OCTOPUS

Independently released, and by now out of the market, Octopus's eponymous debut album is an amazing showcase for the band's main fortes: fiery sounds, tight interplaying and amazing dynamics. Even though they're yet to solidify their sonic storm in a cohesion exhibited as in their excellent sophomore effort "Bonsai", this album males a splendid entry in the realms of prog metal. The influences of Dream Theater, Spiral Architect and early 90s Fates Warning are clear to see, as well as the psychedelic defiance of King Crimson and the hard jazz-rock of Attention Deficit and LTE. The final result is based on teh robust interplaying between the dual guitars and the fluid dynamics of the rhythm duo. 'Litio' kicks off the album with a slightly constraint energy that eventually gives room to a full frontal metallic explosion for the last two minutes. This momentum is effectively maintained by the following track 'Z.O', one of the fiercest pieces in the album. 'Panning in, Tempo out' is more focused on the elaboration of psychedelic ambiences very much a-la KC, although the band is determined to not let go of their metallic ideology, anyway, as it is shown is some dramatic interludes strategically placed during the development of the main motifs. The management of these constrasts is so polished that it would be fair to regard this number as one of the most successful examples of well-crafted interplaying in the album. 'Z.O' and these one - two highlights in a row. 'Ignición' is pretty much similar to 'Z.O' in spirit: energetic prog metal with interesting choices for the twists that go on appearing along the way. A third highlight... As if there wasn't enough rocking power so far, 'Pasajes' displays a bigger dose of electrifying energy, and so will do 'O/zon', the impressive closure. On the jazzier side of things, 'Claroscuro' makes a surprising shift toward the realms of jazz- rock, in this way, allowing the rhythm section to assume some sort of leading role due to the fact that the elaboration of the track's special swing takes a special place in the mix. Of course, the band couldn't resist the temptation of installing a few metallic interludes, besides the energetic closing theme. 'Colores' digs deeper in the jazz factor, this time creating a playful Latin atmosphere seasoned with jazz-rock flavours. And again, some metallic interlude appears in order to stir thing up quite a bit. Let's go back to the closure 'O/zon'. This piece creates an exciting KC-meets-Tool mood on a 7/8 tempo, with things getting at their wildest from 5'30" onwards, before the opening theme reappears as a coda. Two minutes of silence anticipate the emergence of a brief "Discipline"-inspired dual guitar counterpoint. Not an original trick, but really an attractive way to finish a very good album. Prog metal South America deserves more recognition and dissemination: Octopus is a perfect example of this. Let's just wait for a time in which this album gets a proper re-release.