III: FACULTADES DEL ALMA

For those who are not familiar with Aurea Hybride, let me tell you they are a talented Mexican band that plays something close to post-rock / metal and progressive rock. They play instrumental music that always has something to say. I discovered some years ago with their debut EP in which I was attracted by that aggressive sound that was close to metal but without being metal at all. I think their first two releases have so much in common, however, this third release entitled III. Facultades del alma, offers a much softer sound, less aggressive but at the same time powerful, bringing a lot of emotions that any mind in need of freedom could grab.

The band's concept goes deeper than the music. Their name "Aurea Hybride" tells us that they are also interested in the Golden Ratio (Proporción Áurea, in Spanish) and also in the Fibonacci Sequence, so they take inspiration from those numbers and math to create music. This new album is a consequence of that passion, an album that has 9 songs divided in 3 parts, each part equals to one Soul's Faculty (the album name means Soul's Faculties), giving us a running time of 33 minutes, their shortest album so far.

I am happy to be here now writing about it since they had to postpone this release for some months due to some issues, but fortunately it finally saw the light and they must be proud of it.

It opens with "Memoria", a short introductory track has cool atmospheres led by keyboards. It leads to "Ocaso Lunar", a beautiful song in which strings appear as main actors, wonderfully complemented by drums and those relaxing but deep atmospheric synths. The post-rock feeling appears here for the first time, bringing a sense of hope and a bright future. After two minutes the mood becomes a bit heavier, using elements of math rock, djent and metal, letting us know of course, their skills as composers and performers. This first part finishes with "Luciérnaga fugaz", in which synths plays a more important role. At first the musical feeling has again that math rock element, but later it calms down a little bit offering passages with an evident post-rock vibe. A funky guitar appears later, so in moments even a jazzy tune can be appreciate and contrasted by a metal.-like drumkit. I like this song a lot because in 5 minutes they managed to produce countless sounds and atmospheres based on several musical genres.

The second faculty opens with "Entendimiento", which again delivers that sense of hope and a bright future (at least that's my interpretation). The djently strings are noticed and wonderfully contrasted by the atmospheric sounds produced by synths. "Nube de cometas" if I'm not mistaken, was the first single of this album, a song the band themselves shared to me months previous from the album's release, and a song that they could take as an anthem, because it is wonderful, very well composed and produced, so one could say that it sums up what the current Aurea Hybride lineup shares: passionate post-rock with some heavier hints that might hit you with introspective powers, but that will make you look forward to reach your goals. Yeah, this is the power of music. "Signos fractales" is another cool track in which they combine post rock with post metal, some passages of this song might remind you to the "old" Aurea Hybride sound. Here the bass lines are remarkable, and I am really delighted about the synths' work because they produce the most suitable atmospheres to any of its passages. Great!

The last part is also the shortest and probably my least favorite. It starts with "Voluntad", which is an odd 1-minute track that sounds like an old recording. It leads to "Metamorfosis" which I believe is the rockiest of them all. It has again a combination of some metal, djent and post rock elements that generate both soft and heavy passages. I must say that I don't like how it finishes, because it all of a sudden vanishes and disappears, so a couple of seconds later we are already listening to "3 x III = 3" which is another short track but this time with a different feeling, because the jazz resemblance is more evident here. It passes fast and then the album finishes.

I would like to invite you to discover Aurea Hybride's music, I bet you will be delighted. Overall, this is a wonderful album with two super-solid parts (I & II) and one just nice (III), of course this is a personal opinion.

Enjoy it!