AMG Review of Three Kings

Gregory Heaney
All Music Guide

In the grand tradition of Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same and the Make-Up’s Blue Is Beautiful, Three Kings is a live album/concert film that’s intercut with a series of freaked-out vignettes to create a loose, psychedelic narrative to go along with the music. As a live album, Three Kings does a great job of capturing Dead Meadow in all of their bluesy, stoner rock glory. All of the Zeppelin and Black Sabbath worship that you’d expect from the band is present in the live set. Depending on how you feel about live jamming, you might be thrilled or disappointed to hear that the band plays it pretty close to the album versions here. Rather than getting lost down the rabbit hole of excessive live noodling, they keep the songs (relatively) short and sweet. While Three Kings should please true blue Dead Meadow fans with its freaked-out film accompaniment, the live tracks don’t offer much more musically than their studio albums, which already have a loose and live feel to them, making Three Kings a more engaging visual experience than an audio one.