Let's see, they used distortion and down-tuned, but the vocals were soulful and Beatlesque. Maybe Dogman is...but that's one album.

https://youtu.be/jYx50Y5hkKA

King's X actually used to be on the Archives, they got nuked a few years ago. So in MA's eyes at least, they aren't.

More of a rock band, but a really good one at that.

Fantastic band, with a score of stellar releases.
Hard to consider them an outright metal band, but they certainly incorporated metal elements into their songs.

huh yeah I thought they were on the archives!

right call to take them off imo. Dogman is quite heavy but I don't think it's nearly enough to make them a metal band. great album and band though.

If AIC are on there why not Kings X? Similar approach to heavy music IMO

Kings X made many appearances on metal compilations, have been signed to largely metal labels, and have toured with many more metal acts. Due to these factors, they are often grouped in with metal. Touring with Anthrax or Iron Maiden doesn't make you metal though.

I also feel like had they not been associated with metal for large parts of their career, they probably would have been bigger than they were. This is a band that really should have kicked on in the 90s.

As a huge KX fan, I can definitely understand them having been nuked from the site. Metal is clearly but one influence of many for them and I put them in that category of bands that aren’t metal but have some metal songs.

It's funny. When I mention King's X to people, sometimes they call them a Metal Beatles. This is usually from people who aren't hardcore Metal fans so their threshold for Metal is different. I get tempted to correct them, but I'm trying not to seem like a dick.

They also opened for Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater and were mislabelled as Progressive Metal at one point. I believe they have a Prog Archives profile. People always trying to classify them and failing is apparently one reason they didn't get as big as they ought to have been. As if it were the band's fault that they didn't neatly fit into categories. Dogman is still a really great album.

I saw them whilst opening for Opeth. This was in 2010, or thereabouts, so it was Opeth's post-metal era, but it still felt like an odd pairing.

Regardless, killer band.

Well... it was the band's fault, and the musical landscape could use many more such faults! (My goodness, that must have been the most laboured pun I've ever squeezed out of my lemon. There, again! The puns just won't stop...)

I agree that they don't belong here, stylistically, despite the Black Sabbath influence, but they don't belong in the Prog Archives either, and the fact that they don't really belong in any genre-focussed encyclopedia can sadly contribute to their relative obscurity, because, if no institution is responsible... - who will flash-freeze the band-related facts and figures for future fenerations (Drop it!) and administer their legacy? With that said and all things considered I wouldn't oppose their inclusion on any site dedicated to any of their main influences.

I'll add that they were added in the very early days of the site when there was less oversight, and when they were brought up for deletion by a user, nobody on the staff had ever listened to the band which is why they weren't even on our radar. We ultimately checked out all of their albums and found that they don't have any predominantly metal albums. I'd call their style some sorta combination of prog alt hard rock most of the time, from what I recall.

I think Terri's argument is spot on; if they had not been associated with metal, they probably would have been much more successful than they were. Particularly during the early 90's post-glam rock era, when mainstream rock fans were looking for new and original sounds and were sick of the same old cookie cutter Guns and Warrants type of bands.

They were an alternative hard rock band that truely WAS "alternative" in the sense that nobody else really sounded like them, or was doing what they did. And no, they were never really a metal band per se.

Great band. Started listenign to them a lot more just a few years ago. not metal in my opinion. And I don't think they were ever on MA. People are always saying things like this-or-that well known band used to be on mA and was nuked -- that's hardly ever happened and mostly it's likely to go the other way.

Edit: Ok, just read Zodijackyl's post -- I guess they were here after all. huh. Well, it can't have been for long.

I wonder if the association with the Christian rock scene hurt them more than any association (real or partial) with metal. I know they distanced themselves from that, but for a long time people thought of them as a specifically christian-oriented band, and apparently you could find their music at Christian media shops in the United States. It seems like two of the three members coming out as gay was only a part of the reason for distancing themselves from that culture. But maybe it was too late in terms of their chance at big success.

Bahana loves a good Jesus band! Yes, he does!

I don't know about that. U2, Creed, Evanescence and various others had religious affiliations that they tried to distance themselves from and brought a certain amount of controversy, but it didn't really hinder them from selling well. King's X was kind of like the anti-Alice In Chains. AIC was hard/heavy enough for metalheads, but not too much for rockers, instrumentally gifted enough to appeal to musicians, but not too complex to turn off casuals, inventive and unique enough for musical explorers, but melodic enough for pop fans. KX should have had similar cross-appeal, but somehow managed to land in the wrong niche in those categories.

And I'm pretty sure only Pinnick is gay. Tabor and Gaskill both had wives.

As an aside, the three albums Doug Pinnick has done with George Lynch and the drummer from Korn are stellar.
This project is also somewhat unique in that they incorporate prog elements and sound nothing like the bands these musicians came from.

Some killer examples:





Finally, I'm sure most King's X fans are aware, but in case anyone here is not, Pinnick did an album with some of the guys from Trouble. Bruce Franklin's sound & riffs are easily apparent...riffs for days!

They most certainly are metal, so are galactic cowboys, it's just kickass heavy rock.

They do actually get pretty heavy on some of their older albums, I'd say starting with dogman it's not exactly metal anymore, but I definitely consider the first 4 metal. To me it's kinda like a more accessible version of Fates warning or something, I spot many similarities in the real old stuff

I always hated they got taken off here, especially cuz they're better than most of the bands on here, extreme or not

I remember his solo album being pretty solid tho it was mostly a continuation of the Mr bulbous type sound

Doug Pinnick is 72 years old. I’m always blown away by that fact. Nearly the same age as Robert Plant, looks and sounds 30 years younger.

King’s X is very cool, even if I personally did not enjoy their most recent album.

No, they are not and never have been metal.

Yeah, dude seems so much younger than that. He's an amazing character, to be sure.

(Sadly, I must agree about the latest Kings's album...far from their best.)

They got some attention with their first two albums in our national metal magazine and had some clips I saw on rock and metal shows.
I had 'Out of the Silent Planet' and 'Gretchen Goes to Nebraska' on tape and I do recall videos of 'King' and 'Over My Head' which were just... rock.
Good vocalist, sure. But not metal as at that time even ACDC was heavier and louder than them and we didn't consider ACDC metal.

One thing I’ve noticed lately that I find fascinating is how a lot of the “midlife crisis albums” that a lot of hair metal bands put out in the mid-nineties onward end up sounding like King’s X. Dokken’s Dysfunctional is the most obvious, especially with George Lynch later collaborating with Dug in KXM, but it feels like groups like Extreme, Winger, and even Queensryche in spots were taking similar cues. I can’t tell if it’s just me but there does seem to be a lot of fondness for King’s X in that demographic.