Ivory Knight
Unconscience

March 2005
Released: 2005, Independent
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: EvilG

Canada’s Ivory Knight have made some major improvements since their last album which I reviewed here a few years back. The improvements come in the form of better songs, playing, and an improved sound from the capable hands of Annihilator’s Jeff Waters. The band are calling this album a much more collaborative effort, and by all accounts this was the right move.



“Up From The Ashes” is great opener with varied timings especially around the solo section…and the solo? It rips! “Borderline” is overall more of a hard rock song but at 1:43 the doubled guitar and bass part is killer. The bass has the slight distortion sound on it and follow the guitar flawlessly. Then at 2:49 they throw you for a loop with faster double kicks and a tremelo picked riff. Strangely the title track “Inconscience” is one of the weakest on the album. Things pick up with “Introspective” which begins with ‘churchy’ like organs and a prog-ish Dream Theater feel. “The Unseen Enemy” at 1:58 rules for a couple of secs with the doubled guitar bass again…but it was very short here…I wanted more wanking damn it! “Theatre of the Insane” is one of the faster songs at least in places it also features some great lead playing. The instrumental, “Eleven”, starts out with a killer groove with interesting timing. There are even some keys used in there…this one definitely held my attention which is not easy to do for a song without vocals. The album closes with another strong track, “Waiting For Tomorrow”, on which the vocals and vocal melodies stood out for me.



Ivory Knight are a bit of a rarity for Canadian metal. Not so many metal bands play melodic / prog-ish / traditional metal, especially considering the band hails from Ottawa. UNCONSCIENCE picks things up for the band with a better and arguable heavier album from their 2001 release. I hope that this CD will see the guys get recognized as one of the best bands in this style of metal from Canada….and a tour across Canada would be nice as well.