K2 - Black Garden
Reviewer: Steven Reid
K2 specialise in combining sublimely beautiful and melodic passages to some more traditional progressive elements that remind quite strongly of Genesis, not least because of Gleason’s similarity to latter day Peter Gabriel, with his rich yet gravelly tones being one of the many highlights on this fantastic album. While, as mentioned, Genesis are a good starting point to describe the sound K2 create with such sublime ease, it would be selling them short considerably by suggesting that it is the only string that they have to their bow. Having Okumoto onboard lends an altogether more contemporary slant to the style of prog that Jacques has been able to create with ‘Black Garden’, while the guitar contribution from Johnson brings the reasonably traditional prog leanings into an altogether more prog metal area. That’s not to say that you will hear thundering riffs, or fret meting solos on this disc however his work is fluid, rich and fresh in a way that updates the sound of K2 quite remarkably, with the end results sitting neatly somewhere between Genesis, King Crimson, Yes, Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic.
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