11:11

Honestly, no idea what made the fuss over this extra-long album. Yes it is very conceptual. Yes it's extremely pompous. Yes it pretends to be encyclopedic. The only thing I've completely failed to find in this album is good music. I'd say this grandiose project is a grandiose show-off, a splurge, a dummy. If a listener is impressionable, perhaps it might be perceived as something global, first of all due to its estimable subject ('Journey of the Hero', even not 'a hero' but 'the Hero', you see!). But what's inside? All the melodic themes are as plain and primitive as most of TV pop hits or straight rock songs. One pleasant rock ballad (Hanging On), unfortunately contaminated with faulty guitar solo, then with faulty keyboard solo, and finally with faulty coda... No fresh idea, no complex melodic construction, almost no modulation between tonalities, no inventiveness in melody making, no intricate rhythm. Two hours of banality, nothing more. No musical interaction either between the tracks or between the turns of the fabula, no action, no drama. Just a boring sequence of boring musical themes, a protracted pop rock show under pretentious proggy camouflage. And I even cannot say that it is at least performed well. The musicianship is on the border of amateur, with the exception of some guest singers. OK Pink Floyd weren't virtuosi too, but Gilmour's guitar soli, Wright's keyboard soundscapes and Mason's drumming were amazingly refined, intelligent, noble. While here in 11:11 most of instruments and voices sound almost vulgar. I remember the glorious days of Brazilian prog scene: O Terco, Som Nosso De Cada Dia, Tellah, Bacamarte, Quantum, Sagrado Coracao Da Terra, Topos Uranos, Terceiro Milenio, Blezqi Zatsaz, Quaterna Requiem, Via Lumini, Apocalypse, Pocos E Nuvens, Index, Tempus Fugit... What a bunch of fantastic musical ideas and solutions! And after all this luxury - Sub Rosa?! No, thanks. If this is a new chapter in the history of Brazilian prog, I'm afraid this means that Brazilian prog has got deflated by the 2020s.