Black Like Sunday Atlanta GA

Black Like Sunday

King's X

Metal Blade, 2003

REVIEW BY: Benny Balneg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/18/2006

"Cleaning out the bins" is another way of saying that you’re taking the trash out from the trashcan. Remember the spoiled milk that you threw out a month ago? How about the underwear that you decided to throw away because of the crusty feel in your crotch after years of laboring with it? There’s a big chance that it’s probably thrown out along with the other trash that you’ve collected for how long. After throwing out the trash, look inside the bin and see the molds forming on its corners. Gross.

In music, cleaning out the bins would also mean the same thing, although the word ‘bin’ would sometimes be replaced by ‘vault’ just to make it sound cool, which it really isn’t (except for The Daily Vault, of course.) When a band delivers a press release stating that they’ll come up with an album containing their songs from the ‘vault,’ they’ll actually be releasing the songs of yesteryears that were cut from their previous albums, and songs that were not recorded on any other album because it sucked (but the band won’t admit it). These kinds of albums only appeal to hardcore fans of the band, so this stuff is more of a collector’s item.

With this said, most of these things can be applied to King’s X’s 2003 release, Black Like Sunday. From the onset, the bulk of the material from Black Like Sunday is simply not up to snuff where the tunes are not reflective of what the band actually sounds like. The album is primarily guitar-driven, but contains little of the inspired melodies that the band is known for. Songs like “You’re The Only One” and “Working Man” are too straight-forward and campy.

The naked upfront lyrics are also painfully evident with the songs, especially the cringe-inducing number “Danger Zone” (“I’m a man and I’m a boy / and I want to be happy / but my life’s not a toy / somebody help me / I’m living in a danger zone.”)