CRISÁLIDA

Last year I had the chance to meet the Crisálida guys while visiting Mexico City, I witnessed a great intimate show where they played several songs from their repertoire, focused on Terra Ancestral, which is their latest album and in my favorite so far. Besides listening to them in concert, I could know them better since we spent a day together with some friends, taking the band to some nice places in Mexico City, so it was a pretty cool experience and I hope to see you guys sometime soon.

This Chilean band has brough some folkish tunes on their discography, however, in this album we can notice a clear tendency to the heavy side of prog, touching the prog metal realm. The album has 7 songs that make a total time of 40 minutes in which Cinthia Santibáñez enchants us with her voice, while Atilio Sánchez gives his always accurate and powerful drum playing, perfectly accompanied by young prodigy Damián Agurto on guitars and the great Octopus-man Braulio Aspé on bass. A great combo! This record opens with "Cabo de Hornos" which is a great first track because since the first two minutes they give us a hint of how powerful their music can be in both, instrumental or with vocals. I love the bass lines here (I once was a bass player, in another life), and also love the guitar solo in the last part of the song.

"Morir aquí" works as the perfect single of this album. It starts soft with a kind of post-rock feeling and then when vocals enter it becomes heavier and powerful, Santibáñez is a wonderful singer indeed. This track might be catchy, since it is easy to learn the lyrics, but the song itself makes you feel part of it. Great! "Bosque triste" is a nice track that confirms they are into the heavy side of prog rock. The balance between instrumental passages and the ones with vocals is wonderful, so in the end the four musicians are equally important. "Hidromachi" is very melodic, beautiful in some moments, disarming in others, I love the lyrics here, very touchy. In the last part Aspé provides delicate bass lines which later will be accompanied by funeral-drums and nice guitars.

"Lágrimas negras" is one of the softest track of the album at least for the first three minutes which are delicate, with nice guitars and a sense of tranquility, but beware, after those three minutes it explodes and becomes heavier, like a wave of rage for a brief moment. Later it becomes more and more emotional, and it includes a piano that can be heard softly as background. Great track! "Kawesqar" is the longest track. It starts again with a kind of post-rockish guitars, making let's-say-a-modern-prog-sound that I like a lot. This song brings lots of passages and atmospheres, it is a very nice musical journey that has a climax after four minutes where an outstanding guitar solo appears. The album finishes with "Violeta Gris", the shortest composition and also the softest of them all. The sense of goodbye is evident here, one can feel the melancholy.

Great album by Crisalida, very solid that even opened them the gates to perform with Orphaned Land in an European tour. This is a great band, believe me.

Enjoy it!

The third track "Mi Libertad" brings the music back into more energetic style even though it's not quite successful on that. "Corporatocracy" continues the style of previous track with some heavy riffs. There is very little variation offered by this song and it tends to be boring as there are many repeat riffs with no innovation to make better composition. "Desterra" sounds nice but the music is quite empty. The other two concluding tracks "Raco I Intro" and "Raco II Viento Del Sur" fail to elevate the music back into energy. The overall album sounds boring to my ears.

This is for collector only - those who really loyal to Crisalida. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

The quality of the songs is pretty good throughout. It is obvious that the band knows what they are doing. Cinthia Santibáñez vocals are also very good. The problem is that the songs are pretty bland, although good. I simply do not "get" them. This album is sorely missing the X Factor which elevates an album from good to great. But this album is still good and it has some great pieces. The guitars and the tangents is great. Unfortunate, they are let down by the quality of the material. But I will keep an eye on this band because they have potential.

3 stars

I knew nothing about Crisalida until my colleague prog head Wahyu Adi informed me emotionally on how he has been totally impressed by the neo-prog music created and delevered by this Chile based band. He urged me to have a try and he gave me this debut album.

Oh man ... it BLEW me away at first spin! Why?

First, the kind of music the band delivers is something that I have been missing a lot from any new progressive bands: the combination of high energy, or you may call it an energetic or dynmaic kind of music blended beautifully with great tagline melody, captivating tempo, mood and style changes throughout the music that brings you to musical orgasm from start to end and you are not even aware that the album reaches its final track. Man ... I am not exaggerating it, try it for yourself and satisfaction guaranteed! The music scores high on the composition in terms of melody, complexity, harmony, change of styles and structural integrity.

Second, the music brings me to the zone when I don't need to think about what kind of genre or sub-genre or sub-sub-genre these folks are trying to do. I am just drown into the beauty of the music they are playing and I do not really care what the heck of musical genre they do - it does NOT really matter to me at all. It brings me to the basic principle: "Music is emotion". Yeah, that's right man! My emotion is totally stirred when I am listening to this album like what I am doing now while writing this review. Of course I am accompanied by a cup of kopi tubruk (freshly brewed Javanese cofee). Well... if you force me to say what kind of genre this band plays, I tend to say it's the kind where you can not differiantiate between symphonic prog and progressive metal. Yes, the texture is symphonic or neo- progressive but if you look at the tempo and guitar solo you will see the smell of Petrucci style but .. the keyboard sounds bring you to symphonic music - I would say it's Mark Kelly style (Marillion Fish era). Confused? I bet you are! I do apologize for not being able to give you the right answer on this issue. Can I suggest this: "A hybrid of symphonic prog and progressive metal"? You'd better have the album first and make your comments about it.

One thing for sure, do NOT miss this album!

"Alas" (3:43) (in Javanese language this word means 'forest') is a great opener in symphonic prog style starting with an ambient keyboard solo followed with musical riffs using keyboard as main instrument followed with guitar riffs. The music gives a chance to Cinthia Santibanez Verdugo delivers her powerful voice in Spanish. This is another excellent thing, the lyrics are Spanish and they sound well ini the kind of music Crisalida is playing. There are parts with guitar solo and keyboard solo that reminds me to progressive metal scene. The song ends beautifully in relatively short period.

The second track "A mi tierra no llegarás" (4:47) is in fact much more captivating with excellent opening part with drums followed with keyboard and guitar that brings to voice entering the music in moderate tempo. But the music climbs its tone with really powerful (I mean it) Cinthia voice. You will find this song is very dynamic and it demonstrates the ultimate power of female vocal who sings wholeheartedly throughout the song. I think she can control high and low tones beautifully in this song. The guitar solo by Cristian Alfredo Carrillo is also wonderful. This second track is really a WOW! to me. It's really great! Look at how Manuel Soto performs his keyboard solo after guitar one. Oh man ... You must listen to this album! Rodrigo plays his drums using double pedals that reminds me to typical power metal music.

"En el nombre de... "(5:06) maintains the same spirit with the first two tracks through the relatively fast tempo music with some insertions of heavy musical riffs - but it's not really progressive metal. Yes, you can find the nuances of power metal of Rodgrigo drumming - buut it's in a balanced way. The great thing about this song is its melody that allows the female vocal delivers her best through various changing moods and tempo of the music. This third track is more prog than the previous two tracks. It blows me away .. especially on the way the singer sings (it's because of the powerful melody).

You will remember Dream Theater if the track number 4 "Ameba" (4:58) is being played. It's becase of the opening riffs remind you to the similar prog metal music like Dream Theater. But the female vocal makes it different from other bands. There is part where the band is able to combine symphonic prog (through the keyboard solo) and progressive metal (through the drum work and guitar riffs). Garcia is finally given a chance to give his bass guitar solo followed with Petruccian guitar solo.

"Hojas en invierno" (5:22) starts mellow with stunning guitar solo followed with mellow female voice. When the track reaches the middle it elevates to a very nice and more complex symphonic prog music using keyboard as solo instrument. "Justicia made in Chile" (5:04) brings the music back to progressive metal style with double pedal bass drumming combined with excellent keyboard. "Sinfonía "V"" (3:18) brings the music into heavier tone with dynamic riffs and powerful vocal. "Silencio" (1:49) provides a musical break with nice piano touch and mellow vocal. It's a nice bridge to the next instrumental track. I bet you will love to listen to "Despertar" (5:04) - an instrumental track that reminds me to band like Aghora which combines heavy progressive metal music with jazz falavour. Well, you can say this track at par excellent with Rush 'Yyz" or other Dream Theater instrumental tracks like the wonderful "Stream of Consciousness". But this instrumental track is not purely metal as it has other styles as well. It's mainly a symphonic prog music, of course. The guitar solo brings you to the Petrucci style. This time the bass guitar solo gives the jazz components of the music. It's really an excellent composition.

The remaining two concluding tracks "Camino secreto" (6:32) and "De sueño y libertad" (6:57) are also excellent.

Overall, it's a highly recommended prog album that you must have it. It's a 4.5 star rating. Keep on proggin' ...!!!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW - Deep sympathy for the Gaza situation ...

"Deficit Global" One might mistake this as a techno song initially, but as the drums and heavy guitars come in over the synthesizer, and later vocals, we are treated to neo-progressive rock excellence. Rapid-fire guitar and synthesizer soloing is the icing on the cake.

"Indigo" Steady and lethargic, this piece begins like a female-fronted Pink Floyd. It carries on in this pleasantly indolent manner until an eerie piano goes alone until joined by a heavy band. The music resumes its Pink Floyd-like meandering before petering off.

"Mi Libertad" The band returns to semi-metal on this third piece, but the addition of fluid keyboards gives it a little something extra. The vocal melody over the bass is excellent.

"Corporatocracy" This extended piece makes extensive use of the monologues of Arthur Jensen and Howard Beale in the Paddy Chayefsky film Network. The music itself involves various instrumental bits, particularly a smooth bass solo and a soaring lead guitar passage, but overall tends to get boring.

"Desterra" Taking on a simpler rock approach, the first half of this song would make for an effective 1980s FM hit. The lead guitar is so soulful. Halfway through it changes into piano and thick crashes of guitar, bass and drums.

"Raco I Intro" This is an eerie, atmospheric introduction- not much to it.

"Raco II Viento Del Sur" Led by an exciting piano, the final piece launches into a loose, grungy feel. As usual, the singing is terrific, sounding great over the dark background of deep bass and a Mellotron-like backing. It picks up midway through, making great use of various keyboard tones, finishing up with some heavy guitar.