THE MAGUS

Universal Totem Orchestra is one of the most intresting and original zeuhl bands I've heared in long time, they are from Italy and releasing so far two albums. The second offer from 2008 named The Magus comes almost a decade after the debut, but worth the wait belive me. The music is quite chalenging, complicated and very elaborated, 80 min of great inventive music. While the UTO music is firmly under zeuhl tag, there are some other influences here to found, some old italian prog school and in some parts, sporadicaly of course are some prog metal and ecelectic passages, only few but exists, specially dominated by the guitar, the result is quite great. Also there are some range from ghotic side, dark moody arrangements , gregorian choirs, opratic vocals, all works very fine. I really like a lot this album, the opening track - De Astrologia is truly awesome at best, the bass line are impressive and works in perfect unit with the rest of the instruments. The keyboards aswell killer, love it and above all the voice of Ana Torres Fraile on all pieces is excellent. The album over all is intense, uptempo with many memorable parts, the rhythmic section is top notch. Some invited guests here that done a great job. So, a recommended zeuhl album, to me one of the best I've heared in last years. The art wotk and the whole CD package is amazing. 4 stars for sure.