CAJA DE PANDORA

One of the things I don't really like when reviewing a Mexican album, is that I know that even here in my country these bands are not given the credit they deserve, just a selected group of people know them and it is very sad, I would be happier if I knew progressive rock was better known, starting here, in my own country. But well, there are some people like me who can add a grain of sand in order to help those bands in a positive way, so despite some of those groups no longer exist (like Caja de Pandora) I don't care, but I am happy to review their music.

This album (sadly their only one) was released back in 1997; its name is Caja de Pandora as well and it contains 12 songs compelling a total time of 50 minutes. "Apocalipsis" opens it, showing a clear oriented keyboard song, though the fat bass notes appear here and then, and a constant drumming accompanies the song, it is led without a doubt by the keyboards, I must say that the audio quality is not the best here.

"Cuento de Hadas" begins again with some soft keyboard sound and mood, and then it changes a little bit into a faster time track, but then it slows down again, and the history is repeated during the whole song.

"Ilusion" is a very nice piece, it begins with some bass notes and then an exquisite piano playing appears. Later, the music becomes joyful and then a distorted guitar solo enters, pretty nice song.

"Requiem para el silencio" is short but good, the keyboard sound helps to build the song structure, and the guitar is kind of Howesque, I believe Yes was an influence for them. The second half of the song turns into a faster tempo track, where the member's skills are shown. "Horizontes" is actually alike to the previous ones, I mean, the piano sound predominates along with a punched bass and nice drums, this is great symphonic prog, though I repeat, the quality sound and record production does not help the band at all. In some moments, this song reminds me to both Rick Wakeman and Alan Parsons Project.

"Camino Mágico" begins with a soft rhythm, drums-keyboard, and then some Nintendo-like noises appear, honestly I don't know if they intended to create this sound as a dynamic addition, or it was just fun, but to my ears, it does not help the song.

"Reunión" is an excellent track which starts with some guitar a la Gentle Giant, and then bass and drums appear with the same rhythm, which later is changed into a faster and daring song, and in my opinion it happens to be one of their best tracks here, I like it, it is enjoyable.

"Luz en la Oscuridad" is another good song, starting with piano in a classical mood, making a short stop and then a more aggressive and challenging rhythm is implemented, but then it changes making some jazzy or even reggae-like moods, without losing the progressive element, of course. The bass lines are very noticeable during this song, and then in the second half of the same, a classical piano encounter begins, giving the track a different texture, delicious in some moments.

"Esperanza" is the shortest track reaching only 1 and a half minutes, some piano, guitars and a relaxing mood.

Well, the album ends here, I assume there was a re-issue or something, because I see in the previous review that it has 3 bonus tracks, which I don't know so I cannot comment about them. It is a nice album, a good effort of this disappeared Mexican band, but honestly it lacks of something, the time I've listened to it I've felt there is something missing, so this album does not impresses me, to the point I don't really feel like giving it more than 2 stars, I feel terrible but this time Caja de Pandora did not provoke anything on me, in fact I felt bored in some moments, so I recommend it only for collectors.

Enjoy it, anyway!

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