Knifeworld
The Unravelling

The Knifeworld offers their second album, an unravelling experience through the progressive and psychedelic, at least that is what it looks like. The British octet are doing their first album with this eight-character strong line up. Of course a line up with a lot of talent, but it wasn’t always an octet as it started as a side project of Mr Kavus Torabi who was the spider in the web on the first album. The band would seem a bit of a band of looser considering the title of the debut album and the first track on this album. Question is if they are such loosers, though they do press those pretentious buttons that a band talked to me about in an interview a while back. Like an explosion in an acid factory is a description in the press release, that sounds interesting.

I don’t think it sounds anything like an explosion in an acid factory, it is a bit psychedelic, a bit melancholic, sad, kind of with a looser attitude. Still, it always sound like fairly standard progressive rock, think of bands like Genesis and you have a fair idea of what to expect. The album has those progressive elements and offer everything you expect from anything in the progressive rock genre, no surprises I would say. That is not what you want from a progressive album. Well, there is one surprise, the album plays for about 45 minutes, that is not always the case in the progressive genre. It has eight tracks and a strong production that is akin to the norm of this genre.

Good album, that is my spontaneous opinion. It is a bit diffuse with no distinct marks and that is an interesting diffuse until you play it a few times and then you tend to loose interest as it becomes a tad predictable. They do not really find a way to break new ground but play on what Genesis and several other bands with them did to popularise this genre back in the day. There is nothing that is bad with the album but the lack of focal points and things that draw you towards this album is a bit of a downside. It becomes one of those good albums that you never really want to play because there is nothing on it that you instinctively want to hear.

One could wish for a bit more novelty, a bit more fresh ideas. I think it is a good listen and might appeal to fans of the genre but to me it cannot quite break that threshold and it becomes one of those albums that is good but has no magical appeal. I like it, it is decently strong but it will never reach any toplist of mine. There are better albums in this genre.

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