11:11

11:11 is the second full studio album from Brazilian prog act Sub Rosa and released 11 years after its debut. At this moment the lineup consist of Reinaldo José on bass (mastermind, additional keyboards, guitars and vocals), Rudolf Pinto on guitars, Barbara Laranjeira on drums and vocals, and Alexandre Salgueiro on keyboards and vocals. Is a double concept album and its 22 songs talk about human development, in a Jungian approach to the archetypes of the 22 major arcana of the Tarot.

Before I do any assessment on the music here contained, I would like to honor the amount of work that Reinaldo José has put into this work, both musically and conceptually speaking, going the extra mile designing and creating an 11:11 Libreto with 22 beautiful ad custom made tarot cards, each representing one of the 22 songs of the album, a Libreto also available with the graphics, lyrics and spectacular visual content. Chapeau, definitely a work of art, I've seen it and read it, its truly pristine and overwhelming.

In regards to the musical content, there's a lot of good stuff here but a lot of filler too, to my ears. 11:11 is a monumental musical creation that clocks nearly 2hours of continuing music and I think it could have been trimmed a little to avoid the few boring moments, specially towards the end of the 1st CD and the middle section of the 2nd CD. I really like when the band approaches its spacey and cosmic Floyd/Eloy/Hawkwind influences but when they want to go the hard blues highway or the heavy prog route is when it gets somehow messy, perhaps intentional, perhaps intimately attached to the concept, but kind of disoriented to my taste. Opposite to what I experienced with their debut, The GIgsaw, the English vocals here work fine and the lyrical content is profound and well crafted, and I don't mind neither the male or female vocals when they are on their own, what gets me often distracted is when they harmonize the male and female vocals together, I tend to loose some of the cool arrangements that are being played by whom I consider the underdog in this band, Mr. Salgueiro, the keyboard player who's cosmic input elevates the musical atmosphere every time he is allowed to. I am very fund of rhythmic sections and their importance in a band's sound, and I truly think Sub Rosa could benefit with a more versatile drummer.

11:11 is a lengthy and obscure effort by Reinaldo José and the band, and it shows snippets of the underlying talent in most of its members but it was maybe too huge of a goal for a sophomore album, I hope they can pinpoint the best material here and evolve under that umbrella for their next album. BTW, the guitar work is really good throughout the whole trip, nice riffing when needed, amazing soloing and great tonality. The album art cover, another highlight here?