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ENDLESS SIGNS

Cast

Symphonic Prog


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Cast Endless Signs album cover
3.48 | 50 ratings | 6 reviews | 12% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Studio Album, released in 1995

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Signs Of Future (4:56)
2. Hidden Poems (8:33)
3. Spirit Of Man (10:48)
4. Endless Signs (14:20)
5. Power Games (8:15)
6. Allow Me (6:27)
7. Mayday (6:27)
8. Nostrabamos (8:44)

Total Time: 67:10

Line-up / Musicians

- Dino Carlo Brassea / flute, vocals, bass (8)
- Francisco Hernandez Reyes / guitars , vocals, vocal arrangements(5)
- Luis Alfonso Vidales / keyboards
- Rodolfo Gonzalez Quiroz / bass
- Jose Antonio Bringas / drums

Releases information

Artwork: Raul Sanchez and Gerardo Enciso

CD Self-released ‎- ALF-005-CD (1995, Mexico)

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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CAST Endless Signs ratings distribution


3.48
(50 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(12%)
12%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(52%)
52%
Good, but non-essential (26%)
26%
Collectors/fans only (8%)
8%
Poor. Only for completionists (2%)
2%

CAST Endless Signs reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Greger
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars "Endless Signs" is slightly different than their four previous releases. I think that CAST sometimes sounds like their British colleagues PENDRAGON. From the first album and onward, I think that they have taken a step forward towards a more British sound for every record. The guitarist Francisco Hernándes and keyboard player Alfonso Vidales are playing a main role in CAST, and they are really coming to their rights on this their fifth album. Best tracks: "Hidden Poems", "Spirit of Man" and the mighty instrumental finale "Nostrabamos".
Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars This period of Cast's career is both prolific and highly creative. Of course, they started to play as a band in 1979 and they had a lot material available to put albums together. herefore, no less than six albums were released in as little as two years. Not always great (like their debut album " Landing in a Serious Mind") but generally good.

"Endless Signs" belongs to theIr good ones. It is more ELP oriented than others probably, which does not really displease me. The pompous and bombastic side with "Hidden Poems" and the delicate and almost classical one with "Spirit Of Man".

The piece of resistance being the title track and epic song "Endless Signs". Most of the aspect of Cast are present : Cast's high technicity, pleasant vocals from Dino (which I globally like BTW), superb keys of course, long and bombastic instrumental passages (at times heavy), light (but short) early-Genesis sounds. It lacks maybe in cohesion and grandeur but overall it is a good song.

"Allow Me" is a nice piece of music, melodic and poignant as far as the vocals are concerned. They remind me somewhat Peter Nicolls's ones (IQ). The closing number "Nostrabamos" will also bring us back to the ELP tradition. Strong keyboards again (but this is a standard for "Cast" since its leader Alfonso Vidales is truely a great player) and bombastic music. A great finale.

It sounds as "Cast" has broken with some of their influences with this album (PFM, Tull and the early Genesis and this album is more concentrated on ELP. It is a pleasant album in these ELP-less years.

Three stars.

Review by Gatot
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars This is a solid album by Mexican prog band: CAST. It's too bad that this band, especially this album, has received little attention by prog lovers. The music offered by Cast in "Endless Signs" is actually excellent in music composition and performance. The only problem with this album is in its production. I don't know why I have never found any album of Cast which has excellent production especially in the sonic quality of the CD. This has impacted into listening pleasure of this "supposedly" a wonderful album which has been capped by the limit of the production quality. Composition-wise I can see there is relatively high music density performed by the band. The combined work of keyboard by Vidales and smooth howling guitar by Hernandes is actually stunning especially when it's combined with powerful drum work. The music is actually a combination of Genesis, Camel and a bit of ELP. In most cases, the keyboard work is much more dynamic than Tony Banks in Genesis. The melodies of each track are also good and they all blend nicely with the music. I can imagine if this album is recorded with the same sonic quality of Genesis "Selling England By The Pound" it will definitely create clearer sounds reproduction. I have no problem with all songs in this album, in fact, I like them all because the music is quite complex and packed. This album is another favorite of mine in addition to "Angels and Demons" album. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Review by apps79
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
2 stars The show at the pre-Progfest Festival at Barnsdall Theater made only good to Cast, not only their performance was satisfactory, but they also managed to hit big time sells on the running ''Four aces'' album and their next work ''Endless signs''.Self-produced by the band, this marked the fifth full-length album by Cast in a 2-year period!

I am dissapointed to say that the bulk of recording sessions and written tracks did not end up to a really strong album this time.They haven't moved an inch from a refined symphonic-oriented and occasionally melodic Symphonic Rock, I think that the front covers with the main figure of jester just say it all regarding the direction of the group, but the music sounds not that inspiring as on the last few albums.Nevertheless, it would be a statistical error to release so many albums in a limited time with all of the being equally good.The tracks are pretty long with plenty of different segments and mood changes, influenced by GENESIS, MARILLION and the likes, featuring lots of guitar and keyboard fests, but I am afraid that the material is rather forgettable, especially the two longer pieces, the title-track and ''Spirit of man'', seem like the weakest links on this CD.Production was never Cast's strongest point, but with the music being just above average, it certainly hurts the consistency of the album.Latter pieces do include some very good moments, on par with Cast's best efforts on the previous albums, like the romantic and more Neo Prog-flavored ''Allow me'', the dramatic ''Mayday'' with the huge organ waves, while ''Hidden poems'' excels through the first bunch of tracks, being heavily Classical-oriented and containing some good switches between different themes.

Not a bad album, but one of the less interesting works on Cast's repertoire.The talent is there as always, it has not been translated though into really satisfying compositions on ''Endless signs''.Anyway, Neo Prog and Symphonic Rock buffs will apprecaie some of the contained material...2.5 stars.

Latest members reviews

5 stars When I wrote my first review here in PA in August 16, 2009 (review #231937), the chosen band was the Mexican CAST, and my reasons for this choice at that time was my perplexity on perceived which, this fantastic band was so underrated . This rejection or indifference by the prog fans ( I thi ... (read more)

Report this review (#1504184) | Posted by maryes | Sunday, December 27, 2015 | Review Permanlink

3 stars It is incredible difficult to find albums from this band from Mexico. Which is a pity because what I have heard so far has been rather good. I loved their Orginallis album I have been advised that Cast has chopped around their style quite a lot. Although they have always stayed close or withi ... (read more)

Report this review (#260721) | Posted by toroddfuglesteg | Wednesday, January 13, 2010 | Review Permanlink

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