A Winter Of Nuanced Discontent

Following the release of Land Animal in 2017, Bent Knee played their biggest ever tours, had their first experience of travelling in a bus rather than a van, and took their marvellous, genre-morphing music to more listeners than ever before. So it’s a little surprising to find that their new album, You Know What They Mean, is the most acerbic, if not downright angry, record the Boston sextet have ever made. Both singer/keyboard player Courtney Swain and guitarist Ben Levin attribute some of the extra bite in their sound to the impact of touring with the likes of Haken and Leprous, although there’s more to their evolution than tapping into a fresh wellspring of prog metal fury.