Gordian Knot (band)

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For other uses, see Gordian Knot (disambiguation).

Gordian Knot
Gordian Knot's self-titled debut album, Gordian Knot, released in 1999.
Background information
Origin	USA
Genre(s)	Progressive rock Progressive metal
Years active	1998–present
Label(s)	Sensory
Website	Sean Malone / Gordian Knot
Members
Sean Malone (Bass) Paul Masvidal (Guitars) Jason Gobel (Guitars) Bill Bruford (Drums)

Gordian Knot was a progressive rock/metal band directed by bass guitarist Sean Malone. At times its shifting lineup has included Steve Hackett of Genesis, Bill Bruford of King Crimson and Yes , Ron Jarzombek from Watchtower and Spastic Ink as well as Jim Matheos of Fates Warning, several of Malone's former bandmates from Cynic and John Myung from Dream Theater.

[edit] Musical Style

The music of Gordian Knot is a highly professional mélange of progressive rock and -metal, Fusion, instrumental music à la Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft (replacing the clean guitar sound with distorted sounds) and his solo-work (compare e.g. Gordian Knot's song "Grace" with Fripp's "Evening Star"). Gordian Knot manage to incorporate several overlapping layers of complex melodies and harmonies into a unified whole without sounding overly complex or "forced". That is, the complexity is never an end in itself.

The music of Gordian Knot also relies heavily on diatonic guitar-melodies (although sometimes encompassing later-resolved dissonances to add a Jazz-Fusion-like flavour). The interaction between the various instruments, all played by accomplished instrumentalists, is flawless, allowing for communication of various melody-lines, harmonies and rhythms between guitar(s), bass and (concerning rhythms) even drums.

Also, Gordian Knot cannot be categorized without disregarding certain aspects of their music. For example the piece "Komm, suesser Tod, komm sel'ge" is a transcription of a piece of the same name by Johann Sebastian Bach, while some other of their pieces, most notably "Grace", have a distinct classical, even "baroque" Bach-like flavour, being made up of an interplay between various diatonic, peaceful-sounding melody-lines from the bass and guitar(s) - without drifting off into the often corny, showy neo-classical style.

Other songs, such as "Muttersprache" (German for "mother tongue") or "Code/Anticode" work with on-beat/off-beat, almost counterpoint-like interplay between two guitars and/or the rhythm- and melody-section, incorporating jazz-chords and dissonant intervals to create tension and form the basis for a mixture of jazz-fusion and progressive rock/metal.