EL HIJO DEL ALBA

"El Hijo del Alba" was after "Hombre, Tierra y Alma" their second conceptual work but unfortunately I've to say that this one was not as cohesive and excellent as its predecessor. Especially its first half works rather as a nice collection of songs without offering any excitement to the listener.

The all instrumental 'Poemas de soledad' opens the album in a spacey Floydian atmosphere with synths followed by dreamy acoustic guitar. 'Alquimista soy', first track with vocals basically continues this rather mellow vein but adds up some rhythmic electric guitar. 'La danza del agua', another instrumental track exhibits really great symphonic rock with impressive playing on keyboards and electric guitar. The title track is in fact a quite nice ballade but anything spectacular neither. 'Quimérica laxitud' in contrast is a very energetic hard rocking one with good dual guitar playing. Second half of the disc consists of the multi-parted epic 'El silencio de las esferas' which is in fact the better half and presents more than 16 minutes of melodic and energetic symphonic rock with many rhythm changes and great playing on guitars, bass, keyboards and drums.

As a summary I'd like to say that this album is certainly a quite good example of Spanish symphonic rock but I'd hesitate to call it an essential one in general. I'd add another half star to my rating though if possible.