ILVCIA

Symphonic progressive rock liberally flavored with acoustic guitar details in general and touches of Flamenco in particular is what Ilvcia has to offer on their debut album "In the Nature of Reason", with a few nice details that invite associations to artists residing outside of the progressive rock sphere as well. Poor quality recording, production, mix and mastering are a serious detrimental feature sadly, but as long as you can live with the rather poor demo quality of this album this is a promising specimen of its kind.

As soon as the first track 'The Safe' begins you can see that this young Spanish band has some very good ideas. Unfortunately, the recording and producing/mixing quality of the album is way too amateurish and in many moments the band seems completely lost in its own ideas, especially when it comes to the most complex instrumental parts. Each instrument tries to play different parts sometimes, but they are not quite there yet, so it seems as if they were doing mistakes sometimes. The second track is a heavier 'Universe Of Fields', but again Ilvcia shows a great writing skill but the poor recording makes it almost unbearable to my ears.

The next 3 tracks form a suite called 'Baghdad'. The initial sequence is called 'The Gates' and has a great acoustic guitar intro with the 'middle eastern' flavor which the title suggests. We'll have the same acoustics across the suite, later joined by the other instruments. Keyboards seem to be completely out of music's tempo here. Compensating for the first part mistakes we have very nice keyboards in the second part 'The Market'. What's more, this part has an intricate Rush-like riff. The final part of 'Baghdad' is called 'The Suburbs', a slow and haunting keyboards piece that follows a Post Rock sound with hypnotic rhythm. The acoustic guitars have the most interesting role in the song and pretty much throughout the whole album too!

Closing In The Nature Of Reason (2013) we have the only track with proper vocals and it's a piece more 'minimalist' with an interesting bass sound. The CD comes only in a cardboard envelope, but at least the art is nice!

As I mentioned in the beginning, Ilvcia is a good band with many interesting ideas throughout In The Nature Of Reason (2013). The problem is that the amateur recording and mixing (and sometimes also instrumentation) makes it really hard to enjoy the final result. I think though that Ilvcia is a band to pay attention to. If they have the chance to record in a good studio with someone producing it, they'll have a great result! For now I cannot give In The Nature Of Reason (2013) more than 2 stars!

(Originally posted on progshine.net)

A few days ago, the Spanish band ILVCIA was suggested to the Symphonic Team but after listening The Nature of Reason, we had a hard time accepting them, being that they play a blend of Folk Prog and Post Rock in a Symphonic structure. The sound is impressive, but this is not what we normally expect from a band of the genre.

Only after listening the Baghdad trilogy, we were convinced that if we wanted ILVCIA to be added, the only place they would somehow fit was in our genre, and we were sure that the fresh, innovative and intelligent compositions, should be in Prog Archives, so we gave the green light for addition.

The Nature of Reason, is opened by the 12:07 minutes epic The Safe, a song that has everything except Symphonic, but the mysterious approach that combines an intriguing guitar work with hints of MOGWAI and very elaborate percussion fused with an echo of Flamenco, captured me from the beginning. Hey, I knew this is not Symphonic, but was tempted to say yes because the quality of the music.

The only problem I found relies in the vocals, when I heard them for the first time, I believed that Gerard Marrugat was singing out of key all the time, but then noticed that it was an intelligent experiment with dissonances that I started to like. But still a problem subsisted, and it was caused by the language, their accent is so strong that they should avoid singing in other language different than Spanish. But overall, it's a great track that keeps the listener interested.

Universe of Fields is much more aggressive than the previous track, end even when it's Heavy Post Rock rather than Symphonic Prog due to the distorted guitars, the music is captivating. Again they insist singing in English but the choral work is so well done that hides the pronunciation. At this point, I was sure we wouldn't add the band, because this is brilliant stuff, but not Symphonic at all.

Luckily the Baghdad trilogy is a turning point in the album and changed the perspective of the team: Baghdad I: The Gates is simply delightful, from the acoustic Flamenco intro we knew that ILVCIA was entering into Symphonic territory. The mysterious melody with Moorish overtones is oneiric and hypnotic, reminding me a bit of bands like TRIANA and MEZQUITA, a fascinating fusion between the Spanish spirit and symphonic Prog with a brilliant keyboard work and thick dense atmospheres.

Baghdad II: The Market is simply impressive, the lush keyboards combined with the impeccable rhythm section reminded me of TRIUMVIRAT and the dissonant choirs melt perfectly into a frantic mix of sounds and flavors. By far the best track of the album.

Baghdad III: The Suburbs starts as a piano based track with a strong and haunting melody, but as it advances, the instruments enter by turns creating a marvelous atmosphere, again they hit the nail in the head.

The Nature of Reason is closed by Sir T. Weaver, a song that was described in a couple reviews I read as too simple and catchy, something with what I strongly disagree. Yes it's more upbeat and catchy, but a good change that demonstrates versatility is always welcomed and the music is outstanding with a brilliant bass work.

Even when the dark atmospheric sound is lost, I love the change, sounds as a hint of evolution in the band's style that captivated me from start to end.

I would love to rate this promising debut with 5 stars, but the production (with a few flaws) and the vocals n English, keep me away from 5 stars, but would be unfair if I rated The Nature of Reason with less than 4 solid stars.

Hope that the guys from ILVCIA make a few changes in the production and start singing in their native language (or stick to instrumentals) and I'm 100% sure they will be able to release a memorable masterpiece, being that the performing skills and intelligent composition are already present in this new breed of Symphonic Prog.