CONTINUO RENACER

First of all, I apologize for my limitated english (I'm spanish, nobody's perfect... ;-) )

Well this is my first contribution to this awesome web since I'm affiliated to it. Congratulations to concentrate all our efforts in creating a site of that characteristics.

This album remembers me Atheist's "Unquestionable Presence" as well as most technician Death albums. It's a great album for a Death metalist type of listener. The band lacks a frontman voice, because they still don't have singer-growler (in that style). In the mix the bass is a little loud, but it's played with many technique that don't mind, it could be said that parforms as the groove maker, in the stiyle of other great bass players (John DeFarfalla reminds me at that time) while guitars syncopates well with the rythmic base created. The drummer fit well with the typically-prog syncopation founded here, in spite of the little rhythm desviations.

Perhaps the overall sound lacks a little bit maturity. The mix it's not bad but it's noticed that lacks production. For being the first demo of a band of that class it's quite good. I'm waiting to listen the promising future they have. Congratulations, go this way!!

Submitted by Álvaro "Iron" Rodríguez.

In conclusion: 4/5 stars, nice start for a beginner band IMO. Good luck to all of you.

Continuo Renacer - Continuo Renacer 4.5 Stars

What an excellent Jazz-Metal cd.

After the endless praise and recommendation of this band by Jody, I gave in. This band certainly hasn't been talked about or reviewed enough, so I feel obliged to do something to get this band noticed.

Javier Guiterrez on guitars, Arkaitz Kako Carrasco on bass, Imanol Aizpuru on drums and guest keyboardist Fredy Pelaez. Great musicians that I hope go further with this band, play in side-projects and guest on albums.

This is a pure instrumental album, and what separates this from most of the jazz-metal albums you hear is that there are no vocals unlike the contemporaries (Athiest, Cynic, Spiral Architect etc.). Then again what about the bands like Behold.The Arctopus, Spastic Ink and Canvas Solaris? Well, all of the aformention bands are metal, with jazz leanings. Now back to the previous statement I made, Continuo Renacer is a jazz-metal band but they split the jazz and metal about 50/50.if not, possibly more of the jazz part, which is something that is still quite uncommon.

For all those bass-junkies, this is an essential album. Sometimes even the guitar just sticks in the background while the bass takes the forefront. Like most jazz-metal bands, Continuo Renacer contains virtuosos.

We have 8 tracks here. I'll give a little bit of info.

'The Intruder' starts off. This is quite a deceptive track for a starter. You would think this is a band that has the instrumentation tendencies like Spiral Architect, but do not worry, you are in for a treat. A good tech-metal track though.

'The Unknown Man' is where they bring in the jazz. Starts off with a great guitar interlude. Then the guitar is hitting sustained notes while the bass plays some good leads. The rest of the track contains a superb guitar and synth solo as well.

'Fusion for Suckers' is pretty much what we're in for. This track has the most fusion-like vibe to it, done quite well with some death metal type drums thrown in. At 3:50 the song takes an entirely new direction, which is insane. It contains the bass and guitar just dueling and switching lines. It's some of the best work done together with these two instruments that I have ever heard.

'The Blessing of the Damned Ones' is a very Cynic-like oriented track minus the vocals. This is a predominately heavy track with some clean jazz moments.

'Lost in Black Matter' is the most Cynic oriented track on the album. The intro is very much like 'I'm but a Wave Too.' so they lost some originality in this one, doesn't harm the music though cause this is an excellent track.

'The Chaos Theory' is the most experimental on the album. You will hear a lot of Behold.The Arctopus with much more jazz breaks. This is another well-done track.

'.And Harmony Therapy' is a split track. The first half is a nice jazzy jam, followed by some crescendo into a very metalish sound.

'Tap That Angel' has that.bass and guitar dueling like at the end of 'Fusion for Suckers' that I loved so much. The track is the epitome of brilliance, earning a spot as one of my favorite instrumentals.

This album is just stunning. For fans of jazz-fusion and technical metal and any willing to hear mind boggling music. So open your mind and just flow with the sounds.

I also noticed that 'Fusion for Suckers' is on their PA page. Check it out and see what I'm talking about in my description.

"Continuo Renacer" is the self-titled debut full-length studio album by Spanish instrumental technical/progressive metal act Continuo Renacer. The album was released through Indar Productions in February 2005. Continuo Renacer is a trio who consists of Javier Guiterrez on guitars, Arkaitz "Kako" Carrasco on bass, and Imanol Aizpuru on drums. Fredy Pelaez guests on keyboards.

The music on the album features both jazz/fusion elements as well as some rather extreme technical metal parts not unlike the riffing/rhythm style of artists like Atheist, Spiral Architect, Blotted science, Watchtower, and Spastic Ink. In addition to that there are also some more melodic/atmosperic jazzy/progressive parts featured in the music with references to artists such as Al Di Meola and Steve Vai. The music is fully instrumental except for the chant in the beginning of album opener "The Intruder". The musicianship is on an extremely high level and if you crave tech metal madness look no further. There are multible tempo- and time signature changes in each track and the structure of the tracks are generally complex. The force of the music is that it comes off rather accessible and melodic even though the level of complexity is so high. It´s a very hard balance to strike. Some tech metal can seem too aimed at musicians and exclude non-musicians totally but I don´t think that´s the case with Continuo Renacer.

The sound production is excellent to these ears. Clean and powerful. Some might find the production a bit cold and not organic enough but I think the sound suits the music perfectly. All things considered "Continuo Renacer" is an outstanding debut album and firmly places Continuo Renacer in the premier league of instrumental technical/extreme progressive metal along with artists like Blotted science, and Spastic Ink. It´s safe to say that I´m impressed and I find this album highly recommendable to fans of the genre. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.