King's X (1992)

Although 1990's Faith Hope Love, the third album by King's X, was the group's weakest, it somehow managed to break the band into the mainstream. So the group's newfound fans will be doubly pleased with the latest offering, simply titled King's X. This trio of latter-day heavy-metal hippies, with their Beatlesque harmonies, continue to show a darker side to the dreamy utopias they so often sing about. But now they seem to have grown into it. ''The World Around Me'' shivers deliciously with danger, and while the bluesy ''Ooh Song'' may sound a bit world-weary, it manages to convey a primal passion. These guys also combine progressive rock with a wonderful melodic sensibility on ''Chariot Song'' and ''Silent Wind.'' King's X isn't a perfect album — ''Lost in Germany'' meanders, ultimately going nowhere, and the guileless introspection of ''Dream in My Life'' sometimes borders on becoming cloying — but overall it's a trippy adventure into an idealistic, even sometimes visionary, frame of mind. A-