Knight, Michael - Electric Horrorland
KM Records
Instrumental Guitar Driven Heavy Music
13 songs (34'55")
Release year: 2007
KM Records
Reviewed by Alex

We write some reviews because we bought a CD and now feel the urge to discuss it with the world. Certainly, often the band itself sends you a promo and wants your honest reaction to their craft. Then, there are some reviews that have to be written out of the sheer sense of solidarity, even if I am half a year late with the latest Michael Knight’s opus, due to the disc arriving during my brief summer vacation time and getting subsequently buried under the avalanche of other listening material. Michael Knight in metal represents the struggles in my own realm trying to break into a bigger business world. Talented and dedicated, Michael remains true to himself, yet the only albums he releases come out on his own independent KM Records, bigger honchos unwilling to lend him credence. Or, maybe, he has decided that he will continue being this unaffiliated artist unencumbered by anybody else’s vision but his own. Sort of like me again ….

Electric Horrorland does not deviate from the land of instrumental heavy metal, but unlike Mechanica Diablo, it seemed to me that Michael has now produced his more immediate material, something less psychedelic and convoluted, but a lot more direct instead. Twisted Metal and Ghost Recon’s main riffs will tattoo “metal” on any part of your body if it happens to get exposed to the songs. The majority of Electric Horrorland is comprised around these squarely cut, cubic riffs, with plenty of finger twisting, scale climbing shred embellishment placed on top of them. The songs are conjoined by the line stretching across the whole album, making it a cohesive entity, yet they have definitive characters about them. Carnivore is a Saber Dance thrash tribute. Resident Evil has a definitive Eastern slant in its chug. Quake is an epitome of ass shaking heaviness with spot-on leads appearing when necessary. Driver is almost a Royal Hunt instrumental, only with raucousness turned all the way to the max. Michael finds the room to experiment, with a number of creepy and distorted interludes, and speaking about reaching out there Soul Scorcher even has blastbeats in the midst of its grinding groove.

There is not a sliver of vocals on Electric Horrorland, but like it should be the case for a good instrumental record, no words are needed. The album is dedicated to video games, and, although I am not a buff of this brain poison, I can certainly see the colorful sketches-images conjured by the disc compositions.

I am going to make Michael a pact. For as long as he continuous to attack the metal world, I’d try and maintain my company’s independent profile as well. Let’s see if the good guys can win in the end.

Killing Songs :
Resident Evil, Quake
Alex quoted 83 / 100
Other albums by Knight, Michael that we have reviewed:
Knight, Michael - Mechanica Diablo reviewed by Alex and quoted 71 / 100
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There are 3 replies to this review. Last one on Thu Feb 14, 2008 5:17 am
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