BEYOND THE PANOPTICON

A new SONUS UMBRA album is always someting exciting and it deserves to be signaled in the prog rock community!2 years only after the excellent WINTER SOULSTICE album,mastermind Luis Nasser and his talented musical companions,are back with a new album!And what an excellent surprise is this album,a true revelation!Slightly different to the previous albums,this new opus shows a more mature aproach of the band and more complicated and tortured musical vision,but in the good sense!Definitelly,BEYOND THE PANOPTICON is not an easy and superficial musical experience!Au contraire,it's a marvelous musical journey,and the whole album is very cinematic and rich in audio images,we are invited for a fantastic,transcedental journey and in the end,we have the feeling to be a a part of a great musical endeavour!For a little more than 40 minutes,the album is a little too short,but it's dense,rich and loaded with amazing musical ideas ,that's for sure!The instrumental opening track-GROTESQUERIE- is absolutelly stunning,it reminds me a little of Psychotic Waltz,we have here an unleashed display of technical scarry skills of all the band and there's someting fabulous for an opening album track!The title of the composition says everything!Then,some wonderful complex compositions,with dual -male/female vocalists,and the presence of a flute,a marvelous instrument,but with a morbid vibe,and our thoughts are going to the great Jan Anderson,but mostly to Devon Graves,or Buddy Lackey of Psychotic Waltz or DEAD SOUL TRIBE mostly!Interesting production,great vintage sound and that's a superior charm of the album,in my humble opinion!Overall,a great musical experience,where you are invited,another majestic work from the imagination and huge talent of Mr Luis Nasser,and the promise for a trully memorable musical experience indeed!All the album has a mystic vibe,something misterious and catchy...I repeat...the only minor minus is it's timing...it could have been a little longer...around 50 would have been just perfect!But it's excellent this way too!The artwork is impressive too..an elegant digipack with a great artwork,trully fantastic!4.5 stars for me and congratulations to a band with a huge potentia and a great musical identity and visionl!