NINE PATHS

On their fourth, Knight Area offer one of the their more adventurous, diverse and maybe less immediate set of songs. This is relatively speaking, of course, this is neo-prog after all, a melodic but stale genre (sometimes mixed with metal, electronica and ethnica, but they don't it here). Still, it is nice to see Knights not resting on their laurels as one of the better and edgier neo-prog bands out there.

Songs for the most part are multi-part, take a while to develop and end with a big instrumental finish. Some highlights. Ever SInce You Killed Me opens with a lush and bombastic overture-type intro before settling in a ballad mode. Summerland follows with an almost-metal like sound. Please come home is a duet, cheesy but inoffensive. Pride and Joy is in a series of Knight Area's show-offy instrumentals confusingly titled after famous blues staples. But the best is saved for last, for Wakerun and Angel's call are the most adventurously structured, a common suite-like structure, yes, but developing in interesting enough ways.