HEAVEN AND BEYOND

I was quite a fan of Knight Area, up to and including their fourth album, Nine Paths. I rated each of those albums 4 stars or higher. However, I found their last album, Hyperdrive, quite disappointing, with the band going to a much more commercial, hard rock style. Anyway, I figured I would pick up this album, Heaven and Beyond, in the hope that the band would return to the form shown on their first four albums. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The band has continued its descent into a non-progressive, hard rock style, very similar to what Arena has done on their last two albums.

So just because the band has completely changed their style would not necessarily make this a bad album if the songs were good. But I found very little in the way of memorable melodies or even catchy riffs. Instead, in many cases here, the guitarist just tries to show you how many notes he can play in his solos. Now I must admit there are some good moments on the album, but most of the time, just when I thought a song was developing into something good, it ends abruptly or fades out.

So now with two consecutive disappointing albums, Knight Area will have to prove to me in the future that they still have what it takes to produce a fine progressive rock album. Sorry, but overall Heaven and Beyond does nothing for me.