LA POTESTAD

This is ALEJANDRO MATOS's fifth solo album. Five years ago he contacted me and other reviewers from Prog Archives to listen to two of his albums ('Persona' and 'Freak'), a thing that I did then and also I wrote reviews about them. I do the same now for his 'La Potestad' album.

It is not easy to know the meaning of the lyrics by only reading them.

As a whole, the album is 'dark'. Not very optimistic. Musically , the album, like the two previous albums by Matos, has some Gothic Rock influences, and also sounding to me like being influenced by THE CURE, ROGER WATERS, PINK FLOYD, THE SMASHING PUMPKINS, etc. Sometimes the music is very dense, dominated by distorted guitars. There are also some keyboards, the use of bandoneon, clarinet, contrabass and theremin. The recording and mixing are very good, and it seems that Matos this time gave more space to each instrument, not sounding saturated, like he and his collaborators recorded few overdubs. His vocals sound good.

Again, I say that this kind of music is not the kind of music that I listen to very often. But this album has some interesting things in the Prog Rock music sense.

The cover art reflects very well the content of this album.

Another dark album from the Argentinian multi-instrumentist Alejandro Matos. As in his previous albums, lyrics have a huge importance. Surely not an easy one, first of all for the darkness of the music but also for the tightness of the concept and the lyrics. For this reason I will try to examine the album track by track.

Alejandro Matos has explained that the concept is about "power", intended as (his words) "a way to feel good".

The first track, Escindido (Split Off) is instrumental. A piano with a lot of pedal reverb sadly playing few notes on minor chords introduces the album while a background voice says something in English. I can't understand what. It ends suddenly giving room to "Cazadioses", whose possible translation is "God Hunters". The instrumental part is reminiscent of Pink Floyd and King Crimson, at least to my ears, but the guitar is sometimes hard. The vocals are very particular. In his way of singing Alejandro can appear a little untuned at a first spot, but this is how he integrates the lyrics with the music. I suppose that the songs couldn't be different. So this is the point: like it or hate it. I think it fits well with the music but of course we can't speak of "commercial potential". The song speaks of people hunting for a God that is not feared, trying to make a duel.

"Potestades"(Powers) speaks of becoming God by ignoring pain, otherwise we can only worry aboutkilling or being killed. I want to remark the sound of the guitar which is reminding of George Harrison's playing. Very intriguing. I couldn't imagine the Beatles playing a so dark music. The passages are never trivial, and instead of a chorus there's a very nice bandoneon solo. A link to the artist's country traditions. But effectively there's a lot in this track. A short guitar solo followed by a reprise of voice and 12 strings guitar.

Now, after hunting for God, we have an "Angel" who "doesn't come from Heaven, he opens a thousand of doors and closes only one". It's about the power of innocence.Technically intriguing, voice and acoustic 12 strings (I guess) guitar with a keyboard background and the same huge amount of reverb of the first track. The guitar harping in the instrumental part reveals how important is Alejandro's voice in setting the mood. There's also a Theremin in the final part of the track.

Anclas(Anchors) can be explained by translating the last part: "I have repaeted thousands of times: I won't accept. Everything has lost weight. Nails under the skin. The language of fakers can be learnt." This is the power of obstinacy. A very rocking track introduced by vibrato keys and followed by the chanonical guitar, drums and bass. Here also the voice sounds a bit different from the rest of the album, in line with the rock of the track. In the way 7th chords are placed, I continue hearing a reminescence of Beatles. Very strange, also because the fab4 have never done anything of this kind. In the second half the track goes acoustic. The melody line is full of unusual passages which add a little touch of weirdness before the final lead by the distorted guitar.

Lo Veilado(The Veiled) is driven by the keyboard's leslie and the bandoneon. It's a song about mistery. "Nobody understood, and it was good. The veiled follows his steps. DOn't ask questions to mistery. We burn our time, we are not Gods".

"New tears flood the desert.Nothing to loose. No water or thirst.Eating from this soil". This is "La Construccion del Desierto(The Making of the Desert). Alejandro says that this song represents the power of Ignorance. The tempo is obsessive. The desert is a strong image, I have always related it to Death. A very good song. At this point the listener has surely got used to the vocals, so appreciating it should now be easier. Anyway this is an album that requires headphones and the right attitude. The Gilmouresque guitar solo over the vibrato keys is very nice and this song reminds me to the atmosphere of "The Trial" from The Wall.

Finally the epic. Google translates "Pertenencia" with "Membership", but literally it means "Belonging to something". About 25 minutes divided in 4 sections: Ser(To Be), Hacer(To Do), Someter(To Submit) and Parecer(To look like). It's a Crimsonian kind of song with very intense lyrics each line is descriptive and can live on its own. The instrumental interludes between the parts are excellent, very well composed, played and arranged. The four parts seem to be consequential in terms of lyrics. Anyway I won't describe the 25 minutes. Let's just say that it goes through different moments, but the darkness behind is always present.

A 4-stars album but it requires the right mood, moment and logistic.

Argentinian composer and musician Alejandro MATOS first appeared as a solo artist back in 2000 with his debut album "Lo Que Qeda", although outside of Argentina he remained a relative unknown until his third album "Persona" appeared back in 2006. He has released a further two solo albums since then, and "La Potestad" from 2015 is the most recent of these, and as the case with all his solo albums so far, at least to my knowledge, this album was self released.

If your taste in progressive rock goes towards artists that conjure moods and atmospheres with qualities that can be described as haunting and ominous is to your liking, where the main contrasting cuts merits a description as melancholic, mournful and even ghostly and chilling on occasion sounds like seasoning that will suit you perfectly, then you should take note of this album and take the time to give it an inspection.