THE MEANING

3.5 stars RIVENDEL are a four piece band from Spain who formed in 1985 but have released just four studio albums so far. They released two records in the nineties including this second one I'm reviewing now from 1996, and two from the 10's. I'm really on the fence with this one. I originally felt it was a four star album after repeated listens made the electronic drums sound tolerable. Problem with that is when I haven't spun this in a long time the first thing I notice are those drums. I'm not big on the male and female vocals, even though they are fine. The keyboardist sings on the final two tracks while there is a guest female singer on the opener.

Just three long pieces here. A lot to take in really, especially when they broke them down into twenty one tracks at over 51 minutes. All three suites are sung in a different language as in Spanish, English and French. Again I'm on the fence because I do really appreciate the samples, the adventerous compositions and musicianship here. It seems a lot went into this. But in my opinion their most recent release "Sisyfos" from 2018 is the one to get. All instrumental with great sounding drums(lol). And "DHD" from 2015(with the terrible cover art) I would say is a good step above this one as well, and again all instrumental. So yes I favour their two 10's albums.

I do not favour the cover art being afraid of spiders. But living this far north I am spared from anything bigger than a Wolf spider. I do recommend this one, it's a prog lovers delight, but please check out their two later albums.