VIGESIMUS

1. "Ortni" (5:31) nice instrumental (8.75/10)

2. "Black Ashes and Black Boxes" (6:18) nice piano intro and effected vocal. The rest of the band then picks up the same driving riff from the piano to build a hard-driving song from. Vocalist Bobby Vidales is so talented! I wish the music didn't sound so tired and hard-pressed. (8.67/10)

3. "The Unknown Wise Advice" (9:43) The first 4:45 sounds like an American Christian rocker. When things click into third gear and the guitars start to show it gets better. Is Cast the ghost of Neal Morse-era Spock's Beard? (16.5/20)

4. "Another Light" (3:40) More rote prog but still, it's at such a higher level than 95% of the other bands out there. A band that, when riding on fumes, still rides higher, faster, and smoother than most everybody else. (8.67/10)

5. "Manley" (5:16) a jazzy, spy-thriller soundtrack sounding song. Jose Antonio's snare sounds terrible! The complex keyboard and guitar chordal replication of an orchestral sound is excellent--were it not for those dated keyboards! (8.67/10)

6. "Location and Destination" (7:52) built around a folk dance melody, the music smooths out for the vocal section, with keys and violins providing a nice orchestral background and Lupita's background vocals supporting Bobby very nicely. These guys know each other so well! Piano and violin work shines. Relying purely on their intuitional mutual support works really well. I don't get how the final 2:30 wasn't clipped off in the editing room to be called/created as a separate song. Weird! Still, a top three song for me. (13/15)

7. "Crossing" (10:00) excellent plaintive bombastic prog opens this one--nobody does it better: that dynamic classical/theatric prog. I think I'm getting the point here that the instrumentalists had much more music created for this album than Bobby Vidales had for lyrical/story ideas: It's 3:47 before we even have a clue that there's going to be words/vocals. Again, Bobby is such a talented vocalist; too bad he couldn't come up with anything worth singing. The "harp" supported seventh minute is a real highlight for me. (17.25/20)

8. "The March" (7:21) piano and some "strings" support Bobby's vocal--perhaps his best, most sincere and heart-felt on the album. Strings become much more important as we go--as Bobby keeps singing. Great support from Lupita, and from Bobby himself, in the fourth and fifth minutes, respectively. The rock instrument presence builds but never takeover as Bobby sings start to finish with little-to-no break. Wow! (13.25/15)

9. "Contacto" (10:44) an instrumental of nice complexity and superlative performances all around (18.25/20): - i. Primer Acto - consists of two major motifs, two different speeds and styles (one infused with Spanish guitar) - ii. Profundi - at 6:30 we switch back into the first motif at a higher speed with very aggressive lead guitar. Beautiful ninth minute. Instrumental prog does NOT get much better than this. One of the best whole band selections you are going to hear from 2021.

10. "Dredging to the Higher Plane" (10:13) violin and a bailar folklorico dance motif open this before Bobby quickly joins in with one of his finest Broadway-deserving performances in a long--certainly the best of this album. But then he's gone! The pit orchestra plays themes and overtures for the next four minutes straight! When he returns it is with no where near the acrobatic show of the opening minute; more like Javert on Les Mis. Then the musicians in the pit take over again--stretching out in their race to the end. A song with tremendous potential--especially as an album ender--but fails to bring closure satisfactorily. (18/20)

Total Time 76:38

A band that creates top notch music but whose continued use of outdated 1990s computer keyboards makes me often cringe. Both their dedication and their creativity are awe-inspiring, their skills as musicians of the highest caliber; where they seem to come up short is in innovation and adoption of /adaptation to evolving technologies. Masters of melody and great performers, all, it's really hard to downgrade their wonderful music for sounding "dated" and "same ol' same ol'" or "Cast doing what Cast does" because it's at such a higher than others level.

B/four stars; an excellent addition of high quality symphonic prog rock despite sounding at times like the product of a tired A-level band. Recommended.

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