![]() ![]() In fact, where I was happy the latter ended when it did, I could quite happily keep listening to more of Checkpoint. About halfway through, though, the heaviness is lifted, and the song sounds suddenly light and optimistic.Ĭheckpoint is another instrumental, but far more interesting than Quintaesencia for me. While not sounding as heavy, in terms of noise and aggression, it actually comes across as the heaviest track yet in terms of how dark it feels. The drumming in this song is some of my favourite on the album. ![]() The bass and drums play a wicked rhythm under the vocals, and the whole thing just oozes a sense of unease, if not quite menace. Not quite what one expects, and definitely an air of mysteriousness. I love the initial melody, as it’s just a little off kilter. The title track is next, and it swaps aggression for suggestion. Some bands don’t know when to stop, Áuryn clearly do, and that’s a major selling point for me! It’s a good length, though, as I’m just beginning to think I might be tiring of it, when it ends. It’s maybe a little reminiscent of Animals As Leaders and Dream Theater, and as those two bands have quite different sounds, its obviously not sounding too derivative of either. It’s a short (well, relatively so) instrumental piece, which is surprisingly enjoyable (as I don’t usually go in for prog metal wankfests, which this manages to just avoid being). Quintaesencia comes out of the gate even faster and heavier than Amancay before it. A wonderful opening number for an album that just keeps on giving! Listening to it now, I find it hard to understand how I was unsure of it in the beginning. The song sounds all over the place on first listen – or at least, it did for me – but the pieces soon fall into place. Three of the band sing, and their voices create quite glorious harmonies. It’s a gorgeous eclectic mix of metal, jazz and folk, veering between ballistic bursts of percussion and heaviness, and balladic beauty. Over this time we get to hear the full gamut of styles Áuryn play with over the course of this album. That said, within the eleven or so minutes of opening number Amencay there is very little singing anyway. And the Romance languages always seem inherently musical to me anyway, so I am actually usually disappointed if those who could be singing in one of those languages choose English instead. Hailing from Argentina, Áuryn choose not to sing in English, which means I have no real idea about what they’re singing – but if I’m honest, I’ve always preferred it when bands sing in their natural tongue. ![]() This is definitely an album where if it doesn’t immediately appeal, it is worth a second listen. But with subsequent listens, changes which initially seemed jagged and forced, now sound smooth and natural. All I knew is that I wanted to hear it out. I honestly wasn’t quite sure if I liked what I was hearing initially. It’s a quite spectacular opening, which can initially be a little discombobulating. The rhythm section of Matías Catueño (on bass), and Nicolás Truchet (on drums) is on fire, and there’s some delicious guitar work from Andrés González and Nehuen Herrero. The contrasts almost clash, and yet somehow they work. Within the first minute, you know this is going to be an interesting listen, as the opening number of Áuryn’s debut album, Antes de Cerrar los Ojos, flits between prog metal and jazz fusion.
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