When I first played this King's X album to my friends, they had no clue what I was playing them, but I insisted this was the best band out there, forget about Guns & Roses, who were just making waves at this point. Pinnick could outsing most of the heavy metal hairpsray boys in a heartbeat. But it wasn't that. It was the sheer quality of their songs, and this unexplained energy that was happening in them. Whether this was the production of Sam Taylor, or a combination of Tabor/Gaskill/Pinnick and where they were at the time, Out of the Silent Planet is one of the most influential hard rock albums of its time. When Pearl Jam made waves in 1990 with 'Jeremy' from 10, I sat pretty amazed that this band was having huge success with what was, in sound and design, King's X with Eddie Vedder singing instead. Pearl Jam emerged 3 years after King's X's debut, and even though their formation started with Mother Love Bone, by 1990, Pearl Jam sounded like King's X. and had more success with it. That I never understood at all. 　　 　　An actual influx of bands came out around this time that took King's X's sound and had a great deal of success with it, but King' X lurked somewhere on the borders of commercial success.It was infuriating. Here was a band that influenced quite a number of musicians, that couldn't get the time of day, until 1990's ''It's Love'', and by that time many were sounding like King's X enough to make it sound as if King's X were joining their own bandwagon. The first album alone defines the King's X sound between 1987 - 1992. Definitive years for a definitive band. 　　 　　Another tag that gets associated with King's X is the Christian one. And I can honestly tell you I never ran to church after listening to their albums. The thought never crossed my mind. They had something far greater than just the excuse to quote the commandments or moralise. There was something mystical in their songs, and their live concerts were almost Revivalistic in energy. They had that much power. This changes after 1994's Dogman, but the first 4 albums are full of this certain type of energy that made me think King's X were one of the greatest bands I ever heard. 　　 　　This album needs remastering, as it is mixed a bit low compared to today's standards, and I hope the band's efforts to convince Atlantic to remaster their catalogue are fruitful. 　　 　　All 10 tracks are standouts. It's just the whole vibe the band puts on to these tracks that doesn't make just one person stand out over the other two. This is a band in all manner of the word. A must have album. It made me a fan of theirs for the past 17 years.