ANGELS AND DEMONS

This album don't have the same strength as their previous album "Beyond Reality", that was a true masterpiece. Strangely the vocals haven't got the same brilliance as on "Beyond Reality", or at least I think so. I also think that the production was slightly better on that album. But don't be fooled by the criticism, "Angels and Demons" are a close second. They are still one of the better neo-prog bands around and really deserves to make it big. This album contains a lot of instrumental passages with keyboards dueling with intricate guitars and drums. I'm astounded by the technical skills of CAST. Not many neo-prog groups reaches this level, especially to Alfonso Vidales keyboard playing. Just listen to "White Lies? / Brief Story Of The Freewill" and you know what I mean. The album also got a fantastic cover, equal to the cover of "Beyond Reality". Best track: "Revealing Signs Of Love". If you've never heard CAST before, go buy "Beyond Reality" or "Angels And Demons", and I think you'll soon buy the others too. The future belongs to CAST.

Remarkable album, even though not completely original and with some repetitive parts within some music passages. After this issue they began performing similar themes and being involved with some excesses during their long solos!! Recommended!!

I had a unique experience with the band that I only knew it sometime in 1998, after they had existed many years before. It was my prog gurus: Andy Julias, Bowo and Suryorimba who informed me about how great the band was. I did not argue with them as I knew how good their opinions were; and I ordered about 10 albums of the band and 2 solo projects of the keyboardist and guitarist (it's a great solo album!). When my CDs arrived, "Angels and Demons" blew me! I understand why my friends acknowledge this band. I even purchased the BAJA PROG CD that caught CAST live performance. The early albums of the band were not all excellent. (There was a funny experience happened to my friend who chased the album of CAST in my country and he got the wrong CD which was a group of the same name but from UK - in the vein of pop music..... LOL).

The real strengths of this Mexican (not UK) band are on: 1.) their complex and tight music composition, and 2.) the musicianship of Luis Alfonso Vidales (keyboards), Francisco Hernandez Reyes (guitars) and Antonio Bringas (oops ..!! In my language this means "wild" . which serves to be right if I associate this with his dynamic drumming in "Initiation". Great work, Mr. Bringas!). The album presents a much more complex arrangements and heavier if compared to any other neo progressive band (I believe that this band has been pigeon holed as neo band. I actually disagree with this because, I think, most of their music is complex and heavy in nature).

The band dares to open the album with a relatively long instrumental piece with shuffling drums: "Initiation". This track is relatively complex and it has varieties of shifting tempos, dynamic melodies with howling keyboard sound. Yes, it's a keyboard- based track but I admire how Antonio Bringas plays his drums and percussion sets. For those of you who never heard of this band might be surprised with the overall quality of this track. Dynamic and marvelous! Especially if you play it LOUDly ..

"We Don't Belong To Heaven" is a relatively mellow track with a nice keyboard intro accompanied by a howling guitar (Hackettian). Good melody with no drumming. This track is well positioned to welcome next beautifully crafted and energetic track: "Reality Or Misanthropy?". For me personally, this track is a masterpiece. It has a fascinating and speedy keyboard play with great melody on its vocal line. The interlude keyboard solo coupled with dazzling drumming and guitar fills work well in a perfect harmony. The melody of this track is really deep, touchy and memorable. This track BLOWS me! (The other Mexican version of this track under "Laguna de Volcanes" double CD compilation is even better. It has flute in the interlude). This is the kind of music that any band who plays in the vein of GENESIS should look like.

The title track "Angels And Demons" is an instrumental piece heavily influenced by classical music. This track is merely used to demonstrate how powerful the keyboard player is. I guess. It's too dominant really. "Revealing Signs of Love" is a long track with beautiful melody and excellent keyboard and piano plays combined with guitar fills. The piano reaches its highest at minutes 6:57 and they keyboard's nicest play is at minute 10:31. What an amazing music these guys have made!! For me personally, from minute 10:31 onwards is the part that creates great climax for this track.

"White Lies? / Brief Story Of The Freewill" is my all-time favorite. It has melodic vocal at opening section with excellent howling guitar, accentuated by TULL-like flute sound and dynamic bass lines. What a great opening! The structure of this track is unusual as it has vocal at the opening part but the rest and longer part of the track is purely an instrumental piece with shifting tempos and powerful articulation of multi instruments: keyboard, piano, flute. The Hackettian guitar play at interlude is really nice when it is combined with piano and dazzling bass. No one would argue that this track is a masterpiece and the best composition that CAST has ever produced! I have a habit of repeating this track 3 or 4 times. It's very enjoyable and very uplifting. Unfortunately, the sonic quality of the CD is not excellent.

The downsides of this album are: 1. Poor production quality. It happens to almost all of CAST albums (I have 10 albums of CAST with same poor quality). Even, I purchased the "Laguna de Volcanes" in CDR format (but, it's original! Because I purchased it direct from the band couple years ago). It's a pity, such a great music is not well supported by proper packaging. 2. Almost all compositions in this album are excellent. BUT it's very boring since there is too much keyboard sound here and there in almost similar (or even the same) style. In the middle of the disc you will find that the nice keyboard play is becoming a boring stuff because the keyboard player is overdoing it. He's kind like "abusing" his skills to dominate the music. Nothing wrong, isn't it? But .. it's damn boring, my friend. He should let the Hackettian guitarist plays more roles in melody and solo during interlude. Bring down your "ego" Mr. Poncho ..

To conclude my review: I give 5 star rating for musicianship, composition and performance. However, due to poor production and packaging and boring musical stuff, I give an overall of 4.45 star. I think it's fair enough. - Gatot Widayanto, Indonesia.

I only discovered this band last year, through this website, and, having downloaded the free mp3 track from this album, I was impressed enough to try the album. You wouldn't expect this type of music to come from Mexico really, but this album is a nice surprise. Firstly, the weak point is probably the vocals. They sing in English, but their English isn't as good as Swedish or Dutch bands, and they can sound quite weak at times. However, I am not one to moan about this, as my knowledge of other languages is non-existent, and I admire any band that can translate their own words into another tongue. Having said that, the vocals are not really bad either, and have a certain charm of their own. Musically, this band is very powerful. I had heard that they were Genesis clones, but, although their influence is clear, this band have their own style as well. Their guitar is reminiscent of Mr Hackett, and the occasional keyboard flourish has a Banksian feel to it, but the similarities end there. Vidales, the keyboard player, is something else, and has an exceptional talent. I suspect he leads the band really. The opener, 'Initiation', shows his skills off wonderfully. It is an instrumental, and demonstrates the band's ability immediately. Bass and drums are busy and very profficient and the band shows it is a tight knit unit. The album has a story running through it, the age old tousle between, well, Angels And Demons! Old fare, but well presented here. Second track, 'We Don't Belong To Heaven' is quieter, almost dreamlike, but very melodic. 'Reality Or Misanthropy' ups the tempo again, and to great effect. 'What We See' continues in this vein, and is followed by another nice instrumental, 'Angels And Demons'. 'Revealing Signs Of Love' is the longest track on the album, and the listener's interest is not allowed to flag. 'Fallen Angel' is yet another instrumental, but is probably my least favourite. Not that it is bad in any way, and it fits in nicely with the rest of the tracks. 'Loneliness' has some nice tempo changes, and, again, wonderful keyboard work. 'Fire In The Sky, Fire On Earth' is, (have you guessed it?) another instrumental!!! Finally, 'White Lies/Brief Story Of Freewill' ends the record in a superb way, with more tempo changes, and excellent guitar work. Throughout the album, the guitar takes second place to the keyboards, but Reyes himself is no slouch on the six strings, and plays in a controlled, atmospheric way. I would heartily recommend this album to anyone who likes good keyboard work, in the style of Tony Banks, circa 75-76. A surprising success this, but an album I have played a lot.

Cast sixth album will prolonged the experience of releasing complex music by good musicians. I have always felt though that their songwritting was a bit "short" except for "Third Call".

The opener is fully ELP oriented. High technicity and heavy keys of course. But although the music is well executed it lacks in passion to my taste. Consistency is also not their strenght : I can identify at least three themes in this opener; but no smooth linking nor transitions. Just good but uninspired music played by skilled musicians.

When you listen to "We Don´t Belong To Heaven" and "Revealing Signs Of Love" PFM influence comes immediately to my mind (but it was already true on a previous album).

Genesis being around here for "Reality" and "What We See". Very little originality so far. Nice music to hear while you are doing something else because when you really concentrate on it (like I am doing for this review) it not really appealing. The finale of "What We See" is also weird. It ends as if it were a demo track : cut off abruptedly (this was also the case in some earlier releases).

The title track is one of the highlight on this album. Great virtuosity on the piano. Again, ELP could not be closer (which is far from annoying me). "Revealing Signs Of Love" is the longest and most elaborate track. It contains very nice intrumental breaks (the last one being very much "Cinema Show" like).

After "Fallen Angel" which is a poor instrumental number (but Cast plays a lot of insturmental music, which again is usually not a problem for me) we'll get "Loneliness" which is a very good moment of this album. Very much keys oriented but some guitar breaks here and there add a nice touch. This song though is a bit too long to be interesting throughout its lenght.

I have the same feeling for the whole of this album : too lenghty and monotonous. Again, Cast will almost always release very long CD's (even several double ones). It reminds a bit some of TFK ones which would have gained if a bit cut down.

As usual, Cast influences are ELP, Genesis (76-77 while they were four) and PFM. If you like these bands (and I do), you would not dislike Cast. Maybe that they should have opted for Spanish lyrics to sound more original, but I am not sure it would have helped (anyway, they will do so some years later).

Cast albums seem to be endless. I know that I made this comment already for Cast (as I did for TFK and Mostly Autumn) but since they seem to persevere in this direction (and the story is not over yet) I can only repeat my feeling. Three stars (but five out of ten if I did not have these strong links with Mexico).

CAST have been quite prolific since their debut album in 1994, releasing something like 16 studio albums during that time.They have to be the most well known Mexican Symphonic Prog band. I know they had a hand in the Baja Prog festival as well as playing in it numerous times.These guys are good, I was quite impressed instrumentally especially when they let loose.This particular album is a little long at around 74 minutes, in fact cut it to 50 minutes of the best material here and I give it 4 stars.

"Imitation" has a temendous drum intro before everyone else joins in as we get this impressive instrumental display. "We Don't Belong To Heaven" is a short keyboard and vocal led track. "Reality Or Misanthropy ? (Mixup)" sounds good with the guitar soloing in the background as the vocals lead with keys,bass and drums. An intense instrumental section takes over around 3 1/2 minutes.The vocals are back before 6 minutes. "What We See / The Increasing Sorrow Of The Earth" puts the focus on the vocals early and the tempo picks up before 3 minutes but it does shift often here. A classical flavour before 6 minutes. "Angels And Demons" opens with piano and there is a classical flavour on this one too.

"Revealing Signs Of Love" is a vocal track. Synths do solo after 2 1/2 minutes followed by guitar. A great sound after 6 1/2 minutes as we get another intense instrumental display to the end. "Fallen Angel" features piano and drums that standout.Synths join in but there are lots of sounds here in this Classical sounding tune. "Loneliness" opens with piano,vocals and guitar. Good sound. A calm with piano after 3 1/2 minutes but then everyone joins in. Some Oldfield-like guitar follows. "Fire In The Sky Fire In The Earth" opens with piano and classical vibe. Aboe too. A beautiful instrumental. "White Lies? Brief Story Of Freewill" reminds me of Phideaux vocally.Vocals stop and drums take over. Back to the original soundscape 2 minutes in with vocals. An excellent instrumental section follows to the end. So good.

3.5 stars for this one.

The worthy follow up of previous album Beyond reality is the 1997 release Angels and demons. I quite like a lot this band, with rich sound , complex arrangements and perfect musicianship makes, at least for me, Cast atruly great band that needs a far mor exposure to the public. Angels and demons keeps the symphonic prog tradition of previous album, with some simply amazing instrumental sections and instrumental pieces aswell. The opening track again an instrumental one Initiation is a true gem of a piece. Symphinic/neo prog like in old good time, vintage sound, nice , smooth and virtuosic passges where the keybords are the main attraction. The album goes in this direction with no weak moments, only top notch performance. The highlight besides opening track is Revealing Signs of Love, 13 min of sheer beauty. 4 stars again, simply said I like a lot Cast, is not only one of the front prog rock bands from Mexico but can be considerate one of the great symphonic prog bands world wide, with each album they become better and better. I can only recommend Cast music and for sure I will buy more albums from their catalogue because I was simply pleasent surprised by their music.