King's X or Galactic Cowboys

I adore both bands, but it's Galactic Cowboys for me. GC has that extra little bit of aggression I guess.

Both bands are amazing and are masters of melody and lush vocal harmonies (of which I'm a HUGE fan, being raised on stuff like the Beatles and the Beach Boys).

I really tried to get into both these bands throughout the years. Both have super high points and some of King's X's best songs are staples in my listening catalogue. But King's X also has way too many lows.

I still voted King's X b/c I could never get into the Cowboys.

this is impossible as they are both sooooo good...
I went w/GC but it's a total photo finish as I can't
really determine a preference...

King's X. Not even close.

King's X because Gretchen is a masterpiece and they have the better catalog. Both are great though.

What's the criteria?  Better band or your preference?  Cultural impact? Or more ground-breaking?

Did you know when they were called The Edge they offered Monty Colvin the 2nd guitarist spot, but Monty opted to finish college first.  Then, once he finished college. they removed the offer and decided to be a one guitar band.

Superjuice wrote:What's the criteria?  Better band or your preference?  Cultural impact? Or more ground-breaking?

Did you know when they were called The Edge they offered Monty Colvin the 2nd guitarist spot, but Monty opted to finish college first.  Then, once he finished college. they removed the offer and decided to be a one guitar band.

I think they went though at least a couple of other guitarists as well, before settling on being a 3-piece. Not sure if they were still The Edge when that happened or had already changed their name to Sneak Preview.

MagnusPrime wrote:I adore both bands, but it's Galactic Cowboys for me. GC has that extra little bit of aggression I guess.

Both bands are amazing and are masters of melody and lush vocal harmonies (of which I'm a HUGE fan, being raised on stuff like the Beatles and the Beach Boys).

^This. GC for the aggression….and the Beatles harmonies. King’s X early albums are their best and come neck and neck for me but GC by a smidge.

King's X by a mile.  The 1st two GC albums were great, but after that their song-writing just didn't grab me except for a few songs here and there.

Cowboys more up my alley, both are great tho.

I was a fan of GC before KX. And I like the more aggressive approach of GC. In addition, I think Ben Huggins has a great voice. Very underrated!

That said, I also like early KX. Everything up to Tapehead is either great or very good. Ty Tabor is one of the best players ever. Super influential and unique. He’s a tone master like EVH was.

Constantine wrote:King's X by a mile.  The 1st two GC albums were great, but after that their song-writing just didn't grab me except for a few songs here and there.

Machine Fish is a classic in my book and prog doesn't much better than "The Machine Fish Suit" off At The End of the Day.  Not sure I can vote though since I've ignored KX past 4 albums.  There is not much of a better streak than their debut through Dogman - that's five killers in a row and Earcandy is really good too.  I think only Maiden can top that.

Superjuice wrote:

Constantine wrote:King's X by a mile.  The 1st two GC albums were great, but after that their song-writing just didn't grab me except for a few songs here and there.

Machine Fish is a classic in my book and prog doesn't much better than "The Machine Fish Suit" off At The End of the Day.  Not sure I can vote though since I've ignored KX past 4 albums.  There is not much of a better streak than their debut through Dogman - that's five killers in a row and Earcandy is really good too.  I think only Maiden can top that.

Good point about Maiden.

For me, these bands also had really good streaks:

Metallica ('83-'91)
Testament ('87-'92)
Rush ('76-'81)
Judas Priest ('76-'80)
Black Sabbath ('70-'75)
Queen ('73-'80)
Virgin Steele ('94-'00)
Journey ('78-'83)
Electric Light Orchestra ('71-'77)
Gentle Giant ('70-'76)
Dream Theater ('99-'09)
Spock's Beard ('95-'02)
The Beatles ('65-'69)

...but all of these pale in comparison to the absolute gift of sound that is ABBA! 
(Pethead, you can pay me later.)

Constantine wrote:King's X by a mile.  The 1st two GC albums were great, but after that their song-writing just didn't grab me except for a few songs here and there.

Machine Fish is one of my favorites! It’s actually more straightforward Metal than the first two albums. If it wasn’t for the nostalgia of the first two, I could easily say that Machine Fish would be my favorite. The only thing is that it lacks the smooth production of Sam Taylor. But the guitar tone is way more out front! 

So in a nutshell… those three GC albums are gold. They don’t have any fancy lead guitar in the league of Ty Tabor, but the heavy rhythm and quartet of vocal harmonies make up for it. GC did some stuff with their harmony vocals that KX usually didn’t, or couldn’t. Because of the arrangements and GC had four voices instead of three.

OK, I need to listen to GC again; haven't in probably 15 years. Which album do I start with?

My vote would be to start with Space In Your Face.  It has great vocal harmonies and catchy songs, and it flows fairly well.

I'll check out Machine Fish again since it seems to be popular here.  I remember not liking the harsh production at the time.  Reminded me at the time of Machine Head or bands like that.

I still vote for King's X though, I like their sound and style better overall.

Sevenoneself wrote:OK, I need to listen to GC again; haven't in probably 15 years. Which album do I start with?

Just listen in chronological order. The debut, Space in Your Face and Machine Fish. 

Also check out their more recent reunion album “Long Way Back to the Moon” from 2017.

Constantine wrote:My vote would be to start with Space In Your Face.  It has great vocal harmonies and catchy songs, and it flows fairly well.

I'll check out Machine Fish again since it seems to be popular here.  I remember not liking the harsh production at the time.  Reminded me at the time of Machine Head or bands like that.

I still vote for King's X though, I like their sound and style better overall.

I hear what you’re saying about the production. It doesn’t have the smooth Sam Taylor touch… 

I may be mistaken, but I think there is a limited reissue of Machine Fish that is remastered from Boones Overstock. It may raise the bass tone a bit to balance out the rough guitar, but since it’s a remaster and not a remix, there is only so much that can be done. 

For me it’s great anyway! I like the dirty guitar crunch.

I love each and every GC album, but the first 2 are 10/10 for me. I was introduced to them through a friend who knew I loved both Metallica and The Beatles. He loaned me the debut GC album and that's all it took. Instant super-fan. I went and got my own copy of the debut and several months later they released Space In Your Face, which I grew to love even more than the debut. 

I had heard of King's X, but didn't know what they sounded like until another friend saw that I was a GC fan and suggested them. First one I bought of theirs was the self-titled from '92. Again - instant super-fan. King's X were never as "thrashy" as GC, but they had the same proggy approach and of course the awesome melodies and harmonies.

I found the debut GC album by accident. I always would go to the local music store “music plus” after school to look at what metal cassettes they had and new releases. I (like many other kids from my generation) would look at the album artwork as a way to take a chance on something. I looked at the cow-faced spacecraft GC logo and knew it was gonna be something different but cool. Sure enough, it was much heavier than I expected! Not quite thrash, but influenced by it.

Scratchy funk, Ratt/halen like 80's metal, proggy and psychedelic interludes mashed with gospel soul and Beatles harmonies, even Queenish harmiones in places on the early records— King's X have some thrash elements in their early works too: The intricate prog like rhythm of talk to you, Ooh song, the end of Visions for example.

All those elements blended in so well none of them stood out to proclaim the band's title as This kind of band or that kind of band. It's just the King's X sound.

Dustofyears wrote:Scratchy funk, Ratt/halen like 80's metal, proggy and psychedelic interludes mashed with gospel soul and Beatles harmonies, even Queenish harmiones in places on the early records— King's X have some thrash elements in their early works too: The intricate prog like rhythm of talk to you, Ooh song, the end of Visions for example.

All those elements blended in so well none of them stood out to proclaim the band's title as This kind of band or that kind of band. It's just the King's X sound.

Talk To You is one of my favorite King's X songs.

MagnusPrime wrote:

Dustofyears wrote:Scratchy funk, Ratt/halen like 80's metal, proggy and psychedelic interludes mashed with gospel soul and Beatles harmonies, even Queenish harmiones in places on the early records— King's X have some thrash elements in their early works too: The intricate prog like rhythm of talk to you, Ooh song, the end of Visions for example.

All those elements blended in so well none of them stood out to proclaim the band's title as This kind of band or that kind of band. It's just the King's X sound.

Talk To You is one of my favorite King's X songs.

killer song for so many reasons I could ramble about but I'll just say it's killer

TZ75 wrote:

Constantine wrote:King's X by a mile.  The 1st two GC albums were great, but after that their song-writing just didn't grab me except for a few songs here and there.

Machine Fish is one of my favorites! It’s actually more straightforward Metal than the first two albums. If it wasn’t for the nostalgia of the first two, I could easily say that Machine Fish would be my favorite. The only thing is that it lacks the smooth production of Sam Taylor. But the guitar tone is way more out front!

Here's an inside story about one of the songs off of Machine Fish.  Monty talks a lot about the inspiration of writing songs on his podcast and said that "Pattin' Yourself on Your Back" had an unusual motivation for crafting: Nancy Kerrigan.  Go figure.  Not someone in his life that was annoying to him or a snobby politician or actor, but Queen of the Ice, Nancy Kerrigan.

He said he saw her being interviewed on tv one time and found her to be pompous.  This apparently inspired him enough to write a song about her attitude.  Says a lot about his quirky personality and he isn't really phased by someone's squeaky clean public image to cut them up.