Kingdom Come is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Sir Lord Baltimore, released on Mercury Records in 1970. It was one of the earliest heavy metal albums and is considered an important influence on the genre.[1][2][3]
This album is notable for the fact that its 1971 review in Creem contains an early documented use of the term "heavy metal" to refer to a style of music.[6][7] It features distorted guitars and bass, enhanced by extensive use of multi-tracking, and has been compared to Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Van Halen, Kiss and the Stooges.[8]
It was reissued on PolyGram in 1994, on Red Fox in 2003, and on Anthology Recordings in 2007. The 1994 and 2003 re-releases also contained 1971's Sir Lord Baltimore. The re-release has a different track listing than the source material, transposing the original records' A- and B-sides. This compilation featured the same cover image used on Kingdom Come, only with that album's title removed.
Kingdom Come has received acclaim from critics, and its influence on heavy metal music is well-noted. In his retrospective review, Marcos Hassan of Tiny Mix Tapes called it "[one] of those great records where not a second is wasted".[13]Loudwire named it in #68 in their list "Top 70 Hard Rock + Metal Albums of the 1970s" and has called "one of the earliest true hard rock albums."[14] The album ranked on the list "10 Essential Proto-metal Albums" by Classic Rock.[15]
Track listing
Side one
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Master Heartache"
4:37
2.
"Hard Rain Fallin'"
2:56
3.
"Lady of Fire"
2:53
4.
"Lake Isle of Innersfree"
4:03
5.
"Pumped Up"
4:07
Side two
No.
Title
Length
6.
"Kingdom Come"
6:35
7.
"I Got a Woman"
3:03
8.
"Hell Hound"
3:20
9.
"Helium Head (I Got a Love)"
4:02
10.
"Ain't Got Hung on You"
2:24
Total length:
38:00
Note
The cassette release of the album transposes the tracks "Lady of Fire" and "Hell Hound" in order to even the runtime of sides A and B.[16]
2007 reissue
Anthology Recordings' 2007 re-release contains an altered track listing, transposing sides A and B of the original record. (Polygram and Red Fox's reissues also used this track listing.)
^Cope, Julian, Kingdom Come review, HeadHeritage.co.uk, August 2002. Retrieved on February 15, 2007.
^Sleazegrinder (March 2007). "The Lost Pioneers of Heavy Metal". Classic Rock.
^McPadden, Mike (November 24, 2014). "Revisiting Brooklyn's Heavy Metal Roots With Dust and Sir Lord Baltimore". Vice. Retrieved May 19, 2019. The music of ... Sir Lord Baltimore is so fully realized and so instantly commanding that it's mind-boggling to consider that it was made by high school kids. When you take a listen, there it is: doom metal/stoner rock, wholly and flawlessly formed by teenage longhairs, awash in the madness of Brooklyn circa 1970 A.D
