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I discovered this Spanish five-piece formation on The
Spanish Progressive Rock Page in the New Releases section,
like I did with other promising new Spanish bands Zaguan,
Neverness, Bijou and the excellent Senogul. I was very curious
to Albatros their sound when I read about their psychedelic
oriented blend of several styles, from Rock Andalus to prog
metal.
Well, during my first listening session I got impressed
from the very first moment. Although I trace elements from
early Led Zeppelin, Seventies Hawkwind, Pink Floyd (Pompeii-era)
and Eighties Rush, I notice that Albatros (the name points
at five guys who wants to make psychedelic inspired music)
has developped an own musical identity: their trademarks
are great dynamics and building up compelling or hypnotizing
atmospheres, topped with surprising musical ideas, an adventurous
rhythm-section, powerful guitarwork and inventive keyboardplay.
The album contains 8 songs, I am delighted about 6 tracks
because these showcase Albatros their exciting eclectic
musical approach. *
The instrumental 48: it starts with the sound of the
sea and birds, blended with powerful saxophone work and
then climates that shift from propulsive with prog metal
guitar/drums to a slow rhythm with sensitive electric guitar/mellow
organ and a dreamy atmosphere with twanging guitar and soaring
keyboards, culminating in a very compelling psychedelic
mood featuring great interplay, fiery guitar and hypnotizing
synthesizers.***
* Supernova: a strong and catchy beat in a hypnotizing
climate (evoking early Hawkwind) with wah-wah guitar and
lots of dynamics, the second part is mellow with Floydian
guitar and warm Spanish vocals, culminating in a lush finale
delivering a sensitive electric guitar solo and a fluent
rhythm-section.***
* Santuario: first a mellow climate with twanging acoustic
guitar, then an accellaration featuring fluent drums, inspired
Spanish vocals and tasteful interplay between guitar and
keyboards.***
* The instrumental Ensor: tasteful and varied with
sensational interplay between a bombastic choir-Mellotron-like
sound and wah-wah drenched guitar with obvious psychedelic
undertones.***
* Waiting For A Sign: first wailing distorted vocals
and bluesy Fender Rhodes piano, then more and more dynamic
with a slow but exciting psychedelic inspired synthesizer
solo, very compelling music.***
* And finally the instrumental Mehari: dynamic and
varied with excellent work on guitar and keyboards, the
climate sounds like Heavy Psychedelic Prog.***
The other two songs also deliver good and captivating
moments but Hombre Menguante suffers from mediocre English
vocals and the final track Las Tripas de Goliat sounds a
bit too fragmentic to me (too many ideas in one song in
my opinion) and I am not pleased with the theatrical way
of singing.***
- My conclusion: this is a very promising progrock
band that will please the fans of psychedelic rock and Heavy
Prog, check out their website in order to discover the exciting
sound of Albatros!***
www.progwalhalla.com
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