This is another band that had escaped my notice for far too long so it was with much enthusiasm I whacked this disc into my player to see what delights were about to unfold. Naturally, their sound is dominated by a plethora of keyboards, as Alfonso Vidales is a monster player with some very tasty ideas and compositions. The title track features some really impressive piano that will surely impress. Having said that, however, the guitar work and drumming is also right on cue with time changes galore and plenty of fancy fills. References to Hackett & Banks are plentiful throughout although it is hard to criticise any of the good players in this band for trying to emulate the better exponents of these styles and techniques. After all, there is only so much variation you can use with an instrument until and unless you physically alter the structure of a song.
Whether it's the fact that I am fairly easily pleased by most of the progressive rock bands who embody the brilliant marriage of guitars and keyboards within their music today, is hard to say, however, Cast have unleashed a wonderful collection of songs that just totally reach my ears the way I like symphonic rock music to do. Their style embodies both the vintage 70’s sound with some refreshing neo leanings as well. Nothing wrong with that! Vocals are very well handled with most songs featuring meaningful lyrics and references to plenty of today's modern topics. This band has been another great discovery for me as the “learning process” between sorting the good from the bad to the worse can be painful, time consuming and costly to say the least.
They have several other releases which typifies the well intentioned aims of a band as prolific as Cast but I understand their very first few releases are nowhere near as good as this one. Criticisms? Perhaps with a band as prolific as Cast, one might expect a little repetition or lack of variety within the songs and this is possibly true. Being such a long album, the sameness can't be ignored but I prefer to put it down to the lack of any really memorable hooks within the lyrics and songs themselves. There certainly isn't another “Ripples” to be found on this album but the band may address that issue in the future. Their vocalist is lost a bit in the mix and doesn't strike me as all that powerful, but when he does his job well, it makes an impact. In the meantime I am revelling in the wonderful keyboards playing counterpoint to the guitar and feel I have certainly got my money's worth with this disc
Good progressive rock music from Mexico was supposed to be as rare as rocking horse dung but Cast have changed my opinion about this area of the world and have debunked the fallacy that good music can't come from these nether regions, well off the traditional music map. Their great input to the growing world of progressive rock will only help to make our beloved genre of music an even better one. A solid effort!
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