Doug Pinnick has, in the course of one album, obliterated the history of his other band, King's X.

King's X (which has a new album scheduled to be released in October) has made cerebral, complicated music now for well over a decade, but has always seemed to have the weight of their projects collapse upon themselves. They also have struggled, even with the backing of a major label, to be considered a major player in the confusing field of rock and roll. (Are they metal? Progressive? Funk? Psychedelic?)

On his first solo effort, Pinnick and his new almost-one-man-band Poundhound shows exactly what King's X has been doing wrong all these years on Massive Grooves From The Electric Church Of Psychofunkadelic Grungelism Rock Music (hereafter called Massive Grooves).

Pinnick handles all instrumentation and vocals except for drums; those duties are shared by Chad Lyons, Shannon Larkin and Pinnick's bandmate from King's X Jerry Gaskill. (If this wasn't enough of a King's X link, Ty Tabor, the third member of the band, mastered the disc. So much for a solo effort, I guess.) And while he has been known as a bassist, Pinnick demonstrates skills that should leave your jaw drooped for weeks.

After you get through the brief opening montage "Rev," the journey starts on a powerful note with "Jangle," a song that, like most of the rest of the album, is just plain fun to listen to. That, as they say, is the hardest part of the battle.

From then on, Massive Grooves locks you into a solid combination of funk and rocktaking the best attributes from both genres without making their influences too overpowering. Cuts like "Shake," "Love" and "SuperSalad" all shine, while other numbers such as "Friends" and "PsychoLove" take a more introverted look at life without sacrificing anything in the music. Even the production, which almost has a treble-like bass sound to it, is refreshingly crisp.

When listening to this, one has to wonder what took Pinnick so long to put this out - or at least to get this type of an influence into King's X's music. Honestly, had they kicked this type of a flavor into their music, they would have been in the ballpark of superstardom. Instead, Pinnick has to shake off the albatross of King's X to create his own vibe. Fortunately, he succeeds.

Things do get a little tiring near the end of Massive Grooves, but overall Poundhound sounds like the album that Pinnick has been waiting all these years to do. It's a breath of fresh air in a world of music that often has a smell of stagnation, and it should not be overlooked.

Rating: A-

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