PERPETUUM KARMA

Good musicianship and good Hammond organ playing can't save a musically uninspired album with mediocre vocals.

I do not understand this album. I was expecting something as moving and brilliant from my country like "Crucis" but all I got was an overlong album that seems to have the same sound in the whole duration of it. that sound is a mixture of ELP, Marillion, and Genesis

The music overall is a bit uptempo with electric guitar and hammond organs being at the top, playing uninspired melodies/solos and sounding completely calculated and cold. In fact, the whole album to me sounds cold and doesn't move me in any way. The rhythm section is adequate and the bass guitar does have a nice thick sound, but the drumming doesn't convey much power at all and is generally weak and dull. the vocals are nothing great, it seems like a bunch of secondary vocalists singing all at the same time because their lead singer left. Now that I described the individual musicians, I want to explain why the music fails (in my opinion) because of reasons other than musicianship. Many songs are very long, which can usually be a positive aspect in an album. However, it is not the case here. Since the music sounds similar throughout the whole album (which I repeat: is longer than it should be), the songs can get very tedious to listen to. The songs sound like a bunch of ideas and jams glued into one song, in which some themes and melodies sound like something I've heard before. Also, the music sounds a bit unpolished and weak harmonically speaking.

Mirar Hacia El Centro is a solid (if unspectacular) epic going through many changes, with its strong ELP sound that will continue throughout the album Perpetuum Karma is a bit of an uneven song that sounds like a medley of musical ideas. One keyboard melody at minute 5 is probably one of the only things I can remember after finishing the album, but its corniness (can I use that word?) makes it a bad thing. Del Abismo Al Sol is a pleasant soft song with good guitar playing, including what I think is the best guitar solo in the album. The song is a bit longer than it should have been, but it is one of the better tracks here. Travesia is a deceent ELP-sounding song, but it doesn't sound too different from the first 2 tracks. Cruces y Sombras has a different musical structure, sounding more like a huge song rather than a medley of jams and musical themes. Well ... that makes it the worst track of the album! It is a hugely repetitive song that sounds like stuff from the rest of the album and the main rhythmic theme that just makes me think of a poor Apocalypse in 9/8 wanna be (Genesis - Supper's ready). To my surprise, the choruses in minute 3 sound like something coming from "Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota", a legendary 80s rock band from Argentina. En Ese Viento is a surprisingly effective semi-acoustic ballad that manages to not sound cold, but also sound a bit refreshing and different. I quite like it and is probably my favorite tune here.

In my opinion, there is not much to enjoy here. It's a regressive rock album that tries to play like the prog rock giants (especially Marillion and ELP), but is not as good as any of them bands that influenced Nexus in this album. As a result, the final product is an uninspired derivative work with no innovation.

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