KXM - Scatterbrain album review

Supergroup trio find their mark

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Cover art for KXM - Scatterbrain album

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A funny thing about supergroups is that the hype and excitement around their formation often leads to the subsequent debut album being overrated, and by the time the band eventually find their own style everybody’s lost interest. Will KXM follow this trend?

The combination of Ray Luzier (Korn), dUg Pinnick (King’s X) and George Lynch (Dokken/ Lynch Mob) was interesting on 2014’s self-titled debut, but Scatterbrain is a massive leap forward. Not only do the three band members sound like they actually have a powerful rapport, but also the performance and approach is breathtaking. Heavy, grungy and stripped back, the sound is what might happen if Alice In Chains were caught in a studio with Tool, with Jeff Lynne producing. Tracks like Obsession, True Deceivers and Stand have a manic spontaneity, combiningraw metal brutality with harmonic melodic resonance magnificently. Everyone’s playing to their peak, with Pinnick’s vocals plunging and soaring.

KXM have arrived.

Malcolm Dome
Malcolm Dome

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.