Kingdom Come

Few new bands have caused as much of a stir with the release of their debut single and few have, simultaneously, generated so much backlash as German hard rockers Kingdom Come did with "Get It On." Mistaken by many fans as a reunion of the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, the quintet was derisively known to some as "Kingdom Clone." Signed to Polydor, lead singer Lenny Wolf put together a band and entered the studio with producer Bob Rock, an engineer and musician who would later find success working with Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, and Metallica. When "Get It On" was leaked to several radio stations around the U.S., it generated considerable buzz due to the speculation about the "mystery" band. The Zeppelin comparisons were enough to bolster early sales and the record shipped gold as "Get It On" became a sizable AOR hit and the band took part in the Monsters of Rock tour with acts like Van Halen and the Scorpions. However, a heavy backlash soon followed and subsequent releases from their self-titled debut failed to make much impact on radio. Kingdom Come entered the studio to record a follow-up with producer Keith Olsen at the helm. The resulting In Your Face, released in 1989, did little to quell the Zeppelin comparisons or to reverse the act's decline in commercial clout. The ensuing tour saw Kingdom Come collapse and all the original members, save for Wolf, leave the band. Wolf would carry on, releasing Hands of Time under the Kingdom Come banner in 1990, but the album stiffed and, along with the emergence of grunge, sealed the act's fate in the U.S. Kingdom Come would continue to issue new material throughout the '90s and into the new century (the band's 13th studio album, Outlier, arrived in 2013), but mostly limited to releases in Wolf's native Germany. ~ Tom Demalon, Rovi