AN IROSMIC TRAGEDY

Alms

Symphonic Prog

3.48 | 30 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

For my first review for Prog Archives, I wanted to start with the album which, for me, is the best 2016 Prog album so far.

"An Irosmic Tragedy" is a Sympho-Prog concept album divided into three tracks (though it is, in fact, one long suite) in which Alms, Aitor Lucena's alter ego, reflects about life from an existentialist and very interesting point of view. He takes us to a journey through childhood ("U'ula"), adulthood ("Tapwala") and elderhood ("Doginala") in which questions and answers intertwine in the dialogue between himself and Life (a role played by the quite suggestive female voice of Noelia Fernandez). The lyrics are intellectually rich though they appear only sporadically, and they contain extracts from Dante's "Comedy" in Italian and Calderon's "Life is a dream" in Spanish, as well as Lucena's own lyrics in English. In all its complexity and grandiloquence, we could say this is a really ambitious Prog Opera.

When it comes to music, this album reminds me of the best years of Prog, and that's something I can't find in most of nowadays bands and musicians. Alms uses a huge instrumentation which creates a perfect symbiosis between a classic rock sound and epic orchestral passages. Everything in "An Irosmic Tragedy" is dynamic and eclectic, with frantic rhythmic patterns, melodies in constant change and odd musical developments which end in evoking atmospheres, or medieval melodies, or folkie tunes... As in "Beyond", his debut album, the music captures your attention from start to finish, and that's something quite hard for an almost entirely instrumental album.

Though Aitor is the leader of this project, he counted on some collaborators to record this album, and all of them are excellent at their instruments. All of them complement each other to make a solid work with a beautiful vintage sound that will delight classic Prog fans.

BonfireNight | 5/5 | 2016-2-27

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Share this ALMS review

Social review comments () BETA

Review related links

Send comments to BonfireNight
Report this review (#1533386)
Buy ALMS music online with PA partners
Show all ALMS MP3/Stream
Go to ALMS page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
Go to An Irosmic Tragedy page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
Search the Forum for ALMS related discussions