Knight Area - Realm Of Shadows (2009)

Knight Area - Realm Of Shadows



In 2004 Knight Area stepped into the world of progressive rock and their debut, The Sun Also Rises is an album from which I still get some magical feelings when I listen to it. The music of Knight Area is in the neo progressive style of Pendragon, IQ, old-Marillion and Arena. Not the easiest type of music in which to distinguish oneself but Knight Area did that. The second album Under A New Sign showed a huge improvement in production and though the feeling was not completely lost I felt a slight loss in magic. The dynamics of the first album were not as clearly present. For this third album Realm Of Shadows I was afraid Knight Area would take the conservative path and become one of the faceless bands in the neo prog scene, the knowledge of the departure of flute player Joop Klazinga also warned me for that.
Ethereal starts very predictable with many keyboards. The sound of the bass is awesome and the overall sound is also very clear. Mark Smit will never be my favourite singer, on Under A New Sign he reached a note and kept that note without any dynamics at all, however that has improved on this album. Ethereal immediately shows much more dynamics than their previous album. Antagony sounds very like a song from IQ and for almost eight minutes Knight Area really rocks on this song. On Two Of A kind a different side of the band is shown, a beautiful ballad with very good lyrics. The background singing perfectly fits the music and Mark Smit sounds very convincing.
Momentum and Awakening are two instrumental tracks. The first one is more guitar orientated and the second is more piano orientated. Very small remark is that the timing is printed wrong on the cover and on the CD, I hope they fix this and my first "miss"-print will become a collectors item. Dark Souls is one of my favourite songs on this album. Very aggressive start, many changes and lots of bombastic stuff. A very dark song and again thumbs up for Mark Smit, his voice is at times a bit too thin but he sure sounds convincing enough.
After that Realm Of Shadows sounds like a friendly song. The piece is dominated by keyboard melodies and the guitar takes a supporting role, reminding me of some old Marillion. A Million Lives is the only song where I can find not much interest. Would be nice as a B-side but all I can say is that Knight Area has so much more to offer, this song is too easy and too instant likeable. They turn things around on Occlusion, many turns and twists, a very interesting epic song.
Realm Of Shadows shows another step up for Knight Area and they have demonstrated they are still happening. I was afraid that Knight Area would lose some character after the departure of flutist Joop Klazinga and the twist towards the mainstream neo prog on their second album Under A New Sign. I feel that Realm Of Shadowshas more soul than it's predecessor and Knight Area still has some of that magical feeling left. With songs likeTwo Of A Kind, Dark Souls and Occlusion they sure deliver for me. With Antagony they stepped into the shape of IQ too much and the song A Million Live does not do anything for me at all. If they can skip songs like these then they will remain the unique Knight Area I have come to like so much. This album will find it's way to my CD-player many times, not perhaps as much as The Sun Also Rises but certainly a lot more than Under A New Sign. Certainly recommended to fans of neo progressive rock.

Year: 2009
Genre: Neo-Prog
Country: Netherlands

Track Listings

1. Ethereal (6:51)
2. Antagony (7:52)
3. Two Of A Kind (5:11)
4. Momentum (2:21)
5. Awakening (2:50)
6. Dark Souls (5:29)
7. Realm Of Shadows (5:51)
8. A Million Lives (6:52)
9. Occlusion (11:15)

Total Time: 54:36

Line-up/Musicians

- Gerben Klazinga / keyboards
- Mark Smit / vocals, backing vocals
- Mark Vermeule / guitars
- Gijs Koopman / bass, Moog Taurus pedals
- Pieter van Hoorn / drums

Releases information

Label - The Lasers Edge
Release date 26/09/2009
General release 28/09/2009

Андрей, большое спасибо! Очень нравится эта команда!

BeoKuzma пишет:Андрей, большое спасибо! Очень нравиться эта команда!

Не за что, мне она тоже приглянулась.

Спасибо.

Гран мерси!

Спасибо! Предыдущие альбомы были неплохи.

Спасибо большое, но у меня есть большая просьба выложить на рапиду или какой другой файлобменник, если можно, так как у меня не качает с йфолдера. Очень хотелось бы послушать этот альбом. Заранее очень благодарен.

Прошу прощения не заметил, что есть еще зеркало на Народе. Спасибо.

Спасибо!

Очень хотелось бы, да вот только ссылки сдохли.

Спасибо.

Thanks!!!
ps.Can you Please Reup?

I second that, andre88

all links deleted by host owner request

Спасибо!

Большое спасибо!
А ссылки увидеть можно?

нельзя
их тут нет, и не будет

Спасибо!
Извините, не увидел Ваш предыдущий комментарий.