KNIGHT AREA - THE SUN ALSO RISES - 2004

I'm very pleased with the constant waves of positive critics on Prog Archives about the Dutch progrock, from EARTH & FIRE, FOCUS and FINCH to NICE BEAVER, ODYSSICE, TRIANGLE and, last but not least, the highly acclaimed AYREON. A few months ago I witnessed a gig from KNIGHT AREA near Amsterdam, I was stunned by their compelling progrock and their professional attitude. No wonder that they got a contract from the famous USA progrock label The Laser's Edge and I was told by their bass player Gijs Koopman (I know him as a fan from his former band CLIFFHANGER) that KNIGHT AREA already sold more than 8000 copies from their debut-CD "The Sun Also Rises", an incredible performance by this very promising new Dutch progrock band! If you listen to their music, you soon will be delighted by the wonderful sound in the vein of mid-GENESIS, MARILLION, IQ and PENDRAGON. The 10 melodic, alternating and tasteful progrock compositions feature lots of majestic Mellotron waves and flashing synthesizer runs (the back cover from the booklet shows a picture from the sensational Minimoog) and sensitive electric guitar soli along beautiful instrumentation with flute, accordion and acoustic guitar. In my opinion this CD (50 minutes) is a splendid 24-carat symphonic rock album that deserves a worldwide recognition. By the way, KNIGHT AREA will perform on the annual Nearfest progrock festival in the USA on July 10th (along with Le ORME and KENSO). I hope you will be lucky to get a ticket because this festival was sold out within half an hour! Anyway, I'm sure KNIGHT AREA will impress many progheads on Nearfest!
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