CRUZ D MALTA

Cruz D Malta play a style of progressive metal which sounds to me to be rather unique and individual to them - which is a good thing. They certainly display a wider range of sounds than many more typical prog metal bands; for instance, Edgar Butanda's keyboard playing at points where he gets the spotlight puts me in mind of Tim Blake of Gong and Hawkwind fame, whilst Arturo Ramírez is an absolutely fantastic guitarist, whose solos put me in mind of the likes of Steve Hackett, Mike Holmes from IQ, and a range of thrashier metal guitarists besides. The band tends towards long, epic instrumental pieces which wind their way through a variety of musical territories, putting me mind at points of a metal version of the Ozric Tentacles (or perhaps a proggier version of instrumental metal wonders The Fucking Champs).

Their debut album comes highly recommended, and I'd like to thank them for giving me the opportunity to listen to it for this review. Prog metal fans will be delighted with the original and organic sound found on here; other prog fans may find this a bit more to their taste than more typical prog metal fare.