NIMBUS

I listened already to a couple of albums from this band and until now I favoured Al-Bandaluz, but since I listened to NIMBUS, I've got to say that this one is even better. It's in my view their first album which does not confirm the typical neoprog cliché. One reason for the shift in their style might be the addition of the sixth member José 'Pepe' Torres who extends the sound by providing saxophone, flute and clarinet. The music on this album is in some way a perfect blend of classical prog with some jazz elements and in some parts a strong tendency towards progmetal. In the classical prog parts it sounds to me reminiscent of ELP or VDGG. Obviously there is some concept behind the album, but my knowledge of Spanish language is not sufficient to get it.

The album consists of 16 tracks which are grouped in four parts. It opens in a very captivating way with the first part of Ladrona de Sueños: threatening keyboard riffs, rough heavy guitars and screaming sax interludes. Parts 2 and 3 of this suite are placed later on the CD, part 2 has mainly keyboard with vocals and the final one is all instrumental apart of some spoken words, a rather savage and weird track featuring some sax playing again.

Second suite 911 consists as well of three parts. First part has vocals both in Spanish and English accompanied by piano, keyboards and acoustic/electric guitar. The title obviously refers to the US emergency phone number or possibly to the world trade attack. Second part is all instrumental and very nice with flute, piano, keyboards and electric guitar. The third part My New Home is instrumental as well, but acoustic, the best one IMHO, the flute gives it a strong reminiscence to JETHRO TULL. I noticed already on their other albums that usually the instrumental sections are the strongest ones of this band.

Volando En Uno Mismo brings back some electric guitar, again flute and piano, quite FOCUS-reminiscent and a great track as well. Sucio Nino Bien has some intricate melodies, vocals in Spanish and a nice guitar solo. Suenos De Platino is another great instrumental track featuring electric guitar, keyboards and clarinet. Just the sound of the drums could be better in some way. Dias De Sol Y Luz is a mellow song with piano, flute, some tender electric guitar and guest vocalist Guadalupe Acuána, a nice counterpart to the vocs of Hernández.

Cataclismo , the first part of Un Siglo De Invierno is a quite progmetal-alike track, but not really perfectly done since the drums don't sound very good. Apart from this flawing the performance of the musicians is great. On second part Esperenza Austral they're coming back to a more mellow mood in the beginning but the rest of the track sounds more or less like Part 1. En La Cueva Y El Bosque is a bit of a medieval/classical blend and Reunion 2003 is an acoustic version of a song from their debut album. Hojarasca is an acoustic track with rather querulous tunes whereas the final one Extension 17 has a more cheerful mood.

SUMMARY:

NIMBUS is an excellent album and possibly the best one they've ever done in my view. The addition of instruments like flute,clarinet and sax really expanded their sound in a very nice way and brought it away from the typical Neoprog style of earlier albums. The only critics I've to put on the poor drumming in progmetal-alike parts like Cataclismo. Disregarding this point it's rather close to a masterpiece. I would say it's worth 4,5 stars and a strong recommendation for any progfan.