CAST

If their other albums sounds like this album, the answer is a definate yes to that question. This double album is very much in the Roine Stolt mould, but not a copycat.

The ninety minutes here takes us from Genesis via Yes, King Crimson, Kaipa and ELP to today's retro symphonic prog scene. Magic Pie and Flower Kings is references. The Tangent to springs to mind. In other words; this double CD is a very tasty symphonic prog smorgasboard.

I guess you will now have sniffed out the type of music we find here. Long keyboard runs over some superb melodies. Some klarinet, saxophones and flutes can also be found here as snacky details. The vocals are superb. It helps that those are sung in Spanish. A language I do not understand, but the vocals in itself is like an extra instrument. Superb stuff. The superb sound is a mix of neo-prog and old symphonic prog.

My only gripe with this album is that is may feel a bit sameness after a while. Ninety minutes is a long time and I am afraid the band may have bitten over more than they, and I, can chew/swallow. But the music is very beautiful and it seriously impresses me. I am on the search for more albums from this band. Cast is a criminally ignored band and they deserve more recognition from my fellow progheads. This album is as good as any The Flower Kings albums and it can be compared to both Retropolis and Flower Power. It is that good.

4 stars

1/Initiation - very complex instrumental song lead by keyboards. Excellent, but maybe a little bit long.

2/We Don't Belong To Heaven - very haunted chord progression, vocals are good, overall it's nice song without doubt.

3/Reality Or Misanthropy? (Mix-up) - i truly enjoy music of this song, but it's a shame to say that vocals are just bad, out of melody and moaning.

4/What We See / The Increasing Sorrow Of The Earth - and again weak vocals broke good song, guitar solo in the middle is nice.

5/Angels And Demons - keyboard instrumental in baroque style with Keith Emerson kind solo in the middle of song. In my opinion this song is boring.

6/Revealing Signs Of Love - the longest song in the album contains chorus that remind me of Genesis song "Many too many", last 3 mintues of song are really good.

7/Fallen Angel - instrumental composition with orchestral arrangements in route march style. Pompous and bombastic. There are too much keyboards for my taste, this song is seems to be overproduced. Some tones sounds absolutely retro.

8/Loneliness - vocal melody remind me of Citizen Cain. I mark this song as best on "Angels And Demons". Vocals and keyboard melodies are really cool here.

9/Fire In The Sky, Fire On Earth - 4th instrumental song on this album and as usual lead by keyboards. I should critize the lenght and arrangements, washy and boring for being placed on progressive rock music record. The same chord progression repeats over and over again without changes.

10/White Lies? / Brief Story Of The Freewill - good complex composition, contains bass solo and grand finale!

Overall, it is a good album, musician skills are high, but vocals and arrangements break down songs very often. If i would be producer of this record i would reduce it 2 times.

Once musicianship is stellar, I want to believe if the above dream was materialized, CAST would be considered as one of the best CD era bands. So few reviews for CAST brings me to mind the 3rd track refrain from TEMPUS FUGIT "Chessboard" cd : "We live in an unfair world?..". Ah-ah; oh no, the Murphy law has no fun.

My CAST discovery history in curious. Around 1996 I was in RARITY store (yes, the one that reissued BACAMARTE "depois do fim") My Brazilian friends told me CAST was great; on RARITY shelf among lots of prog Cd's and vinyls, there were 5 CAST cd's. I had to risk on one, randomly I picked up "Four Aces". I see it gets in P.A. the lower rating (today is 15/08/2009) among more than 16 CAST cds ;-) ! But I consider "Four Aces" a cool record (***), principally if you consider that in 1995 it didn't exist nowadays 70's professional cloners enormous number of records.

The some neo prog that appeared in "Four Aces" had gone in my next purchase "Beyond Reality". At the time, 1996, my prog head friends in general considered this record as a masterpiece; in P.A. it gets 11 ratings with 3.25 stars (in 15/08/2009). "Beyond Reality" demonstrates CAST feeling very proud to put out an ambitious, conceptual, symphonic, epic, emotional driven, bombastic, complex music. The music could be described shortly as a PFM (latin richness prog)/Genesis/own style formula. The Rescue runs in total 21:20 divided in 3 parts : 1. introduction ? Massive instrumental ala PFM/Genesis/own style; 2.to the 7th house ? fantastic polyphonic vocals, wonderful melodies from heaven beauty; 3. the rescue ? too much symphonic emotions.

The track "The North" runs almost 14 minutes including track 4 ? surprise this is also majestic with a bit of Mexican troubadours going to typical CAST powerful prog; track 5 the same PFM/Genesis/own style massive attack. Track 6 a medieval with Mexican flavor sympho rest moment.

"Beyond Reality" already till track 6 with 40 minutes ran, perhaps could finish here (hum, ok plus track 8) as I feel blown away. But there's more : track 7 is great but I feel tired of the massive formula; track 8 is beautiful good to relax; the last Camel cover track is dispensable. I'll keep 5 stars to "Beyond Reality" as some CAST cd's are underrated and only the most recent work "originalis" gets the more than 4 stars status in P.A. so far. My highest honor to ALFONSO VIDALES (composer) and friends.

The excellent interplay between the talented Luis Alfonso Vidales on the keyboards and Francisco Hernández Reyes on the guitars is elaborated with undeniable skills and technique. The Mexican elements in the music and the acoustic guitars with Flamenco reminiscences are delicate and introduced in the right moments avoiding abuse, in other words composition and arrangements are absolutely capable.

The album starts with "The Magic is gone" something that I believe is a contradiction with the opener, because the magic is just starting. After a delicate and very original introduction based mostly on keyboards and piano Dario Carlos Brassea in the vocals and Francisco Hernández Reyes add a passage clearly reminiscent of PENDRAGON'S "The Masquerade Overture" (Between Paintbox and The Shadow), but then evolves in something different and absolutely fluid, as the song advances, the vocals keep getting better and better and the aggressive guitar makes a perfect complement.

"Rest in Your Nest" starts more or less in Waltz tempo, but as the track advances keeps getting closer to some sort of Pompous Symphonic with echoes of Europe, with Brassea sounding very close (in vocal range and despite the strong accent) to Nick Barrett. Another solid number.

"I Just Wanna Be" brings us back into Neo territory again close to PENDRAGON, but this time to their softer side with sudden and surprising vocal explosions, the drumming by José Antonio Bringas collisions with the heavy guitar by the bassist Rodolfo Gonzalez Quiroz and Latin styled keyboards, not as solid as the previous two tracks, but still very good.

"At Last Alone" is a radical change, begins pompous and melancholic simultaneously, the acoustic guitar on the background playing in the vein of Flamenco musicians adds a wonderful touch. After a few seconds the song turns into a powerful ballad with elements borrowed from "A Trick of the Tail", just to change again into an "ALAN PARSONS PROJECT" inspired piece of music with more complexity.. "At Last Alone" changes over and over proving us that this guys know what Progressive Rock means, specially each time Luis Alfonso Vidales uses the Moog with great dexterity.

"Not Sleeping" presents us a different sound, this time they irrupt into Jazz/Fusion territory with some elements of "JEAN LUC PONTY" but with a Latin touch, the drumming by José Antonio Bringas is simply spectacular, a frantic violin (probably synthesized because it's not credited) blends perfectly.

"Just Another Way" the longest song in the album, is a pure Symphonic piece of music in which Luis Alfonso Vidales plays an extremely beautiful piano, that blends perfectly with the vocals creating a dramatic and melancholic song with some ELP reminiscences and a lot of CAST make of this song a real pleasure to listen.

"Do What you Like", "Athens", "Reunion" and "Chris de Col" have a lot in common, a clear Symphonic sound. with huge Classical influence and a touch of King Crimson, four tracks that seem taken from another album, to the point that I believe are from a different era of the band, being that CAST story begins in 1978, but this album was only released in 1994, an excellent way to close "Landing on a Serious Mind".

Most reviews I read, describe CAST'S debut as a mediocre album, something with what I totally disagree, maybe their later albums are even better, but "Landing on a Serious Mind" is a strong album from start to end with no weak moments, and that in my opinion deserves no less than four very solid stars.

This is one of the best Cast albums.

Very complex, it shows in all its splendour the virtuosity of all their musicians.

I think that with this album they show they are completely alive .

Cast is the symphonic rock band of these days. The new Emerson,Lake and Palmer because of the virtuosity of their musicians and the complexity of their music, but also and of course in the music issue the Genesis,Yes and Pink Floyd influences are clear.

I have alwyas,nevertheless, miss good vocals and i think is the weakest thing in Cast.

With the incorporation of Mexican folk influences ,this album is very pleasant to hear.

4 afforded stars

First of all they are much more symphonic and jazz rock oriented now than anything I´ve heard. The inclusion of Pepe Flores on wind instruments certainly helped to give the album a certain King Crimson flavour here and there, but the structures of the songs are also different. The album is quite varied with bombastic moments followed by some quiter passages. Some are even a bit chaotic (hence some KC connections again), but not very often. They also included much more latin rhythms on the mixture. The result is a highly enjoyable, creative music. Most of the time it works. But on a 70 minute CD it would be surprising not to find some flaws. Amazingly they are few.

The band also decided not to sing in english anymore. And I think this was a right move, for the spanish languague sounds very well on this kind of music. Dino Brassea´s voice is not very outstanding but it fits just right. Besides, the addition of a female singer (Lupita Vidales) on some tracks did improved the vocal department a lot. The tracks that have both singers are the best ones.

Conclusion: a very strong release. I believe the band found its personality and very own sound. I liked it very much and I´m looking forward to hear Com.Union´s follow ups. Although not perfect in any way, I thought it was unfair not to give the CD less than 3,5. So something between that and 4 stars is more adequate. Recommended.

It's obvious that the band is influenced among others by GENESIS and neo prog in general but they don't know how to create symphonic arrangements...A couple of keyboard or guitar solos mean nothing to me,that ain't prog...Apart from the pop/rock sound this album suffers from really horrible production that makes the whole listening even more painful!...I really can't recommend this album to anyone,even for collectors of the band,as this one has little to do with progressive rock,should be categorized perfectly as a AOR/melodic rock album...1 star only...

And what and album it is!

A double album, this 2008 release is over 90 minutes long, filled with lovely symphonic rock moments, embracing keyboards, powerful lead guitar playing and delightful playing of other instruments such as saxophone, flute and clarinet.

The songs flow into each other naturally, connected and seem to not end. The music changes mood and pace from a relaxed opening song named after the title of the album to the highly energetic, fun and enthralling instrumental piece that is Pulsar. It is a fantastic piece, emotional and powerful, shifting from a slightly melancholic state to an optimistic and positive mood, always on the move, not giving the listener any rest, but not in an exhausting kind of way; simply it just goes on and on, evolving as it goes on, adding structures and changing instruments as it develops. The sax solo, the use of the female vocalizations, and the rest of this expanded lineup take this track one notch up than it would have been, showing the importance of knowing how to not only construct your song but also how to orchestrate it, "paint" it with ingredients that will take it further on.

There are wonderful melodic lines, filled with passion and which sound powerful thanks to the enhanced lineup and the female vocalization. The balance between the melodic and the complex and dynamic is at a good position, as the switching occurs seamlessly and the result can proudly stand in line with other current great lineups of progressive rock bands. The male vocals by Alejandro Tornero are delicate and soft, matching the music and melodies and do not overshadow the rich sound of the band and the full gamut of instruments played upon. The female vocals and vocalization adds another magical layer to the already thrilling basis and fit very well.

I have also to mention the wonderful artwork of the album, magnificent drawings that are a delight to look at while listening to the music.

As said above, this is a long album, but for some reason I could get into it quite quickly and surprisingly for an album of this length, already from the second listen. While the music can be complex at times, it is quite accessible and bears a charm hard for me to resist. You may want to use the natural division of the two cd's to have separate listens and make it easier to grasp. If you like current and 90's Italian symphonic prog bands you might recognize some similarities in the style.

The album mixes very well the wonderful symphonic-prog sound with lush keyboards alongside heavy, almost metal-like guitar solos. If you like symphonic-prog that travels between the soft and heavy the tender and powerful, this is a very worthwhile album to get. A fantastic album.