MAYEUTICA

Once the tour that led to the live album "Bienvenidos al Temporal" was over, Robe began an arduous process of composing that occupied him throughout 2018 and much of 2019. In 2019, believing his "solo" phase to be over, he attempted to reunite with his band Extremoduro to finish shaping the songs he had in mind. However, this reunion did not work out, leading to the announcement of the band's breakup at the end of 2019. They planned to end their journey with a massive farewell tour in 2020, which ultimately did not take place due to the pandemic.

Thus, once Extremoduro had definitively ended, Robe got to work with the same solo band with which he had recorded the excellent "Lo que aletea en nuestras cabezas" and the even better "Destrozares," but adding the exceptional guitarist Woody Amores. What no one could have imagined was that they were shaping what would become one of the best albums in the history of Spanish rock: "Mayéutica: La Ley Innata II."

The album was produced again with keyboardist Álvaro Rodríguez Barroso during 2020, and was finally released on April 30, 2021, featuring a bold cover by Diego Latorre. It marks the return of the more rocking, progressive, transgressive, and visceral Robe. The same one who brought us the wonderful "La Ley Innata," but with even greater compositional maturity and with a group of musicians capable of elevating his musical proposal to heights unthinkable and unreachable for any other contemporary Spanish band. Perhaps with Extremoduro Robe could have made this "Mayéutica," but I suspect it would have been very different, and I believe not as good.

"Mayéutica," like its first part, is a 45-minute song divided into an Interlude, four movements, and a coda, as if it were a kind of symphony or classical work. Musically, it brings us a very powerful, varied, and completely progressive heavy prog in its harmonies, evolutions, and developments. As for the lyrics, if "La Ley Innata" spoke to us of a lost love that destabilizes the author's world, "Mayéutica: La Ley Innata II" speaks of the reunion with this love, of finding the lost vital axis again, of second chances. And as such, it is a more vivid and cheerful album, though with its traces of darkness and melancholy.

So, if you are a fan of the best progressive rock and have not yet listened to "Mayéutica," I highly recommend you do so, as it is the best progressive rock album released so far this decade. Absolutely dazzling in composition, execution, and lyrics.

Best tracks: since it is a single 45-minute song, highlighting one track does not make much sense. However, in my opinion, the best parts of the album are the third and fourth movements, a complete progressive orgy of the highest imaginable quality.