Thirty years ago a new progressive rock band exploded onto the music scene called The Yellow Kings. The band was made up of 4 teenagers with big dreams who released an ep and toured America, eventually landing a record contract. Along the way, they meet a young woman named Camilla who has an odd influence on the band. After their first tour, The Yellow Kings went out to Los Angeles to record their first album, a concept album called The Final Reconciliation. Little did they know it would be their last album and very few people would ever hear it.

The album was shelved after The Yellow Kings put on an album release party in an L.A. nightclub where they planned to play the full album for the first time. The concert ended in a disaster which killed almost 200 people and left only one band member alive. For the first time since that fatal night, The Yellow Kings lead guitarist and sole survivor Aiden Cross has agreed to be interviewed about the events leading up to that tragic night.

The Final Reconciliation by Todd Keisling is inspired by Robert W. Chamber’s “The King in Yellow.” Written in 1895 it was also the inspiration behind some of H.P. Lovecraft’s work. In the 1895 story, it was a play that if read brings madness to the people reading it. In this story if you listen to the full album it creates chaos. I wasn’t familiar with the source material but loved how it was presented in this book. The idea of a heavy metal album opening a portal to another world and making people go crazy is a great concept.

This cosmic horror novella is more than just a new twist on old mythology, though, it’s also the story of kids from a working class background achieving their dreams and worst nightmares at the same time. One of my favorite parts of this book was when three members of the band return to their hometown from their first tour and you see the background they come from. They don’t get a warm welcome, their parents don’t understand the bands need to follow their passion instead of working a blue collar job. In a short time, The Yellow Kings achieve a high level of success before it all comes crashing down. You know early on that it’s all going to end in disaster, which leads me to what I didn’t like about the story. You knew what was going to happen from the beginning, it’s just a question of how we’re going to get to the final result.

The Final Reconciliation is a great little horror tale that mixes music, mythology and a coming of age story all into one. The description of The Yellow Kings kingdom comes to life brilliantly and the final scenes in the Nightclub disaster were wonderfully grotesque. Todd Keisling does an excellent job of setting a mood of dread and keeping it going throughout the book. I think most of all I loved the concept of a progressive rock album being the key to a world of terror. If you are familiar with the Cthulhu mythos you shouldn’t pass up this book. ( )

Mr. Keisling writes this book as if it was not just 65 pages long. I really enjoyed the aspect of this story with Aidan giving an interview. It made the story more intimate. This journey that Mr. Keisling and Aidan took me on was memorizing and horrific at the same time. It was like I was under a spell just like the Yellow Kings were. This story slowly creeps into your brain and under your skin but I could not stop reading. Everything that the Yellow Kings endured was scary but not as scary as their performance gig. Not to be outdone, this story ended on a high note. This is a rockin' read. ( )

Review copy

First, some background on The King in Yellow. Prior to season one of HBO's True Detective series, few people ever heard of Robert W. Chambers or his book of short stories by the same name. According to Wikipedia the book is named after a play with the same title. The first half of the book features highly esteemed weird stories, and has been described by critics as a classic in the field of the supernatural. There are ten stories, the first four of which mention The King in Yellow, a forbidden play which induces despair or madness in those who read it.

In The Final Reconciliation, Todd Keisling introduces readers to the fictional heavy metal band The Yellow Kings. It's been years since that fateful final performance at a small L.A. nightclub. Miles Hargrove and his producer are interviewing Aidan Cross, looking for the true story of their one and only performance of The Final Reconciliation.

The band was just starting to make a name for themselves when in walks a gypsy woman calling herself Camilla Bierce. She showed up shortly after the band had released an EP and were embarking on a cross-country tour. We blew the doors off every place we played. Every night we took a bow together on stage, every night we piled back into the van, and every night Carmilla came along for the ride.

Keisling proves himself to be a master storyteller weaving a believable tale of an up-and-coming band with Chambers' mystique from The King in Yellow. When speaking of the time the band spent recording in L.A., ...we never really left that dim Carcosa. That's what Carmilla called it, you see. She never said 'Los Angeles' or 'LA' It was always Carcosa to her.

That should be enough to whet your appetite for this first-rate novella. Even the ending of The Final Reconciliation is about as good as it gets, and as a result this book receives my highest recommendation.

Now available for the Kindle from Crystal Lake Publishing. If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited you can read it at no additional charge. Also, if you are an Amazon Prime member you can read it for FREE using the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

From the author's bio - Todd Keisling is a writer of horror and speculative fiction, as well as the author of the novels A Life Transparent and The Liminal Man (a 2013 Indie Book Award Finalist), and the forthcoming collection Ugly Little Things. Born in Kentucky, he now lives with his wife and son somewhere near Reading, Pennsylvania. ( )