DENTRO DE LOS CUENTOS DEL DIA

Neo-prog is probably the most English sounding styles of all of progressive rock with most bands engaging in this emotional churning style of music emerging out of the UK and those that don't trying to emulate their favorite pioneers like Marillion, Genesis, IQ or Pendragon however every once in a while one of these bands came from a non-English speaking nation and actually chose to use their own native tongue. While this is fairly uncommon in neo-prog such a band emerged all the way back in 1981 in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

In a place like 1980s Venezuela it's not difficult to understand why such a band tried to score a record deal for several years but failed to do so. By 1987 the band decided to take a break which turned into a 25 year period after the members all went their own way but in 2010 three of the original team that consisted of Gustavo V'lchez (lead guitarist), Carlos V'lchez (keyboardist), and Carlos Berm'dez (bass and chorus) decided to reform SYRIAK and to complete the group, Aristotle Alborn'z (guitarist / vocalist) and Edgar Calder'n (drums) were recruited to make the band complete.

The newly reformed band spent a few years to work out a repertoire and finally crafted its first album DENTRO DE LOS CUENTOS DEL DIA ( Inside The Tales Of The Day ) in 2015. Using the Spanish language exclusively SYRIAK immediately sounds different for a neo-prog band and while the musical flow resembles bands like Marillion, Pendragon and the other usual suspects, this band is from Latin America and it utilizes a little extra energetic oomf to its flow with faster tempos, choppy bass / drum rhythmic grooves and stealthy fast flowing keyboard runs with a few more time signature deviations than your typical neo-prog standards. In fact this is much more of a symphonic prog album at many points because of the soloing and fast tempos.

The band prides itself on creating atypical compositions that eschew the typical verse, chorus, bridge sort of thing but they still engage in creating strong melodic developments. Because Spanish is closely related to Italian, SYRIAK actually sounds like many of the Italian prog bands that engage in heavy symphonic elements only at a faster speed. While not as technically proficient as PFM or Banco, the band and all its keyboard antics do remind me of bands like Locanda delle Fate. The piano runs are heavily steeped in classical whereas the synthesizers sound more like a typical 90s neo-prog band such as Arena. All in all the band sounds a bit eclectic as i even hear a Mr Bungle influence or two from the 'California' album particularly in the heavy guitar stomps.

SYRIAK seems to have released their one album and then disappeared since there's not a lot of info to be had about them but nonetheless their sole album DENTRO DE LOS CUENTOS DEL DIA is a decent slice of neo-prog tinged symphonic prog that delivers a passionate delivery of eight tracks that each retain their own distinct personality. Aristoteles Albronoz' operatic singing style adds extra weight to this one as well as the choppy off-kilter time signatures that punctuate a rather commercial sounding style of symphonic rock. Not a bad album at all but seems to lack that extra magic that makes it worthy of more than just a curiosity of a part of the world where this style of music isn't exactly common. Worth a listen or two but not anything that will go down as a long lost classic for sure.