King of Kings (1991)

The music made by King of Kings is almost impossible to classify. It has the heavy crunch of hard rock, but, just as often, incorporates free-form jazz and avant-garde classical electronics. The resulting combination is a shock, not only to the ears but to the entire nervous system. ''Don't You Ever Go Away'' blends an early-'70s progressive-rock groove with a primal, Middle Eastern sound, while ''Stone by Stone'' overlays the heaviness of thrash metal with free-flowing spirituality. King of Kings works as an album-long set piece, with the songs unfolding in an adventurous stream of consciousness that ties together dream and reality. The band's lyrics tend toward the cosmic — there's a song here called ''Mantra'' — but they're always gritty and passionate. For a band whose members are barely in their 20s, this is an amazingly sophisticated debut. A-