist and embarking on new paths.” To avoid any misunderstandings: the new Kingdom Come album Outlier presents flawless rock music with a welcome tendency towards melancholia and a gift for anthems. But: With Outlier Lenny is starting a new chapter of his diverse creative career, expertly positioning his charismatic voice between traditional rock structures and harsh industrial sound elements, which add a third dimension to this album.

“I simply felt the need to delve deep inside of me and run riot in the infinite expanse of the audio cosmos. The result is a friction of mercilessly mechanical, heartless sound collages, combined with my typical melancholy-melodious style,” Wolf explains the album’s artfully interwoven experimental approach to his sound, which never detracts from the familiar atmospheric basic mood of his songs. “A whole number of souls happen to dwell in my breast, which is why experimentation and the development of my musical existence simply belong together.” Lenny purposely takes into account that this approach may also lead to friction and requires an open mind of its listeners: “It’s of secondary importance to me whether this is clever in business terms. To me, it’s all about creating optimum varieties of sound signals which go through the ear straight into the heart. Some call it a vocation. Hallelujah.”

A vocation which is reflected in ten haunting, stirring and diverse songs. Some numbers are welcome reminders of Kingdom Come’s glorious past, other songs document a future-oriented direction. “I could have written a track such as ‘Let The Silence Talk’ back in 1988 during our In Your Face period, whereas listening to ‘Rough Ride Rallye’ and ‘When Colors Break The Grey’ for the first time may have you think: Oops, what’s all this about,” Lenny confesses, knowing fully well that it’s precisely those opposite poles which make Outlier a very special album. Especially since “one song by itself cannot reflect the character of a whole album. To understand this record, you have to take time and become one with those compositions, some of which are extremely diverse.”

Outlier is well worth the effort, especially in view of the album’s deep lyrical content. As ever, Lenny’s lyrics are personal snapshots straight from his soul, touching on autobiographical subjects on ‘Don’t Want You To Wait’ and documenting – for example on ‘God Does Not Sing Our Song’ and ‘Skip The Cover And Feel’ – an attitude which is as fierce as ever and deeply rooted in Lenny Wolf. He has also consciously chosen the album title in line with this: “The term Outlier suits me to a tee. It symbolises my whole personality, the musical media I work with, the story of my life.” 

Outlier was recorded at Wolf’s own Hamburg studio, the Two Square Noise Factory. With the exception of the solo guitar parts contributed by Eric Fцrster, all instruments were recorded by the Kingdom Come boss himself. In addition, Wolf produced, engineered, mixed and mastered his new album. “Eighteen-months of struggle and madness lie behind me, a period which saw me go through the usual alternating bath of euphoria and doubt. As an artist, you can never be quite sure just what you’ve cooked up, but I happen to be an idealist and simply have to keep embarking on new adventurous journeys. The path of predictability has never satisfied me.”

Outlier is Kingdom Come’s first studio album featuring completely new material since the arrival of their 2009 release, Magnified. The album is bound to provoke discussion, in every respect, which is precisely the intention Lenny has with his compositions: “I never write to please anybody, I simply stretch my means of expression as a musician as far as possible. Always in the hope that others will like the result.” That certainly is one thing that Lenny needn’t worry about!

TRACKLIST:

1. God Does Not Sing Our Song 04:05
2. Running High Distortion 04:14
3. Rough Ride Ralleye 04:35
4. Let The Silence Talk 03:29
5. Holy Curtain 03:59
6. The Trap Is Alive 04:41
7. Skip The Cover And Feel 03:37
8. Don`t Want You To Wait 04:31
9. Such A Shame 03:18
10. When Colors Break The Grey 05:03