HESUS ATTOR

This Croatian band named Hesus Attor has been on the music scene for some years, gaining recognition and little by little being better-known inside and outside their country. In this 2011 they (fortunately) offered a new EP as a free-download, which makes things easier to the listeners, and helpful for the band since with it I believe they are reaching a higher amount of followers from different countries.

The name of the EP is "Señorai" and features four songs that together make a total time of 17 minutes. It kicks off with "Pardonian Clouds", which happens to be the shortest track here. It has some spacey feeling and a sense of tranquility that may please you. I like it, and I actually thought the following tracks would be like this, but I was wrong, so don't judge Hesus Attor by this first song.

"Señorai" has some kind of oriental flavor, the guitar work is nice and I like how the song progresses. What I don't really like are the vocals, with an odd and quirky sound and also in different languages. The last minute is heavier, aggressive and closer to the metal realm. Nothing to do with the opener track.

"Psyclick" is a weird but interesting track. The avant-garde label may be recognized here; it reminds me of Fantomas and Primus, strange combination, isn't it? And last but not least we have "Vox of Archibald" which reminds me once again to Primus. This song is crazy in every sense of the word, the vocals and the instrumentation are weird but cool, so you can enjoy it and have a crazy time.

Honestly, my favorite track was the first, the calm one, the only one that I would not name as a crazy track. The others are good and interesting, but not my cup of tea. Recommendable for those who like avant-garde and crazy stuff, I would not really recommend it for average prog fans. My final grade is two stars. However?

Enjoy it!

Wow! Never heard a band quite like this! They are comparable, mostly to mathcore bands like Dillinger Escape Plan and Zeuhl bands like Ruins and Koenjihyakkei. but I can't really think of much else to compare them against.

The album effortlessly switches from sublimely calm to insane guitar chugs mixed with extremely invigorating vocalizations from the singer. Indeed, the vocalizations are something that make this band unique, the singer ha-s and shouts syllables, even sometimes laughing, combined with screaming vocals which will be more familiar to fans of the Dillinger Escape Plan.

The music is generally less loud, with more dynamic variation that that of normal mathcore or hard zeuhl (such as the aformentioned Koenjihyakkei) with a lot of calm acoustic guitar sections alongside the crazy sections. The songs aren't extremely abrasive and manage to get right to the edge of dissonance without being grating.

Also, seriously, it's a free download, you honestly have no excuse not to go check this band out! Good stuff.

1 - Pardonian Clouds (3:29): the first song is mellow and atmospheric, don't have much "avant-gardism", so it's actually very acessible to many prog listeners. Nice start!

2 - Señorai (5:47): This one is semi-atmospheric, with an agressive part from the middle to the end. In the beginning there are some "samurai talking" in the background. The chorus (well, seems to be a chorus) is very interesting, sung in spanish!

3 - Psyclick (4:07): From this song to the end, the things begin to be more avant-gardish. Sounds like Primus getting more crazy, with some electronica in the background. Excellent!

4 - Vox Of Archibald (4:15): This album was constructed in a crescendo, being the last track completely crazy! Lots of influence by Patton/Zappa/Primus, but wothout being derivative. Great ending for this release!

Conclusion: Señorai is a must-have for Avant-garde maniacs, but have appeal to the average prog listener. Was released for free, so there's no escuse to not listen!

Don't let this Avant-Garde/RIO monicker scare you. The music starts out as The Beatles and moves through a space rock and post rock landscape into a far more heavy post metal landscape. Yes, there are some avant-garde here, but not much. The music is surprisingly melodic. The hypnotic title track is a superb track with it's tribal rhythms and references to Sepultura. That latter band (the ex death metal masters from Brazil) is a good reference on the latter part of this album. In short; this EP is a varied EP. The quality is very good throughout and it is obvious that this is a band not to be ignored. I hope I am right here because on the basis of this EP, this is a band I will follow closely in the future. Let's call Senorai a taster of things to come........ I hope.

3 stars