For Madmen Only

Digitally remastered edition. Includes booklet with 3,500 word essay, enhanced artwork with previously unseen photos and new interview. The heat and humidity of Houston, Texas has nurtured many fine acts, not least of course ZZ Top. But scrape beneath the surface and you'll find many more bands that ought to have made it big, including a religious leaning stable of acts led by the impressive and trail blazing power trio Kings X. Atomic Opera were one such outfit playing music that, in a way, was out of this world, fusing the progressive elements of days gone by while charting a contemporary path to future glory. Led by talented frontman and guitarist Frank Hart, this enigmatic quartet were very much part of the spiritually inclined Houston cabal assembled by mogul, manager and producer Sam Taylor; a man who had discovered and nurtured Kings X to worldwide attention. Atomic Opera were, it must be said, cut from the very same musical cloth as Kings X, laying down a sound that was thick and boisterous but embedded with subtlety and intelligent arrangements. It was also a sound that fused the popular grunge movement with traditional hard rock styling. Issued in 1994, For Madmen Only looked set to make quite a splash. It's solid and muscular sound garnered the attention of traditional metal heads but also appealed to those whose tastes craved a more contemporary fix. Tracks such as 'Justice' and 'x' made heads spin, but the jewel in the crown is undoubtedly 'Joyride', a mesmerizing melange of riffs and melody propelled by an incessant musical mantra that elevated the band far beyond the ordinary.