Few bands have come along on the metal scene that have changed the game like PERIPHERY has in the last few years. Along with ANIMALS AS LEADERS that have paved a new ground by combining progressive rock, math metal, MESHUGGAH’s patented riff style and other forms of music like jazz fusion influences to completely change the palate of what modern metal can be. Of course our denim vest clad brethren will hate this for being to “core” or melodic and whatnot. Still, it is refreshing to see the evolution of a band that is just scratching the surface of what it can do. This is likely the first of several releases by the band in the near future as they are said to be sitting on two more albums worth of material.
In many ways Periphery II features somewhat of a new band. What started out as a project in uber guitarist/producer Misha Mansoor’s bedroom has blossomed into a full, living monster of a group. In particular the additions of guitarist Mark Holcomb and Adam “Nolly” Getgood on bass/production have bore much sonic fruit on top of the impressive, layered approach the band already had with their writing. “Muramasa” crushes out of the starting blocks as the opening track. Massive guitars and drums pound you as vocalist Spencer Sotello’s melodies soar over the din. “Have A Blast” really starts to separate this album and the band from its peers. Starting off with cello and violin riff and some programed synth sounds, the track is not unlike most of the bands’ older material. Prog, djent and even some death metal blast beats rock the otherwise sunny sounding melodic track. Sotello’s amazing tenor voice glides into the upper registers easily and his screams are often terrifying. What really sets this song apart is following the breakdown is a stupendous solo from shredder supreme GUTHRIE GOVAN. If you don’t know his name, go YouTube one of his videos and pick your jaw off the floor later. “Facepalm Mute” leans heavier on the death vocals and bruising riffs which will interest heavier music fans. Songs like “Ji” and “Scarlet” will have you smiling from ear to ear and are pretty up-tempo ragers. There are many bands with three guitar attacks, but few have the thoughtful writing for three voices like Mansoor, Holcomb and mainstay Jake Bowen. “Luck As a Constant” features more insane beats from Matt Halpern, who lays down a phenomenal performance overall. “Make Total Destroy” is the single and is as heavy as it is harsh. The small section of death metal people who enjoy this song will gravitate to this track in particular. “Erised” has a guest appearance by DREAM THEATER’s JOHN PETRUCCI uniting these modern prog heads with the last generation of prog metal’s heroes. Another great guest appearance is made by Wes Hauch, recent addition to label-mates THE FACELESS. This another, mostly brutal track with fantastic thematic motifs, twist and turns. Sotello again joins the upper echelon of vocalists of the sub-genre like TOMMY RODGERS, Rody Walker and ex-TESSERACT singer Elliott Coleman. Other top tracks include “Ragnarok” and “Masamune”.
Queen: Days of Our Lives (Directed by Matt O’Casey)
We don’t often discuss mainstream institutions here at Metal Army such as QUEEN. Usually bands of that stature get mentioned in interviews as an influence to many, but few have to explain why. You can hear their vast influence in metal today from artists as varied as DEVIN TOWNSEND, OPETH, IHSAHN, KYNG, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME, IRON MAIDEN, YAKUZA, JUNIUS, USX, THE ATLAS MOTH, PARADISE LOST, ARCH ENEMY, DREAM THEATER, ICED EARTH and many others. They are so ingrained in the culture of music fans that even casual music fans can name five or six songs by the band. Matt O’Casey’s documentary Queen: Days of Our Lives recounts the their history from their earliest beginnings to their enduring legacy as on of their generation. Metal Army was privileged to participate in the TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL for a second year in a row, where the festival held a sold-out screening in late April.
Image used with permission of The Tribeca Film Festival.
Using an exhaustive collection of archival footage, concert footage and current interviews with the living band members, their former management, friends and critics their story was told. From their humble beginnings as college students in England, to their eventual rise to fame, it is a warts and all story. Brian May, Freddy Mercury, Roger Taylor and John Deacon certainly had an undeniable chemistry together live and in the studio. At one point early in their career’s they were broke, hated by the UK press and on their last leg as a band. Impossibly, they later wound up becoming on of the most endearing acts of the 1970s and 1980s as a result of the run they had, beginning with 1975′s A Night At the Opera. Beyond being memorable song writers, QUEEN had many other talents. Their earliest music was more in line with the progressive rock acts of the day, but they increasingly focused on rock and later funk, dance and pop music over time. They somehow always maintained their identity and for the most part, their fans often welcomed the sometimes radical departures in style. The film covers all the ways they were innovative before they got really big such as recording techniques, tour promotions, music videos and creative stage shows. Once they became more successful, their ability to put on gigantic stadium only tours the world over revolutionized concerts the way we know them today. In addition to becoming world-wide hit makers, they were the headline act at the biggest musical event of the 1980s, Live Aid.
An image from the groundbreaking video for "Bohemian Rhapsody".
There was naturally a down side to this success. In addition to taking quite a while to break out and reach stardom, they signed a disastrous deal at the start of their career that held them back for a long time. There were ego clashes and all the excesses you expect from a band of that stature. There are some interesting parallels to modern times and bands of today, other than the technology being used to make records. On the way to becoming musical and cultural icons, the band made a lot of mistakes, had a ton of bad breaks and of course as many losses as triumphs. The band hit their low point when Freddy Mercury died of Aids in 1991, after having been sick for many years. He was likely sick the last five to seven years of his life, yet worked tirelessly. This included the world tour that became the Live Magic album and concert video, their last official tour together as the original band. To Freddy’s credit he made music with the band practically until he was on his deathbed, a tribute to his amazing spirit. Ironically, the film notes that the band has existed for over forty years, but is as big or bigger in the twenty-plus years since Freddy died, if that is possible. The band has continued on with May and Taylor carrying the torch (John Deacon retired in 1997) with various incarnations and types of shows keeping their name out there, for better or worse. The film is already out on DVD and in stores now.
In honor of today’s day being 2/1/12 or “2112 Day” or “International RUSH Day” or “Progressive Rock Day” as some are calling it, Metal Army chatted with notable metal historian Jeff Wagner. Wagner is the author of 2010′s Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal (Bazillion Points). In addition to being an authority on all things prog, death metal and thrash Jeff was one of the leading editors of Metal Maniacs magazine from 1997 until 2001. In a wide ranging interview we recapped the origins of Jeff’s book, the roots of the genre, it’s historical importance as well as it’s future. What follows is an excerpt of a longer chat we had.
MAA: What led you to write Mean Deviation?
JW: Well from a practical standpoint it was a book that had not yet been written. We are seeing a lot of metal books now because metal has a long enough history to provide for a bunch of books, and provide a bunch of different views covering all the genres. A book on prog metal had not been written and I was a long time fan of metal. I was also a fan that tended to gravitate toward the weirder, more experimental, more progressive stuff. More avant garde stuff. I look at my record collection and one thing I can say about it is there is not a whole lot of stuff that sounds like other stuff. I have always gravitated toward progressive sounds. I like my bands to be similarly unique in and of themselves. I like EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER, but I don’t like bands that sounded like them. There were a lot of obscure prog bands that sound just like them and I didn’t find them interesting. It’s an originator thing. I why I like DREAM THEATER, but not bands that sound just like them. Actually I can’t think of one that I like who sounds just like them. (laughs)
MAA: Your book identifies a “big three” of the genre. How did the their arrival on the scene change the game?
JW: Both QUEENSRŸCHE and FATES WARNING showed up at the same time and wore their influences on their sleeves. And those influences were obviously IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST. They took that template and took it to some different and more nuanced areas. They messed around with more long-form song writing. FATES WARNING on their second album is writing ten minute songs. They further intellectualized their music to the point where you go from Rage for Order or Operation Mindcrime and on the FATES WARNING side Awaken The Guardian and No Exit. QUEENSRŸCHE had a more theatrical image. Then DREAM THEATER came a long in their wake and they made a different kind of amalgam of it. Not only have the same bands in common that FATES WARNING and QUEENSRŸCHE did, they took it in two other areas. First I hear an even more melodic KANSAS- type rock sounds and even a more AOR radio rock from the 70s. I even hear some JOURNEY in early DREAM THEATER. And they even made it heavier with palm muting and double-bass drumming and took it some places other bands didn’t go to so they ramped it up even more. That’s why these three bands made their mark. They style was familiar and easy to get into, but also they were it challenging.
A prog metal classic!
MAA: A lot of people think of Spiritual Healing by DEATH as the album when death metal crossed over with prog and became more malleable. But it was really before then, right?
JW: I think for one thing if you think about death metal, it is not easy to play. To the novices’ ear a lot of death metal sounds like garbage or noise. There is a built in tendency to already be a good musician to pull off really good death metal. If you are really conveying something truly brutal it’s a skill and an art. Not only do you have DEATH, but you have MORBID ANGEL. I don’t know how progressive you wanna say they are, but Tre Azagthoth. He was really virtuosic about his playing. I think POSSESSED toward the end of their output was really musical. There is something really intrinsically musical about death metal that it doesn’t get enough credit. And then with DEATH, even the album before Paul (Masvidal) and Sean (Reinert) came in they were going in that direction. Chuck was even singing in a way where you understood all of the vocals and didn’t need a lyric sheet. That was innovative too. (laughs) And then the Human album just blows the doors off of what could be done with the death metal form. There could be with Jazz influences and Fusion. They gave it a fluid, lyrical and melodic tendency, but it was also a really brutal album. It showed how much depth the music can have. I think the Human album has four of the best musicians that have ever on one album.
The "father of death metal" was also integral to bringing in a progressive influence to the genre.
MAA: I think it’s interesting where the original prog rock bands were influenced by Jazz and the modern bands found Jazz thought the back door of prog metal. What do you say to that?
JW: The way I look at prog metal is there is not really one sound and one style. There are bands that have nothing in common. Other than the fact that they are trying to move the form forward, they might have little in common. Some of them have their own unique vision and style that no other musician will quite have.
MAA: Who are some of the underground bands of the genre that the average fan might not know, but are essential.
JW: I think if you go into with the right mindset WATCHTOWER is a band that was important. They were there way early on. They were throwing in RUSH and Jazz influences in `84, 85. Not even FATES WARNING and QUEENSRŸCHE were not even doing yet. And then if you get up to their 1989 album Control and Resistance they were tightly honed, but a bizarre group of different things. I know for a lot of people, they aren’t anything to listen to. Ron Jarzombeck is getting a lot of attention now for BLOTTED SCIENCE, but he is a WATCHTOWER alumnus. And of course I’m gonna talk about VOIVOD. I know people are gonna roll their eyes at this if they know me at all and say “oh there goes Wagner talking about VOIVOD again”. They remain really underrated. Their first six or seven albums: Killing Technology through The Outer Limits they were constantly changing, growing by leaps and bounds, using new technology and exploring new production techniques. They are the textbook example of what a progressive metal band really is. I think for one album CELTIC FROST need to get mentioned. Just for the Into The Pandemonium album. It’s so eclectic and brave. They opened up with a new wave cover song. Later on it has beat box song. There was a soul song. You have gloomy opera-type doom songs, new wave, jazz weirdness, a doom song. Just a weird album.
MAA: A lot of people hated them for it. My friends all hated them after that.
JW: Oh yeah I know. Talk about splitting your fan-base! But it was so weird and out there I really loved it. I was so intrigued I had to love it. They really blew apart their fan-base and their career. WATCHTOWER, VOIVOD, CELTIC FROST and others. That is the thing about my book. I didn’t want to just talk about the popular bands and the avatars. I wanted to discuss who the underrated bands were.
The best prog metal band ever in my opinion. (Keefy)
MAA: What is your take on more recent bands like MASTODON and OPETH who have abandoned their heavier ways for prog? Also, what do you think of the backlash against them?
JW: I say more power to em! They proved that they can do this modern epic metal. They can be modern, be different. And they started off as a very different band. They followed their heart. I don’t care if you’re KISS or MASTODON, I don’t think any band owes anything to your fans in terms of where they go with their music. That is not to say they don’t love their fans. When those guys are writing new music, I mean who wants to hear the same old shit? (laughs) You can tell I feel strongly about this. OPETH could’ve come out with another Deliverance, another Ghost Reveries and another Watershed and it would have been very good. OPETH are so influenced by all these bands that really epitomized all of these prog rock bands. It was about time they made their prog album. I love it. Why would fans expect Mikael Akerfeldt to be boring and stay bored and do the same thing again. Compositionally it is one of his best records. I fully support those bands and what they do. It’s about wanting to be surprised and wonder what is around the next corner. It depends what kind of fan you are. If you like a band like OPETH, if you love MASTODON or OPETH you want what those bands do and are all about you want them to follow their hearts. And I was especially surprised at the OPETH fans because I thought they were more open minded. Allow these bands to do what artists do, let them change rather than be beholden to expectations.
MAA: How important is a band like RUSH and an album like 2112 to the music still being made today?
JW: I think hugely. For me when I sit in a dark room and listen to 2112 that is part of that experience for a guy like me or any fan that treasures the band. But the other thing about your question is: it’s huge because of the influence from a band like RUSH has had. They have influenced not just prog rock bands or prog metal fans. RUSH has influenced metal bands, death metal bands, grindcore bands and even indie rock bands and all other kinds of musicians. If you took a survey of bands from a wide outgrowth of all music, RUSH is a very important band. I think that ten or fifteen years ago they were a little more like a guilty pleasure for some people. Now it is okay to say you like RUSH now. Their influence is incredibly vast.
MAA: Looking back at the longevity of some of the bands that were around at the time when you joined Metal Maniacs, do you feel proud of the role the magazine helped play promoting metal bands to a wider audience?
JW: I was just a part of the Maniacs legacy and certainly all the magazine did was reflect the legacy of the music itself. I am amazed and sure I’m proud. When I started at Maniacs it was 1997. I felt like I was down in the trenches. It was one of the first times in metal’s history a lot of people thought it was dead and it didn’t have a lot of juice anymore. We all knew different at the time. It is pretty incredible. Especially when you are seeing demos and re-issues of albums that are selling really well, being sold and repackaged. Metal now in 2012, it just has a longevity that shows it will never die. Even if no new music came out, there is so much from what has come before this music will never die. It’s history is kind of staggering. For guys like me that have been with the music for a long time, we do feel proud that we have come through the other side. It’s legitimate and here to stay. Not to sound really cliche’. It is part of popular culture.
Perhaps no band has had a more anticipated album this year than ANIMALS AS LEADERS. As the best and most popular band and progenitor of the now ubiquitous “djent” style of progressive metal music fans and other bands are looking for them to lead the way. Of course you can make a case while the band has prodigious talent, some of their success has been an anomaly even among bands within their sub-genre. Not too mention the inevitable backlash of growing popularity and the masses of other fans and bands who just don’t care for them. The self titled album was really a solo album for Tosin Abasi (with an assist from Misha Mansoor of PERIPHERY) which grew into a a full fledged band later on. On Weightless that band has made a truly collaborative album of more of the same adventurous style people are expecting.
Right from the hyper fast finger tapped intro to “An Infinite Regression” you know you are getting more of the same spastic creativity as the first album. The frenetic main riffs crash in and bring a sense of the new and familiar all at once. Of course Abasi’s phenomenal and smooth lead skills are on display quickly with all of the emotional warmth of before. There are definitely some new proggier leanings on this album in addition to jazz and pop influences. Co-guitarist Javier Reyes and drummer/producer Navene Koperweis are now fully integrated into the fold as writers and players and the sound is a little less cold and robotic than before. Not that there is anything wrong with cold and robotic for this style of music anyhow. It is almost a pre-requisite left over from the MESSHUGGAH influence. Second track “Odessa” is chock full of sick rhythmic experimentation like that of a jazz fusion band with the heaviness of modern metal make for a heady sonic cocktail. Reyes gets to shine but mainly holds down the dusky riffs since there is still no actual bassist, Koperweis really gets to go all out and the less synthetic and more natural sound of the drums is a definite improvement. Parts of this track could almost be a DREAM THEATER song. “Somnarium” stars out mellow before giving way to dramatic changes and tempo shifts. There is less an emphasis on being hard or metal, but that is made up for in pure musicianship. The main theme returns a few times with a flourish while more trademark computer bleeps and bloops sound like R2-D2 trying to fix the hyperdrive on The Millennium Falcon. “Earth Departure” definite continues the sci-fi theme and has a hint of Danny Elfman in the breakdown. Another solo from Abasi is pure musical heaven. “Isolated Incidents” is another jazzy workout of a song. First heard was first last summer on tour as a warm up to the coming album. Hearing here in its full glory this song is even better than before. Again, abundant creativity and careful choice of song styles seems to be first and foremost among these writers’ minds. “Do Not Go Gently” is the gruffest sounding track, but still packs plenty of melodic muscle. “New Eden” could be considered the most strictly “djent” track on the album for the first minute or so, but even then the song has a few surprises. Other top tracks include “Cylindrical Sea”, “To Lead You To An Overwhelming Question” and the title track. The band has really not expanded on the formula as much as they have grown together more. The their growing legions of fans that will be enough for now.
Some of the writers here love ‘Heritage’ and some, myself included, are a bit bored by it. It’s undoubtedly the most hotly contested release of the year with fans lining up on both sides of whether it’s a prog masterpiece or a metal misstep. One thing’s for sure, OPETH’s new video for “The Devil’s Orchard” is absolutely incredible! Just take one look and you’ll be as hooked as I am.
Now the question remains, are you a fan of the record? Or, like me, do you see it as a misstep in the band’s illustrious career?
OPETH is projected to sell 15,000 copies of ‘Heritage’ in it’s first week and, while that’s a really solid number for any metal band, it appears as though Roadrunner could wind up being disappointed with that number seeing as the band’s last (more metal) release shifted 19,000 copies. The questions will turn into “did OPETH change their sound TOO much?” Something that I think is actually true, speaking from my own personal tastes at least! OPETH seemingly abandoned every shred of metal they had in their sound and this could very well be the reason that the sales number dipped a bit – something I blame on diehard fans and purists not being able to come to terms with the band changing the style that they once clung too.
However, let’s not kid ourselves, selling 15,000 copies of an OPETH record (or any record, honestly) in this day and age is very impressive and shows that our scene is still alive and kicking despite debates over whether people still buy music. Well, of course they do, and they’re buying metal CDs in droves now. Just take a look at the Billboard charts this week, I’m sure you’ll be just as surprised as I was!
#5 Staind, ‘Staind’ (Atlantic), 47,370 sold
Some my say STAIND isn’t metal enough, but they are part of the hard rock/heavy metal scene so we’re counting them here.
#7 Dream Theater, ‘A Dramatic Turn of Events’ (Roadrunner), 35,750 sold
A slight drop from the sales of their last album could be seen as Portnoy’s diehard fans boycotting the record but this is, no doubt, an incredible debut for the prog legends’ 10th album!
#9 The Devil Wears Prada, ‘Dead Throne’ (Ferret), 32,420 sold
Like them or not, you can’t deny that this band is one of the most successful metal bands of recent memory! Kids are buying this record and will continue doing so thanks to a heavy touring schedule and a skull-crushing live show.
#11 Anthrax, ‘Worship Music’ (Megaforce), 28,470 sold
This is the first time the band has made the Billboard Top 20 since 1993. In fact, their last record didn’t even crack the Top 100, selling less than 10,000 copies in its first week. Renewed love of Anthrax and I’m sure those Big 4 shows certainly helped raise the profile as well!
#14 Primus, ‘Green Naugahyde’ (ATO), 24,370 sold
This is the first album the band has made in more than 10 years and they’re still going strong! Again, I know some of you may say that Primus isn’t metal enough, however they’re a great ‘hard alternative’ band and I’ll count them in here.
#18 Bush, ‘The Sea of Memories’ (eOne), 20,000 sold
Bush is one of my favorite rock bands in the world and to see them come back and still be as relevant as they are is really impressive. Seeing as how this is the band’s first album in several years and their first with an indie label, I’m sure this is scene as a big success.
#20 We Came As Romans, ‘Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be’ (Equal Vision), 19,160 sold
Considering that this band is on a rather small label, this is a huge feat! Don’t get me wrong, WCAR has become one of the biggest touring bands in the metal scene these days but this number is just monstrous for them and I’m sure everyone in their camp is really stoked!
#21 Alice Cooper, ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ (Universal), 18,490 sold
Alice’s returning album is a big hit apparently. I had no idea that this record would sell this many copies but hats off to a true legend of our scene.
There you have it! This week, there are 8 artists from our scene in the Top 21 spots. That’s more than 1/3 of the top 21 selling albums in the country and that’s really huge for our scene as a whole. I’m happy to see that people are becoming even more accepting of metal and listening to some really aggressive and interesting music. So, while everyone is bitching and asking “what happened?” with OPETH this week, just remember 15,000 is still a great number and our scene is doing really well right now. Enjoy it!
MIKE PORTNOY quit DREAM THEATER a year ago and he still can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that they did what a band has to do when a member quits and move on. It’s already come out that he got too full of himself when AVENGED SEVENFOLD asked him to join the band. The A7X camp told him not to quit DREAM THEATER but he did it anyway and then they booted him shortly after so they could move on to the rest of their lives without the old guy that fans everywhere would ask, “Is that The Rev’s dad?”
Now, the Greek edition of Rock Hard Magazine has completed a really in-depth interview with PORTNOY and, while it’s a great read, he still hasn’t quit bitching about being booted out of DREAM THEATER. Check out his quote below on how it went down when he decided to leave the band:
“I didn’t make the decision to leave DREAM THEATER before [hooking up with] AVENGED SEVENFOLD, but I knew that something had to change in the DREAM THEATER camp. It’s unfortunate that it was me that had to change, because I never wanted to leave the band — it was never my intention; I never wanted the split. I just merely thought that the band really could use a break, because I think the romance was really dying — backstage and between [the members] personally. 25 years without a break is a very, very, very long time and sometimes these relationships need a break from each other to rekindle the flame. So that’s all I suggested. And even before I [went on the road] withAVENEGED SEVENFOLD, I remember touring with [the progressive rock project] TRANSATLANTIC at the beginning of 2010 and already knowing that something was wrong in the DREAM THEATER world and that I really needed a break from the guys and the whole DREAM THEATERmachine. I knew something was brewing and I knew that I was unhappy, and as has been well documented elsewhere, I merely just wanted a break. But unfortunately, those guys [the rest of DREAM THEATER] didn’t see it that way and didn’t respect my request for time off. It’s unfortunate [that it turned out that way].”
The whole scenario reminds me of one of the early scenes of my favorite rock’n'roll comedy of all time, WAYNE’S WORLD. In this scene, Wayne is lusting after a Fender guitar while his friend Garth reminds him that it’s out of his reach. This is the perfect summation of MIKE PORTNOY — spending all his time thinking about what could have been if he didn’t leave the band only to be told by everyone around him to forget about it and…. LIVE IN THE NOW!
Italy’s resident metal stalwarts in Eldritch have been kicking it for twenty years now, quietly releasing solid, reliable power/prog with a traditional metal edge.
While never quite gaining widespread notoriety or commercial acclaim, Eldritch have honed their metal craft to the point where this sort of thing must be next to effortless, so convincing is Gaia’s Legacy, the quintet’s eighth album to date, and a strong contender indeed.
Conceptually based around Al Gore’s award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, this enjoyable Eldritch effort makes an impassioned plea for Mother Earth, all set behind a convincing Dream Theater-meets-Nevermore style attack which is both emotional and aggressive in spades. Peppered with actual quotes from the movie, Gaia’s Legacy benefits from the soaring vocals of Terrence Holler, while the dueling guitars of Rudj Ginanneschi and Eugene Simone feel just as comfortable in AOR rock territory as they do blazing metal technicality, a feeling which only works in the band’s favor.
It isn’t too often that a power metal band with such heritage can remain musically unique and significant these days, but Eldritch manage to buck the trend whilst creating a definitive album which just might serve as the band’s best to date. Shockingly good, really.
Divine Ascension-As the Truth Appears (Nightmare Records)
Nicely straddling the creative line between power metal and AOR, the melodic sound of Divine Ascension could also appeal to followers of the Dream Theater progressive/power metal crowd, venturing back and forth between styles with a capably beating musical heart.
Frontwoman Jennifer Borg’s pleasing and sensuous voice possesses power and force, yet lilts proudly above her bandmates’ interesting arrangements and energetic delivery. This combination of Borg’s charisma and the band’s texturally heavy, yet open-minded songwriting style places Divine Ascension in an enviable place: that of stylistic limbo.
The fact that this Australian combo cannot be easily pigeonholed works in their favor this time, for As the Truth Appears possesses enough defining elements of the prog/power genre to appeal to fans across the board, yet strays often enough from the beaten path to lead fans searching for a proper explanation as to where Divine Ascension truly lies, at the end of the day. This guessing game should only do the band more favors when it comes time to write and record their sophomore effort, which hopefully improves upon the solid foundation set here, and inserts more originality into this already intriguing debut. A good job, all around.
This Dutch progressive act offer up some enjoyable surprises amidst some very memorable songwriting, to boot, showcasing a marked attention to detail and quality beyond the Dream Theater faithful.
While still very much symphonic, grandiose and eclectic, there beats a hearty rock soul to the guitar work of Mark Vermeule. His lead playing in particular is fluid and melodic, while packing a powerful emotional wallop at the same time. Combined with the soaring lead vocals of Mark Smit and Gerben Klazinga’s evocative keyboard work, Knight Area winds up sounding far more cohesive and intuitively mature than their years, perhaps winning over non-prog fans at the same time. Of course, the professional Neil Kernon production job probably doesn’t hurt things any, either.
Nine Paths is heavy for the genre, yet captures enough of prog’s 70s heyday to please followers on both ends of the fence, with each member working together for a common sonic goal, rather than striking out in selfish instrumental glory-hogging. This ultimately works in the band’s favor, setting up Knight Area to rise up from the relative obscurity which has classified them thus far, whilst opening up their music to a whole new, appreciative audience. Here’s hoping, at least. Nine Paths is a dark horse winner.
