GORDIAN KNOT

What do you get when drummer Sean Reint (Cynic), guitarist Ron Jarzombek (Spastic Ink and Watchtower), guitarist Glenn Snelwar, King Crimson's Trey Gunn (Warr guitar) are put under the leadership of Sean Malone (Focus period of Cynic) and have John Myung as a guest? What would someone expect would be a technical album with no real value but that's not the case here.

The first Gordian Knot album is an incredibly complex album. While it is technically complex it's not really like a showcase for the members skills. What is so crazy about it are time signatures, polyrhythms and rhythmic interplays between the rhythmic section and the distorted guitars. Sean Malone shows that being a bassist you see music from a different point of view. Anyone who is either a bassist or a drummer should have this album just to study it. To say the truth, I don't really like the compositions which I thought were much better on the second Gordian Knot album "Emergent" but the rhythmical ideas are brilliant.

Furthermore, the album offers a few more surprises like the mind-blowing opening track, "Galois", "Komm, suesser Tod, komm sel'ge" which is a transcription of a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach and "Redemtion's Way" and "Srikara Tal" which are the two tracks in which Myung plays Warr guitar and are a mixture of ambient atmosphere and eastern melodies and percussion. There is a magnificent hidden song named "Grace"which shows the classical influences of Sean Malone and a bonus track "Unquity Road" that appears only in the Japanese release which is more jazzy and a fine way to close the album.

In conclusion, maybe I'm to harsh giving only 4 stars but the main reason is that the other Gordian Knot album has much better melodies and compositions. Give Gordian Knot a try!