DIGGING FOR ZEROES

Sonus Umbra is a Mexican six piece band (with additional guest musicians) that has released their third album late 2005. The running time is at about one hour and this CD contains 20 melodic, tasteful and very varied compositions: an electronic atmosphere with wonderful interplay by acoustic - and electric guitar along pleasant sounding keyboards in Zero, lots of shifting moods (from dreamy with twanging guitars to mid-tempo with a fat guitar riff or sultry with swinging piano) in Invisible World, first propulsive, then mellow and in the end fiery guitar with howling licks in Infestation, prog metal with raw vocals and biting guitar in Aleph and dreamy with piano arpeggio's and ... English horn in Infinity. My highlight is The Great Fall Inwards: first dreamy, then a mid-tempo with fiery guitar and flashy synthesizer flights and a final part featuring a bombastic climate with propulsive drums. If you are up to varied and melodic prog, this album is fine one to checkout.