DHD

RIVENDEL are a Spanish band that have intrigued me a lot over this past year. The debut "Manifesto" from 1990 was in the Neo prog camp but "The Meaning" released in 1996 saw them making more complex music. Both 90's albums featured vocals while their comeback record "DHD" from 2015 and the followup "Sisyfos" from 2018 are both all instrumental records without a lot of structure. The latter being the darker of the two but there are a lot of similarities as I've done the rare thing and spun two albums by the same band all week. I just thought they were different enough from each other to make that work but again they had way more in common than I thought. So a four piece in the 90's with a drummer while here they are a three piece without a man behind the kit. They did bring in a drummer for "Sisyfos" though. The keyboardist and guitarist really create a variety of soundscapes and the guitarist adds quite a bit of distortion at times while at other times he's angular or bluesy.

Man "DHD' is a headphone album with the mellotron and experimental soundscapes, this isn't very structured and we get three long tracks opening with that almost 21 minute "Dicebamus Hesterna Die". Organ to start as the guitar joins in kind of bluesy. Mellotron before a minute. Keys, organ and mellotron take turns then we get what sound like sequencers surprisingly and they will come and go. Angular guitar before 5 1/2 minutes changing from that bluesy style then the mellotron is back with bass in tow. Themes are repeated and changed slightly. Bluesy guitar again before 7 minutes as the sequencers return. Another change with bass, guitar and keys. Distorted organ 8 1/2 minutes in. Lots going on here and it's mesmerizing. More angular guitar at 10 1/2 minutes, sequencers too and much more. Mellotron before 13 minutes and it's quite spacey here after listening to all these different sounds swarm my ears prior. Some deep bass lines 15 minutes in with experimental guitar expressions and an electronic beat. The guitar is growly almost. The organ is back around 17 1/2 minutes followed by mellotron again. Spacey sounds too to the end.

"Cows On A Prairie Whilst Dark Clouds Slowly Thicken" is 12 minutes long and yes we hear some mooing after a minute with those keys that echo continuing from the start. It begins to move and brighten before 3 minutes then spacey sounds start to dominate. Sounds are crying out before 6 minutes, crazy stuff here. The guitar starts to solo over the spacey soundscape. It's building 8 minutes in and the guitar is distorted changing to angular before 10 minutes. It's dark and mechanical sounding after 10 1/2 minutes. Oh my! Strings and piano and it over the final minute.

"(Die Maschinerie Von) Metropolis" opens sounding like early FLOYD with that dark sound with bass lines. Some nice aggressive guitar lines too then a MAGMA soundscape kicks in that will come and go contrasted with the flute-like sounds. The guitar becomes aggressive 4 minutes in and inventive too. That bass line continues then keyboards join the angular guitar outbursts. So cool. MAGMA is back after 5 minutes. Check it out at 7 1/2 minutes the depth and insane sounds. Man this is good. That bass line continues as the flute-like sounds return after 8 minutes. Spacey sounds late then what sounds like cello ends it.

A lot to take in to be honest and thankfully this clocks in at around 44 minutes. I'm very impressed and while a lot of this doesn't seem to want to stick I wouldn't say that's because it's not memorable music. "DHD" along with "The Meaning" and "Sisyfos" are all very good and highly recommended. albums and well worth your time. I really don't like the album cover.