PRODIGAL

Hailing from Puerto Rico, prog metallers Avandra released their 4th full-length Prodigal earlier this month, a timely concept album about the physical and psychological harm of war. The album is released via Dutch label Layered Reality Productions, which specializes in progressive rock and metal and includes in its rooster acts like Aeon Zen, Iris Divine and Threads of Fate. Avandra fit nicely among these bands as a purveyor of a modern expression of prog metal music, taking on board a wide range of influences from djent-infused prog (Haken) to classic progressive metal (Dream Theater), from extreme metal (Opeth) to languid post-rock (Anathema).

The extensive musical palette used in the songwriting is one of Prodigal's major strengths. The album feels fresh and varied, constantly shifting gear and alternating moments of fury and aggression with calmer, melodic soundscapes. There is also a good variation in form, with longer, multi-part epics interchanged with shorter, more compact tunes. Mastermind Christian Ayala, who here takes charge of guitars, synths and vocals, impresses with his articulate playing, shifting between atmospheric arpeggios, angular riffs and melodic leads, and using both cleans and growls throughout the album. Adrián Arroyo's performance is also noteworthy: his technical, busy drumming carries the music as much as Ayala's guitar and synth work. Meanwhile, Vikram Shankar (Redemption, Silent Skies) guests with a handful of synth solos, and so does singer David Fremberg (Andromeda) on the long-form epic "A Trace of Home".

Prodigal contains plenty of enthralling moments that made my ears perk ? be it an emotive solo, a hypnotic piano arpeggio, or a sudden, brutal sonic assault. However, Avandra struggle somewhat to ensure that these interesting snippets coalesce into compositions that stay compelling from start to finish. It's easy to lose focus as one goes through the album's 64 minutes. The songwriting is complex and the songs eschew verse/chorus structure and easy melodies that one could use as signposts during the listening experience. Instead, the soundscape is constantly changing, the melodies keep mutating, and there is a permanent sense of floating through the music, which is fascinating but at the same time also taxing. Even after multiple listens, I struggle to tell songs apart or to remember which cool snippet appeared in which track. Very few things stick and I systematically tend to like better the more compact pieces ("The Downpour", "In Träumen", "Facing an Armored Dreadnaught"), simply because I can more easily make sense of them.

My sense of disorientation is further aggrieved by the muddy production. All the instruments seem to emerge out of a sonic fog, sounding distant and hazy. The vocals (especially the cleans) suffer from the same problem. It feel likes everything has been crammed into a narrow sound space, to the detriment of clarity and detail. This is unfortunate because the complexity of the songwriting would need a "big" production, with plenty of nuance and punch, which is exactly the opposite of what we are given here. The weak production really holds the album back and contributes massively to the listening fatigue I experienced going through the LP.

Overall, it's hard for me not to feel mildly disappointed by Prodigal. Despite my best intentions (I am a big prog fan after all) and even if I invested quite a bit of time to listen to this album multiple times, I am walking away from this record with mixed feelings and a nagging sense of a band with a lot of talent that however has not yet been channeled into a fully satisfying product.

[Originally written for The Metal Archives]