PENTADELIA

This is the first album by Spanish outfit Albatros, which was released in 2008 and can be downloaded for free from their website. Here, they gathered eight compositions that together make a total time of 55 minutes of excellent music. The first track is entitled "48" and starts with a cool atmospheric background, with some birds and wind over there; later guitars enter in a heavy way and the song actually takes off. It flows and continues with that cool heavy guitar complemented by a psychedelic tune. This is a very good introductory track, and a pure instrumental one, by the way,

Once the first track ends, we are already listening to "Supernova" , I mean they did not let us take a breath, instead, they implemented a repetitive but addictive tune in this second track that will make us feel truly interested in what's next. The first four minutes are exhaustive, powerful, and then it slows down a little bit and for the first time the voice appears. It continues like this until the song finishes.

"Santuario" has a nice environment and an atmosphere that actually make us feel in a sanctuary. After some seconds acoustic guitar joins as well as drums and bass, creating a soft and friendly sound. Later the vocals enter and add that particular sound that Spanish bands (and language) share, it is not flamenco, but the tone has a slice of it. The last minute is special, a totally different track is here with a kind of electronic and even post- rockish feeling. The next track is "Ensor", a short composition that shares a friendly tune with nice guitars and a soft atmosphere, though later there are heavier moments, mostly due to the guitar, and even a somber one where keyboards create a dark ambience.

"Hombre menguante" is a great track that progresses little by little until it takes us completely to its realm, I mean, with the pass of the seconds, the music is involving us, hypnotizing us until we cannot escape. The psychedelic and spacey sound is evident here, with the addition of that energy and heavy touch they band always implement. Here, the vocals are in English, something I don't love but don't dislike either, I think the native language is always the best one to sing. This is without a doubt one of the finest tracks of this album, or at least, one of my favorite.

I cannot say the same about "Waiting for a Sign", firstly because I don't like the distorted voice here at all, I would have preferred a clean one (and better with Spanish lyrics), the music is good, a bit slow at the beginning but it progresses later and create that inherent heavy sound complemented by psych, however I believe there are moments where I lose interest in this track, something that had not happened to me before. After seven minutes there is a pause and a curious change, the sound of an old tape appears with a singer of the 50s, sorry for my ignorance if I don't know who he is. Later, another change appears with an instrumental passage that makes us travel to mid-east lands.

So now we are in "Mehari" a wonderful five-minute crazy trip to the psychedelic realm. It is an instrumental track that will make you shake your head and feel in a different land, so close your eyes, and let the music do the rest. The last track is "Las tripas de Goliath", a nine- minute song where the band put together a challenging tune, with a mixture of sounds, nuances and textures, and even of languages. The music has some soft passages, some rockier moments and some heavier ones. The compositional skills of the band cannot pass unnoticed, and here is an example of their quality.

Pentadelia is an excellent album, with a couple of weak moments, but overall with a strong and solid sound. Albatros are without a doubt a band that most people should listen, so I truly invite you to do it, first with this album, and later with their 2011 record entitled "Ursus", which is better in my honest opinion. My final grade will be four stars.

Enjoy it!

Share this ALBATROS review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to memowakeman
• Report this review (#654000)
• Buy ALBATROS music online with PA partners
• Show all ALBATROS MP3/Stream
• Go to ALBATROS page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Pentadelia page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for ALBATROS related discussions