CYCLOTHYMIA

Another return! That of the Spanish quintet NUMEN, originally from ALICANTE in the south-east of SPAIN and who had published his first album "Samsara" in the last century, exactly in 1998. Important thing to explain this renaissance, the group was put to sleep for thirteen years from 2000 to 2013. There was the release of a second album "Numenclature" in 2014 with the original formation but since the guitarist Antonio VALIENTE left his little friends and was replaced by Marcos BEVIA. So what does NUMEN offered us in the year 2019? Well a progressive neo album! Yes but still? Let's move on, César ALCARAZ sings correctly even if we sometimes realize that it is a Spaniard who sings in English, the amplitude of the octaves he has, partly erases this little discomfort.   NUMEN opens hostilities with "The Man with the X-Ray Eyes", easy to translate that one! Neo with a symphonic tendency, which even if the Iberians do not invent anything, remains pleasant to listen to, a piece where the synthesizers of Manuel MAS lead the dance with zest and prettiness and well supported in the second half by the lyric six-string guitar and brilliant by Marcos BEVIA (9/10). "Some Faith" the shortest title of the album introduced by the piano, before the intervention of the guitar, is certainly also the most basic, the most happening everywhere, in short the one that fascinates me the least (7/10). "A Cosmic Prayer", a whole program!, is the piece where the Spanish-English diction of César ALCARAZ turns out to be the most troublesome insofar as it is a much sung piece, too bad because Manuel MAS is still positively involved (6/10). Non place at the top of the album, the title track "Cyclothymia", incidentally the longest of the opus, pure chance of course, a track where the two soloists already mentioned shine brightly, where Cesar sings the best and where the rhythmic pair, Victor ARQUES on four strings and Gaspar MARTINEZ on drums are also highlighted (without them nothing would be possible of course), in short a superb piece of symphonic progressive, which offers us in its mitan and in its last quarter of the sounds from elsewhere (crowd noises, police sirens, voiceovers, laughter, slamming car doors ....) thanks to PINK FLOYD and Alan PARSONS for having created, invented even in their time these musical ersatz which allow us today to fully appreciate progressive music (10/10).   "Lady of The Winds" starts with stormy noises and a childish voice and turns out to be almost as fascinating as the previous piece, lit up again and again by Mister MAS, the only track where the guitar is clearly and advantageously perceived acoustic, the improbable marriage between rhyme of youth and symphonist, with unfortunately a little abrupt end ..... (8/10). The conclusive piece "Footprints" which approaches ten minutes is also a remarkable symphonic piece, magnified more than the other pieces previously heard by the sieur BEVIA and where César ALCARAZ sings there excellently, like what everything is possible ..... with a end there too a little too steep (9/10).   In summary a very good album if you checked the box "symphonic progressive".