King Kobra was the brainchild of legendary drummer Carmine Appice. Appice had been playing with various names like Rod Stewart,
Ted Nugent and had been in Vanilla Fudge.
King Kobra was Appice's attempt to form a heavy band that could compete with the Glam bands that were ruling the charts. The image of
King Kobra was four guys with bleach blond hair and Appice as mean looking drummer with dark hair.
King Kobra made five albums and "Number One" is material taken from the vaults and that permeates the album.
King Kobra's material was not so strong that today they can make a CD comprised of unreleased material and still make it interesting. "Number One" is the European release of the album that came out in the states in 1999 under the moniker "The Lost Years"
Personally I cannot find any reasons that justify this release. Of course you get 5 new songs featuring vocalist Mark Free and also the chance to hear the first start of Bullet Boys, since "Number One" includes one song with Marq Torien in the line-up. It's fully understandable that Lonnie Vincent and Mick Sweda left with Torien to play some high voltage rock, since
King Kobra's tunes sounds like lullabies in comparison with Bullet Boys' tunes
With prominent names like Earl Slick, Jeff Northrup and guitar extravagant player Mick Sweda it is a mystery how
King Kobra could turn into such a average band with very mediocre songs. The music of
King Kobra is too customized for radio airplay and it becomes weak US rock that is way too primitive and forgotten the minute after. To put it very simple; the material is plain tame.
The "best" songs are definitely the ones with Johnny Edwards behind the mike.
Mean Street Machine, Perfect Crime and Redline are the only songs with a just a hint of energy and driving guitar from Jeff Nothrup. But beware since those are not new tracks but featured on 1988's
King Kobra "III". Hmmm. No reason to waste time or money on this one except for die hard
King Kobra fans.
Written by
Michael Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Show all reviews by MichaelRatingsMichael: 2.5/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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