RESILIENCE

From the Northern (Flemish) part of the Belgium comes this group who is calling their music emo-prog, but this nebulous concept is rather hard to grasp and I prefer speaking of Melodic Progmetal. Your standard prog quartet with Berten (their bassist) singing (English) very professionally (even if his voices sounds like dozen others) is the usual line-up, sometimes augmented by an occasional cellist as a guest. Their sound is very modern, reminding a lot of Sweden's Valinor's Tree or many more groups. Yes in general, KD does not have a unique sound to say the least, but they do raise a few eyebrows with their unusual twists. On stage the group is incredibly tight, and as they are about to release their second album, their sound has slightly changed, sounding a tad more Canterbury-esque than on this debut album (released two years ago) where Petralia's often crunchy and riffy guitars are dominant.

From the type-writing of the opening track until the closing moments of the 22-min epic, Heal (and its "epilogue"), KD's progmetal is a gentle one, relying on melodies and often digressing slightly into jazzy territories (this is rather unusual for metal bands, but this mostly due to Cailliau's keyboards), but allowing for delicate softer moments as well. After a strong opening Ask Yourself, the album eases into a very personal and intimate climate of Hope (a short track with the cello intro), but leading in the lengthy The Price (with Hope, my favourite track on this record) starting much in the same mode, but gradually muscling up to a Fugazi-like Marillion crossing of Pure Reason Revolution. The group's various solos are all extremely well played (even if the clichés are not always avoided >> the rather already heard The Ring with its life-long saga), and only the drummer's sound (not his playing) could be bettered.

The album glides on smoothly (but unremarkably) through a series of epics until reaching the monster cornerstone of the album Heal. And it (the epic) will not deceive fans of the genre, but I must say that its place in the album is not helping it, because this is a very long album (filled to the brim), and I must say that it is almost painful to listen to it in a full shot. I generally stop before the fifth track or start at that one as to avoid annoyance or worse overdosing of boredom: while very correct, the album tend to repeat itself a little too much.

After such a promising debut album, and an unreleased track on the Taste Of Belgium album (see in the various albums section) and a superb closing gig of the festival of the same name, where they created the surprise, with most in the crowd agreeing that they were the best group during the two days, expectations are running high as their next album is nearing completion. Lots of people are waiting impatiently for it, being certain that KD will confirm and soar to international fame. While this type of music is not my cup of tea, I can only rate the album as good, because to call it essential would be exaggerating things a bit.