ANIMA

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Debut and only album by this Argentine band features symphonic Art Rock with some rather subtle elements of Prog-Metal in ten tracks about half of them being instrumental. Vocals by Alejandra Hamelink are very good and strongly in an operatic vein having at times the effect, at least in the more mellow sections that the compositions start to sound a bit too shallow or even "cheesy". In three of the vocal songs she is supported by a mixed operatic choir.

So let's come to the individual songs a bit more in detail. The albums opens with the instrumental track Septima Novena which is actually quite a nice one highly dominated by keyboards with some sax and background vocs in its last part that are very much reminiscent to Pink Floyd's DsofM. De Aqui A Cien Mil Años, again an instrumental one reminds me in some way to the japanese New Age musician Kitaro, although featuring as well electric guitar in its second half. A very symphonic and romantic piece. Next song Brillaras is the first with vocals and one of those sounding rather shallow as mentioned above. Cita Clandestina offers some kind of contrast to the previous one revealing some keyboard dominated symphonic rock in a more hard-edged vein, a bit like US band MASTERMIND used to play a few years later, but much less intricate. Al Reverso Del Tejido is in a similar style, but quite diverse with more guitar and vocals. The longest track and probably the best one, although I have to say I don't favour that much this kind of vocals in symphonic Prog. (I find it quite okay in epic power metal bands like Nightwish.) Tributo A La Eternidad, again with vocals is overall kept in the vein of a rock ballad and not very much interesting at least for me. Ciudad Sin Tiempo is giving me again this special "Kitaro"-feeling, mostly due to the used keyboards, very beautiful composition, but I guess for most Prog fans (including myself) quite boring. Heroes Sin Medalla is the only track where Alejandra Hamelink is singing alone without any choir and features some nice guitar, but I couldn't say that it's a very special one. The instrumental track Rigel sounds to me more like a sound collage. And in fact "collage" is giving me the perfect keyword since the short keyboard part in the beginning is an almost shameless rip-off from one of Le Orme. Thereafter some Japanese kind of music and some arbitrary mixed keyboard themes are following, all together a rather uninspired piece. Last track Palabras in fact is a big help for me to decide finally for the lower rating. Until now I was toggling between 2 and 3 stars. But this track which is just repeating its only lyrics, that is the title in a seemingly endless segue is just incredibly nerve killing.

CONCLUSION

ANIMA's only album is considering the time of its release probably a rather decent and one of the better Prog albums. Emphasizing that it's of course a subjective view I could actually not find much fascinating here and therefore I can't put a recommendation for it. I know it's in some way strange to call it a collector's item since there is only one album by this band, but I can't decide to rate it higher than with 2 stars.