THE VEIL IS BROKEN II: ADOLESCENCE

The second part of this tetralogy is now on bandcamp. The story is about the rise and fall of a musician and we are still in the rising phase. The reason why this concept album has been split in 4 parts is that rodrigo San Martin has thought that a 2 hours concept album can be too long, so this is a sort of "serial album".

The first track scores over 10 minutes and after a start reminding of EL&P moves into heavier sounds. Having listened to Rodrigo's albums since his first release I can't not notice the big improvement he has done. Even being a multi-instrumentist he has given up to the idea of playing all alone and he has shown a "talent" in choosing his partners. In particular the keyboardist Fernando Refay, also on PA with his solo works, gives a remarkable effort.

Back to the track, it has a number of sudden changes like a Mike Oldfield's suite, but this doesn't disturb and the dialogue between guitar and keys on different themes is very good. The closure is very '70s like, in line with the track title. A good track suddenly ending. a "Incomplete" is very melodic. Based on piano and keyboards (I think played by Rodrigo) with the operatic vocals of Canela Sol. A nice song followed by a sort of 70s pop intro.

"Auditions" guitar riff sounds quite British. The song is interesting and is followed by another melodic rock song: "No Destiny" has a particular mood. In the chorus it has something of 80s hair metal, including a very good guitar riff. The very clean vocals sound very appropriate in this song.

Finally, "Never" closes the album with an attack reminding of "The Who" (at least for me), followed by a bass riff. It's a 2 minutes intro to a rock song, and...yes, it reminds me to the Who. Not a bad thing, isn't it? Let's also add that the keyboards sound a bit Wakemanian.

So, don't forget that this is part of a concept album. I don't know how I could rate it in its entirety (even if I've already leistened to the remaining unreleased parts. I'm giving 3 stars by now but the whole concept deserves surely more.

Get it on bandcamp.