MEMORIA VIVA

"Memoria Viva" is the third full-length studio album by Spanish, Barcelona based progressive death metal act White Stones. The album was released through Reigning Phoenix Music in June 2024. It´s the successor to "Dancing into Oblivion" from August 2021 and features the same quartet lineup who recorded the predecessor. Bassist Martín Méndez (who also plays rhythm guitars on this release) is known as the long-standing bassist in Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth (only Mikael Åkerfeldt has been with the band longer than Méndez), and Méndez involvement in White Stones has of course provided the band with publicity other similar artists maybe haven´t had the opportunity to receive.

When that is said White Stones fully deserves to be mentioned as an interesting and worthwhile progressive death metal act regardless of Méndez involvement with the project. White Stones of course can´t escape some comparisons to Opeth, but although both Opeth and White Stones are at their core progressive death metal artists and some of Méndez playing style and Opeth involvement shine through here and there while listening to "Memoria Viva" (and on the two preceding album releases from White Stones), White Stones actually sound very little like the more well known and prolific Swedish act (despite Opeth keyboard player Joakim Svalberg also guesting, making the Opeth connection even stronger).

One of the core elements of White Stones' sound are the heavy organic grooves of the music. There´s an earthy, at times psychedelic, and quite creative touch to the band´s songwriting, and although heavy death metal riffs and growling/harsh Spanish lyric vocals are part of said sound, "Memoria Viva" is actually more an atmospheric and experimental progressive metal album than a death metal/black metal ditto. 70s hard rock and progressive rock, and 60s psychedelic heavy rock are all music styles which have influenced the sound of "Memoria Viva". Paired with the extreme metal elements it makes for an interesting and relatively unique listen. Maybe Enslaved at their most space rock/progressive metal mood could be mentioned as a reference. The tracks will take you through different musical landscapes and dynamics and although they are reasonably accessible, they do take a few listens to sink in. A good example of the diversity of the album is a track like the 6:58 minutes long "Humanoides". But even before we reach the halfway point of the album "D-Generación" has introduced a melodic aspect of the band´s sound and "Zamba de Orun" showcase flute playing (courtesy of session musician José Ignacio Lagos) and both classical music influences as well as an obvious nod towards Jethro Tull.

"Memoria Viva" features a powerful, organic, and detailed sound production, which suits the material perfectly. This is a high quality release through and through. The songwriting is intriguing and varied, the musicianship is on a high level, and topped off with a well sounding production job like this one, "Memoria Viva" continues the streak of high quality musicial output and fans of adventurous progressive metal with growling/snarling vocals should take note of this album. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

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