METANOIA

Very good band from Argentina! Nexus is an excellent surprise from south america and Matanoia keeps coming back to my CD player over and over. The main influence is quite obviously ELP (sometimes too obvious, though), plus some mid seventies Genesis and early King Crimson. But they have a sound of their own, which is fantastic. The vocals are very good and the recording production is top notch. The whole concept flows quite smoothly most of the time (specially the second half of the CD, clearly much more progressive and original). Carlos Lucena is a superb guitarrist and "headmaster" Lalo Huber is a creative keyboard virtuoso. If I haven't heard Arion's Tania Braz vocals before I got this CD I would consider Mariela Gonzalez the top female prog singer of the new millenium, at least in latin America. Yet, she is an outstanding singer on her own and I share the grief of the reviewers for her leaving the band after this CD. The rhythm section works very well and I should point out Daniel Tanniruberto's brillant bass playing.

Overall one of the great nice surprises I found this year. I still think Arion as the best latin America symphony prog band, but Nexus comes close. I'm looking forward to hear their first CD and hope they overcome the loss of their singer. Recommended. 3,5 stars.