EYALA

Eyala is a Mexican prog metal band composed of very talented musicians who gathered together to create this new, powerful and promising effort, whose debut album 'Awaken' speaks for itself, offering a solid bunch of well-crafted compositions that any fan of prog-metal, heavy-rock, djent would enjoy.

Its first track is 'Eyala Mount', which starts in a very epic way, with some low-tempo keyboard than opens the gate to an explosive movement. The first two minutes are completely instrumental, and then when vocals appear the direction changes a little bit, and let me tell you that unlike other Mexican projects where vocals are not a highlight, here they are! Erick Moral's voice sounds so great, being a perfect complement of the wonderful music written and performed. This is an amazing opener track, a hint of what's coming.

'Reflection' will make you shake your head, the keyboards are amazing, I am honored to know Edgar Butanda who besides being a hell of a keyboardist, is a great person. This track is really powerful, because it shows the dynamism of the band in these metal lands, I mean, throughout the album you will hear hints of Dream Theater, Devin Townsend, Threshold, as well as some djent or event hard/heavy rock bands from the 90s. The end of this track is very vertiginous, great.

With 'Blind' the show us what are they capable of doing, I mean, their compositions are wonderful, but their execution is at the same level, great musicians giving everything they can to please themselves, to create something of high quality that later will, of course, please ourselves, the listeners. Of course I have to mention my beloved friend and amazing bass player, Pável Vanegas, whose participation is crucial in this band, and in this album, you can hear some addictive lines in this particular track. Juan Prado and Roberto Cervantes with an outstanding guitar and drums work, respectively, wonderfully complement this band, sharing magnificent moments in this track and of course, in the whole album.

'Sentiment of Praxis' has some 30 seconds of tranquility but then explodes with an amazing keyboard sound, that reminds me of both DT and Haken. I love when vocals appear and how the song is being built-up, because they reunite different passages in just 7 minutes, you can hear the different changes and being embraced by them, it is important you let the music take you and enjoy the journey, you just have to open your soul, the music does the rest. Amazing keyboards and guitar solos are also shared here, in what it is to my ears, one of the best tracks of the album.

'Fiction' is a track I would choose as an introduction to this band's music, I mean, it is great, complex but at the same time, gentle, easy to dig and enjoy. It also has some old-school keyboard passages as well as some killer guitar solos. I love its changes, from chaos to tranquility, and vice-versa. Honestly I am impressed by how all the tracks are great, to say the least.

'In Glorious Ignorance' is another excellent composition that shows us the quality of the band, and how in spite of presenting their debut album, they sound like and old and experimented band. Our ears and souls are lucky to witness this great prog metal effort that is very sensitive, and that also has some brief but wonderful jazzy moments, and also some passages of tranquility when one can take a breath after the vertiginous journey.

The album finishes with its longest composition, 'Time Destroys Everything' which opens with a very bombastic sound, like an explosion that really matches with the title. Amazing moments are brought throughout the almost 10 minutes of its length, I love once again those great keyboard leads, and how they manage to create an atmosphere of hope in spite of the previously vertiginous sound. The voice, the strings, the drums, everything together create a very solid whole, and when musicians are that connected, the result is usually wonderful, like in the case of this fabulous debut album.

I am sorry I did not write this review before, but I am happy to share my thoughts to the world, hoping some readers become listeners of Eyala. If they keep working and creating music, I am sure they will have some great opportunities to share stage with some great prog metal acts.

Enjoy it!

After taking several years to solidify their band line up, founders Edgar Butanda (keyboards) and Pavel Vanegas (bass) started working together in 2012. They soon recruited Roberto Cervantes (drums and Juan Prado (guitars) to make up their instrumental line-up. Fast forward to 2017 which is when they found their vocalist in Erick Moral, and the intriguing and worthy instrumentals met their match when the vocals were recorded and added to the music. Everything was finalized and the debut was finally released in April of 2019.

What they ended up with is a nice, sometimes complex, and always well-balanced album that incorporates dynamics and variety throughout. It is most surprising how both the keyboards and guitars in the tracks are both very strong and solid, one never really out does the other, but both bring a level of perfection to this music. Yes, there is some growth that can be done here, but this band shows an extensive amount of promise and each track here has something to offer to everyone.

The album starts off appropriately enough with the solid and heavy guitar on 'Eyala Mount', a track that will definitely capture your attention from the outset. The structure of the songs is anything but traditional as the verse-chorus structure is not prevalent making the music sound quite original. Right away, a listener might argue that this sound more like Progressive Metal, however, as the song continues, you will notice the perfect balance of keyboards that exist in the music. 'Sentiment of Praxis' is a perfect example of the amount of talent this band has as the music flows easily from complex metal sounds, almost, but not quite, reaching extreme status, but with clean vocals, only to quickly turn to and more loyally follow a more Heavy Prog style with swirling and cascading keyboard riffs and synth solos, and suddenly falling feet first into some jazz stylings, and in the meantime everything just sounds like it all fits together perfectly.

The vocals are decent enough, and Erick has a great range, but don't always seem as tight as they could, sometimes wandering a bit off key, but not enough to ruin the enjoyment of the album. Overall, though, the music could use a bit more tightening up, but for a debut album, this is definitely an impressive effort. There are plenty of excellent sounding solos through the album also, like the impressive guitar passage in 'Fiction' from Prado that cascades down like a million stars burying you under their mass while the drumming from Cervantes create complex patterns that make the complex meters flow along. Butanda also gets many chances to shine with his keys creating masterful solos and riffs as in the tracks 'Eyala Mount' and 'Reflection' but also matching the guitar as they trade off or share solos in 'In Glorious Ignorance', and even taking time to create a nice pensive piano solo that morphs into an orchestral effect in the second half of that track.

The two things that I would like to hear the band improve on is in tightening things up a bit especially between the vocals and instruments, and also emphasizing the bass a bit more as it never really seems to stand out on this album that otherwise gives every other player moments to shine and stand out. Obviously, the band is creative enough to definitely be in the running for 5 star efforts in the future, and they definitely prove that they are a band to follow and watch for. Now that the band is complete, this should give them opportunity to create a cohesive feel among them that will rival bands that have been around for years. This is a strong 4-star effort. Let's see how they use their talents to progress even further in the future by experimenting a little more with their sound. As for now, they come very close to making one of the most original sounding and dynamic Progressive Metal albums in 2019.