Jasper: Malta, whatever happens on that island outside the annual participation with the Eurovision song festival and a certain decimation of the national football team every now and then? Anything else? Not really, and this Mediterranean country could hardly be called a metal bastion either. Still, Knockturn Alley does not at all sound like an inferior third-world metal band, far from it even!
Knockturn Alley is a striking name for a metal band. In a world in which every name in a Tolkien novel has already been claimed apparently Harry Potter is the next subject to prey on (Knockturn Alley is a streetname in this fantasy children’s book). The music on ‘Medusa’ however, is not suitable for little kids! These brute Maltese have peaked with American bigshots like Darkest Hour, and Lamb Of God, and they like to turn up both volume and speed. So far so good. Is it original? Not even close, although the riff in opening song ‘Under A God-like Sun’ gives a fresh Southern-rock view on Swedish melodic death metal that I had not heard before. The rest of the record definitely is not weak, but I definitely miss a bit of their own view (couldn’t they have added some genuine Maltese influences?). Production-wise this album is solid, especially if you consider it being recorded in a metal dwarf-state like Malta. On top of that ‘Medusa’ is beautifully packaged and the whole record breathes professionalism. It seems weird that no label has picked this up yet, In the case of Knockturn Alley, this should be only be a matter of time.
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