WAR AND PEACE

I want to tell you that Pandora Snail was one of my favorite discovering of last year, so thank you very much Nikolaj for introducing me to the band. Naturally, this debut album entitled War and Peace stays in my personal top 10 of 2015, because of the magic it brings while the seconds pass. I remember I was positively surprised since I first listened to it due to its variety of sounds that take vintage progressive rock, jazz fusion and of course that special modern touch. So if you want to experience a great musical journey, please go and listen to this 11-song album.

The 62 minutes of this release have a wonderful start. It is "Dilemma", a song that in my opinion was the best choice to open this debut album. There is a very good vibe on the music, the atmosphere is great and seems that the musicians are greatly connected to each other, so the music perfectly flows. In moments, violin is the instrument that leads, but I like that it is not always, I mean, sometimes keyboards take the leadership, always complemented by great drums, wonderful bass lines and great guitars. This song is amazing, it has several changes that touch rock, jazz fusion, and symphonic music, so with this song is enough to realize that Pandora Snail's music has no boundaries.

"By The Mountain River" is a shorter track that shares sweetness and tenderness created by violin and piano, mainly. The sound is soft so anyone can easily enjoy it, even those who are not into progressive rock. "To Catch The Wind" has a relaxing sound, the wind actually chimes in the first seconds, then they vanish and all of a sudden an explosive song begins to be built up. Virtuoso violin guiding us through atmospheres, nuances and textures. Later the bass creates nice repetitive figures that are complemented by a guitar solo and by those constant drums. People's voices and joy can be heard, so I imagine a kind of feats of friends with people applauding and dancing; of course it brings a smile on my face. It is great how they manage to create a lot of changes and to blend different styles without harming the music, I mean, no matter the direction, what they offer is truly enjoyable.

With "Submarine" the cadency returns for the first two minutes. Later it changes, the bass marks the rhythm and the tendency and then the other instruments add their grain of sand and together create an interesting salad of sounds and images. Pandora Snail, confident of their talent, dared to create a magnificent 17-minute epic that wow, left me speechless. If they make lots of changes in short songs, now imagine how many changes you will find on this long track, a well-crafted song that does not have weak moments, I realized about it when I suddenly found that the song had already finished. Loony moments, hard rock passages, symphonic slices, jazzy moods, my god, a lot of things can be found in this endless world of deep colors. It is incredible to be delighted with so many high- quality passages, which means of course, that they are truly talented musicians, great composers and performers. This is "James Pont", an impressive song, you must listen to it!

"Mother's Tears" is a very melancholic piece, disarming violin guides us through different passages of life. Actually the whole album is a journey through life, through moments of war and peace, this can be felt without a doubt. "Red Rivers" is the shortest piece but probably the most vibrant due to its fast rhythm full of vertigo, carefully contrasted by soft piano notes and led of course, by that representative violin sound. "Stones' Names" has a great blend of jazzy tunes, kind of oriental sounds, Spanish guitar in a brief moment and even some kind of new-age atmospheres created by keyboards. Wow, while writing the review I feel excited once again, I must say that their compositional skills impress me. "Dance Under The Bullets" continues with a style alike to the previous track, however here they add heavier and rockier moments in which you can bang your head a little bit, and even dance.

"After The War" has a darker atmosphere at first, later it changes (as usual) and the joy appears. But well, emotions and sounds bring us a great time. The last song is "Satori", whose first minute is totally peaceful, relaxing, zen; but later it becomes fast and fabulous, dynamic and extraordinary for another minute, because as you can imagine, later changes and changes again, always bringing interesting and quite enjoyable passages.

Congratulations Pandora Snail for releasing such a wonderful album, which of course, I highly recommend to all my readers and fans of progressive rock.

Enjoy it!

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