THE VEIL IS BROKEN III: COMING OF AGE

Around Chrismas 2016 Rodrigo San Martín released the third part of his giant Rock Opera The Veil is Broken. Part 3 is where the action begins to take a dark turn. Robin loses his best friend, and bandmate, the one that kept him focused, and with him his mind. Or not. It's up to the listener.

San Martin has stated in interviews that the third and fourth part of the album could happen as they're told, or they could simply be one of Robin's escapes into his own minds to protect himself.

What's told here is that after the death of his friend Robin leaves his prog band and takes the offer (made in part 2) to go solo as a pop artist. He sells out and becomes a pop phenomenon. The whole part 3 (Coming of Age) is about this moral choice.

Like expected, Rodrigo San Martin kept his promise. The five tracks from part three fuse work perfectly and fuse into any of the ten songs we already had from parts 1 and 2. All fifteen tracks can be played in any order and any song flows into the next.

So what about the music? It's amazing.

1 - The Veil is Broken: the 12 minute title track of the Rock Opera strikes a personal nerve on the argentine prog public since it adresses an event that marked a generation by fire. In 1982 Argentina and England engaged in a war for the Malvinas Islands. As you can imagine a confrontation between two uneven forces only had one result.

In Rodrigo San Martín's Rock Opera this war has a deep impact on Robin, the protagonist, whose dear and only friend John dies. This is THE TURNING POINT in the whole story since Robin relied on John to keep him grounded to reality.

The track starts with the audio from defacto president Galtieri declaring war on England and the whole crowd in Plaza de Mayo, excited as hell, chanting "Juremos con gloria morir" (which is a part of Argentina'as national anthem and means " we swear to die gloriously"). In those days Argentina was ruled by force by a millitary government (the one that killed 30000 people because they opposed them) and they sent children between the ages of 18 and 20 to fight the war. The result was catastophic. The ones that made it alive were scared for life.

Rodrigo's lyrics are very deep, thoughtful and sad. The subject is very polemic up to this day on my country. He focuses on the personal side of the conflict, and pictures the event as the last desperate attempt of the military government to control it's population by finding "a common enemy". He reflects on the brainwashing of the crowds, who excitedly chant for their own imminent death and the pointlessnes of it all. It's not that the cause was not fair (Malvinas are actually on argentine territory), it's that it could've been done via diplomacy, and this uneven and desperate war would never be the answer.

Robin, the protagonist loses his mind and his one an only friend and is a clear reflection of his own generation.

Enough about context. The music is absolutely breathtaking and perfectly portrays all the emotions and situations characteristic of such a somber and important theme. Here we have everything: Deeply sad melodies sung by Canela Sol and Charlie Giardina, emotional guitar solos by Maestro San Martín, prog metal, acoustic sections, tremendous choruses, you name it you have it. Special note must be taken to the instrumental crescendo that builds from a piano solo by Refay to the most amazing instrumental duel in a section that clearly represents the battlefield.

Incredible track.

2 - My Time is Gone: the second one is completely different. An acoustic crescendo piece sung my Osvaldo Mellace with backing vocals from Sol that kind of reminds me of Solsbury Hill. This is not unintentional, as Rodrigo has stated in many interviews this simillitude in "style" with Gabriel's song to represent various things: Robin is obsessed with Peter Gabriel and is actually considering leaving his prog band to go solo, the lyrics don't only reflect about that but the use of his quotes from the prog genre (specially The Lamb, which is Gabriel/Rael's epic journey to find his very own John, who turns out to be himself) mimic the character own personal lost on the track that went before. This is very smart and it made me think of the whole subtext that I've been missing on the lyrics on the first and second part of the Rock Opera.

The result is simply beautiful. It is clearly one of my favourite songs from the Rock Opera as a whole.

3 - The Time has Come: a very short metal track that starts with a crazy arrangement and features mainly Craig Kerley's powerful vocals. The chorus is particulary catchy with it's chant "The Time has come and there's nothing I can do or say, the time has come I am Banished from the Earth"

If you're not familiar with argentine prog Vanished from Earth was a prog super group formed by Rodrigo San Martín, Fernando Refay, Mike Buenaventura Lima, Nacho Gulich and Charlie Giardina. The band released their one and only (and great) album in 2013 and split shortly before Rodrigo released the album. 4 out of 5 of the members of the group perform here as well.

I think I'm not overstretching in saying this but the parallel between Rodrigo and Robin is more present than ever here: they both just left their bands to go solo. I never thought about this relationship between composer and character, and it adds a whole new dimension to an already dense sand rich storyline.

To those not immersed in the argentine scene, imagine if Roger Waters had a chorus on his first solo album that went: " I AM PINK FLOYD".

Well, unlike Waters, San Martín continues to work and play with his old bandmates up to this day.

4 - Sellout!: track number four is what the name says it is. Robin sells out and becomes a pop sensation in the 80's. The songs sounds exactly as what it promises: a pop song. Canela Sol sings it beautifully and the song is actually quite good. The lyrics could be about someone breaking up with their significant other, or about a band breaking up. Not really the kind of music I want to listen to in a Rodrigo San Martín album, but I understand it's crucial point in the story.

5 - Absolutely No Commercial Potential: on the other hand this is what I like the most. Rodrigo's long songs are always the highlight of his records and this is no exception. Craig Kerley sings in ful power mode, onde more, on this kind of progressive punk piece. The riffs are great, the melodies fantastic and the solos (again by San Martin and Refay) are to die for, but the best part of the track is the crazy instrumental section around minute 6:43.

Go get this album, it's free on Bandcamp, as well as the rest of the Rock Opera.