VLAD TEPES

This theatre gets started with the impressive topnote "Hasta Que Salga El Sol" filled with quite catchy and acceptable melody lines and complicated but uptempo, fascinating rhythmic bases. In the middle part steady guitar-oriented dramatic fantasy is wonderful. The following " Parecen Falsos" reminds me of kinda similarity to a Spanish psychedelic unit El Páramo. It's obvious they have strictly kept heavy, hard rock structures and dreamy beats in this stuff. One of my favourite songs "El Bache" is incredibly agonistic to Argentine Tango fans like me. Love their attitude to digest and absorb such a cultural background in their creation. In "Gilonio" we can feel much of jazz ... splendid drumming and heavy rock and roll launcher in the middle are also comfortable.

A short remark "Uranus" sounds like a laidback psych lecture full of hallucinogenic guitar playing and smooth ambience. Quite wondrous we could lean on their faraway starlight-like soundscape. On the contrary, the longest track "Ahora" featuring improvised guitar shouting is drenched in deeply depressive challenging spirits. The very last violin's cries sound like kinda current painful life under such a pandemic situation ... followed by "Tremenda Situación" yes the current situation, that encourages us tremendously with percussive kicks in a massively energetic manner. They would say "do not give up and beat the tremendous situation", I cannot understand Spanish though ... And we can have "Seguridad" at the end. We cannot help feeling a bright future in the latter melodious movement. Get their music power and enjoy our lives from now on. It could be their delightful message, methinks.

An intro simulating recent radio news mixed with excrepts of songs made by well-known argentinian musicians open the way to de "Part I" of the album, an instrumental journey that reminds the most exquisite and heavy psychedelic sounds of the 70's with a hard rhythmical base mixed with slow and soaring sections, enigmatic impros and surprising breaks always leaded by an omnipresent guitar.

Perhaps it's a well elaborated album built on the great technique of their musicians, I can perceive a little lack of originality until the irruption of spanish vocals son "Part II". Here the things turns into another kind of journey more structured but still psychedelic that ends with a very interesting jazzy impro before the "Part III", a track that mixes some heavy guitar sections with some proggy (and succesfull) attempts.

"Part IV" close the circle repeating the formula of the previous tracks, narrating with spanish lyrics the end of that particular "ectasy".

For few minutes you can compare Vlad Tepes with other similar musical experiments from this part of the world such as El Diablo or Pez. Perhaps the comparisions are obviuos (and even annoying) "Éxtasis en Tus Venas" (Ectasy in Your Veins) it's a very honest proposal that in almost 40 minutes deploys not just the talent of their musicians but even some nice and remarkable sections that every psychedelic fan would love.