THE VEIL IS BROKEN II: ADOLESCENCE

A few months after the release of the (initially) underwhelming Childhood section we are presented with the second part of this enormous rock opera.

The Veil is Broken II: Adolescense, like I said in my previous review, is what made me break the initial disillusion with San Martín's monumental project and opened my eyes to the fantastic underlying themes that live trough the entire piece.

After listening to this section it became much clearer that the Childhood section was much more than I originally thought. Even so I still believe San Martín should've gone with his original plan to release the full two hour rock opera as a whole, without track order, rather than divide it in sections.

1 - Song of 1972: WOW! Rodrigo San Martín must have performed a ritual of some sort to channel the spirit of the 70's into this epic track. This is the point of the story where Robin falls in love with progressive rock (in 1972) and the track is aperfectly done ode to all the classic artists. It starts with a terrific hammond organ intro that reminds of ELP's Tarkus. Tremendous job of keyboardist Fernando Refay, with his amazing solos. One of the main themes of the albuma appears completely deformed on the mellotron just before we head into a beautiful acoustic section that sounds like something Ian Anderson would come up with. The vocals are handled by the always amazing Craig Kerley, in this section showing he can sing the subtle parts as well as he does the most powerful ones. The piano work on the background reminds of Wakeman and the bass is clearly Squire- inspired. The Tull influence continues into rockier territories, even with a cooll guitar duel between Rodrigo's flute and electric guitar. The next section is a rockier tune featuring Kerley's full power and amazing drum work by Mike Buenaventura Lima, remining of Bonzo. Up next we have a weird but truly exciting section where a hammond organ solo and a flute one collide with each other over the main rocker riff of the previous section wich, after wich we are left on the Gentle Giant part of the piece. Rodrigo let loose all of his classic influences and we a are presented with an acapella section full of counterpoint. After this the tremendous duel between Refay's keyboards and San Martín's guitar drive the song with amazing virtuosity (and reminding us of a Howe - Wakeman kind of relationship) to take us to the GRAND FINALE of this amazing epic. Craig Kerley returns with the chorus of the first acoustic section but backed by the full band, that then launches into an amazing guitar solo full of grandeur. It's a clear reference to the ending of Supper's Ready and an amazing one at that.

The references to prog classics are not only musical, but lyrical as well.

Song of 1972 is my favorite Rodrigo San Martín song. An epic so awesome and full of resources, fantastic melodies and musicianship that any fan of prog rock will enjoy immensly.

2 - Incomplete: How can you follow such an amazing retro- inspired track? By doing something completely different. This is a song that is completely new in style to anything Rodrigo has done in all of his previous albums.

The ingredients? Canela Sol's operatic vocals, Fernando Refay's piano and a string arrangement by San Martin.

The result? The most beautiful and unexpected piece of music in argentine prog.

It's this track that makes Canela Sol one of the greatest voices in the whole prog scene.

3 - Auditions: This is a short song rock - pop - proggy song featuring the vocals of Osvaldo Mellace, and much more in a traditional San Martin vein. Great melodies, nice instrumental intro and a memorable chorus that wouldn't be out of place in a Rush album. Like Superstar in the first part of the Rock Opera this song is much more intrincate that we could notice on first listens.

4 - No Destiny: the second ballad of the EP features the emotional vocals of Charlie Giardina and sounds like a power ballad from the 80's. Once again, something completely unexpected from a Rodrigo San Martín album. Not my cup of tea, but I gotta admit it's very well done.

5 - Never: and we are back in prog rock territory after a few tracks of compositional experimentation. Never is a terrific song that has a very clear 70's Rush influence. Rodrigo San Martín's band reduced to a power trio is something to behold and they utilize the extra space left by the lack of keyboards (until needed, in a manner similar to Rush). Both Mike Buenaventura Lima on Drums and San Martín's bass and guitar lines are terrific, and Charlie Giardina's vocals are fantastic.

An edited version of the track was chosen as single for the whole rock opera but it's full version is much more exciting.

Check it out, the album's free on bandcamp.