Expands horizons

"Are these the Kings of Leon?", So my first impression, after I heard with "Sex on Fire", the first single from the album "Only By The Night". This impression is confirmed by the whole album through. Although the Followills let their roots shine through again and again, however, affect a total of much more mature and bring the songs often more to the point than on its predecessors.
Among the songs: "Closer" is a brilliant beginners! The song builds tension, increases gradually, thus opening an album that consequently still strongly unfold white. Titles like "Crawl" or "Sex on Fire" show in an impressive way a straightes songwriting of Kings. But "only by the night" honors that it takes just the perfect blend of driving and quieter songs. "Revelry" and "Manhattan" that guitaristic almost reminiscent Dredg, are examples of quieter numbers but never fall into boredom. "Use Somebody" is somewhere in between and is probably one of the strongest songs on the album. Even the withdrawal succeeds perfectly with the atmospheric "Cold Desert".
Overall impression: The Kings cover everything here, what makes rock music! Only "I Want You" I would describe as a small weakness of the album, but this would also be the only criticism.
Otherwise, I think that this album may appeal to some people who previously might not have as much to start with the Kings. The predecessor "Because of the Times" I think for example not bad, but also not really impressive. With "only by the night" the Kings have now captured me as a fan, strong album!