This week's entry comes from one of the most ridiculed bands of 1988 - Kingdom Come.

While every band borrows from what came before, out and out audio larceny is a rare thing (the Robin Thicke verdict notwithstanding). Then in January of '88 a completely unknown band appeared out of nowhere that sounded a little to close to Physical Graffiti-era Led Zeppelin. Their first single was all over radio, the album went gold before they ever played a single live show and then their first tour was opening the "Monsters of Rock" festival with Van Halen, Metallica, Scorpions and Dokken. Success was seemingly handed to them overnight.

Unfortunately for them it was taken away just as fast. While the Led Zep highjacking got them a ton of attention and sold a bunch of records, the novelty wore off quickly. The backlash started (lead by Lars Ulrich and Jimmy Page, who both took every chance they could get to bash them in the press) and never went away. Their second album came out in the spring of '89 and disappeared in a matter of weeks. The band broke up 3 months later.

All that said, their first album is really, really good. It's possibly the most unoriginal album ever released, but the tunes themselves rock harder than anything either Page or Plant have done since the mighty Zep broke up.

Enjoy...