TOUNDRA

This band is listed as Experimental/Post Metal, but this album in my view is pretty pure and mostly harmonic guitar oriented instrumental post rock with straight rhythms going through it. The only metalish thing about it are the distorted guitars, but mainstream post rock bands such as Mogwai give this to you as well. They do create some glorious noise at times, but once more, they're not alone at that in the post rock camp. The album is very competently done, and wonderful to listen to if you like this style. There are more intense moments and crescendos, as well as more relaxed and slow parts that are more atmospheric. As I do like post rock, I find this a pleasure to listen to, and I recommend this album, however I can't really give it 4 stars as the innovation factor is missing. This kind of stuff has been done often enough before. Still, if you love post rock, I recommend it warmly. 3.3 stars.

Toundra III is an excellent third album by Madrid group Toundra. It is a great sound-wall product of countless distorted guitars supported by both bass and percussions that underpin them very well and coat the work altogether. It´s infused with an intense and devastating spirit from the initials Ara Celi and the rainy Cielo Negro, both with enormous guitar riffs displayed throughout their development.

After the next song, the laid-back and folkie Requiem, which with its delicate acoustic developments and mid-beats gave the album a bit of a pause and respite, Marte resumed the vigorous path taken with frenetic percussion and raging guitars almost from beginning to end.

The last two songs, the impeccable Lilim and Espírita, are the ones that carry the highest dose of progressive elements, in my opinion, alternating changes of rhythm that rise and fall in intensity, dominated by atmospheres in which a halo of desperate melancholy is constantly perceived.

Toundra III is an album in which all the songs contribute their own to keep it as a very balanced and convincing work, indebted to bands associated with post-metal such as Pelican, Isis, or Russian Circles.