SALVADORENO / ALIEN

I confess I was quite afraid of this album. Just think, a double album by little-known band from El Salvador, lasting more than 2 hours, containing 37 songs sung in two (Spanish and English) languages. It would have required much stamina and patience to be fully listened. To be honest, I was expecting to be bored halfway. But what I heard was a big and pleasant surprise. Music here is very eclectic and diverse. You can find everything from full blown symphonic pieces to flamenco and even good old Rock & Roll! There are no interludes. Almost every song from those 37 can stand well on its own. That means, you shouldn't even have time for a relieving breath, but surprisingly all this stylistic "mess" is very enjoyable to listen and not very tiring. Maybe because music is not overly pretentious; band makes it simple, but with taste. There is no aiming for a masterpiece either, but whole album is of solid, very good quality. Relative highlights can be traced though: "Feels Alright Salvadorean", which is simple but very catchy Rock & Roll song, "Salvadoreno / Alien", the piece Ovni goes full-on prog, "The Monsigneur / Alguna Razon", where beautiful instrumental is followed by as great dark ballad sung in Spanish and "River Of Knowledge", which recalls mellow Neo Prog ending with very inspired and dramatic way. Some of the songs may be a bit less distinguished, but there's no real blunder. Album's overall patriotic concept and quality of lyrics is very good too. It's very hard for me to rate this album; Actually it won't be easy for anyone, for its full apprehension would require weeks. But now, after several listens, I feel my rating is in 3,5 stars territory. And since this is the first review of any of Ovni's albums on PA and I think this band shouldn't be so criminally underrated, I will upgrade it to 4 stars. And yeah, I think this could pretend for the title of the most epic album of 2011. El Salvador can Rock!