ALMS

1. "The Charges" (2:05) great intro/overture to start us off. I love the mediæval soundtrack music dynamics as well as the very polished theatric performances of the story's two characters, Alms and God. The symphonic music is so theatric! Like early Genesis to heavier ELP or JETHRO TULL. (5/5)

2. "Luxuria" (7:32) great music with tons of theatric twists and turns, layers, subtleties and nuances, styles and a whole band room of instrumental choices. My favorite parts are those layered with folk/antique-sounding instruments and themes. Aitor is definitely trying to create something with a feel of the old pre-Industrial world--and he's doing it extremely well! (13.75/15)

3. "Gula" (4:38) an interesting, oft-changing weave of fairly simple instrumental tracks that was not engineered and mixed very well. Exploring more of a JTULL style here, I am still impressed and engaged despite the missteps. (8.5/10)

4. "Acedia" (5:08) opens with classical grand piano play before incidentals and Alms' woeful voice enter. When God enters to confront Alms, he becomes more defensive and aggressive. But then he tries to defend himself with heavier metal music backing a train-station-like PA voice. The classical piano is still very strongly present as flutes, drums, electric guitar power chords, and other woodwinds punctuate the emotion of the passage. When Alms and God start bantering and then singing in unison at the end, it's pretty powerful. (8.75/10)

5. "Avaritia" (6:02) organ fades as finger-picked acoustic guitar and flutes and woodwinds weave to set up an European folk soundscape--over which God enters singing in a kind of café lounge style--before acceding to a sudden invasive motif of heavy symphonic rock. Spanish guitar flourishes and Hammond organ play join and accent the instrumental passage in a very ELP/JTULL kind of way (the latter especially as flute joins in). Strong church organ backs the next discussion of Alms and God--with a strong presence of operatic choir in the background making contributions like a Greek Tragedy. (9/10)

6. "Recess" (2:09) interesting for its simplicity and presence: (was it necessary), but it is quite consistent stylistically and thematically with the rest of the album so I'll let it pass. (4.25/5)

7. "Ira" (7:27) opens with an almost Gamelan foundational riff from tuned percussion while militaristic snare drums pop in and out beneath Alms' sleezy, despicable pleas. God stands off steadfastly centered in dispassionate indifference while Alms rages--pulled off brilliantly. A brief Spanish guitar solo interlude allows Alms to try to gather his wits and re-start on a more controlled presentation of his case. This lasts a few minutes until the confrontation comes to a head in the final minute. This God is a scary, cool bitch! (13/15)

8. "Invidia" (2:10) definitely an anachronistic piece with rondo-like weave of acoustic and wind instruments beneath the two agonists' performances. (4.5/5)

9. "Superbia" (4:43) opens with upper octave tuned percussives (including piano) over which God and Alms continue their exhausting conflict--until 0:50 when Keith Emerson and Martin Barre inspired keys and electric guitar play out a musical version of the conflict for a minute. Then we come back to the courtroom with another more folky capitulation by God. Then, at 2:10 we move into a kind of vamp in which electric guitar offers his word over organ and electric piano. Alms and God then join in with a fast-witted exchange. My favorite song by God. Though interesting and dynamic, with great melodies, there is something a little flat about the composition. (8.75/10)

10. "The Sentence" (0:35)

Total Time 42:29

Though Aitor's performance as Alms is often a little Jim Carrey over the top sinister (and very much like Devy Townsend's performance as Ziltoid), the performance of Maria Volkova as God is rock solid and deserving of every accolade one could throw her way.

This is a very difficult album to assign ratings to; the more accurate thing to rate would be how convincing the story has been rendered with the musical compositions and vocal performances. I have to say that despite Aitor's somewhat over-the-top performance as the human on trial (Alms), the story is conveyed as convincingly as anything attempting to replicate a medieval/chivalric time/era since perhaps Anthony Phillips' "Henry: Portraits from Tudor Times". As for the success of treating humankind's battles with the Seven Mortal Sins, I think they've done a far better job than, say, Magenta's Seven, Alice Cooper, Eden's Curse, or Marianne Faithfull's cover of Kurt Weill's opera (though Weill and Bercholt Brecht's version is pretty great). Many, many times I am reminded while listening to the Trial to the analogue musical compositions submitted by many of today's great prog bands to and/all of the Colossus Magazine/Musea Records releases based on great themes of literature or art.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of theatric prog rock and definitely a wonderful addition to any lover of operatic prog storytelling.

"An Irosmic Tragedy" is a Sympho-Prog concept album divided into three tracks (though it is, in fact, one long suite) in which Alms, Aitor Lucena's alter ego, reflects about life from an existentialist and very interesting point of view. He takes us to a journey through childhood ("U'ula"), adulthood ("Tapwala") and elderhood ("Doginala") in which questions and answers intertwine in the dialogue between himself and Life (a role played by the quite suggestive female voice of Noelia Fernandez). The lyrics are intellectually rich though they appear only sporadically, and they contain extracts from Dante's "Comedy" in Italian and Calderon's "Life is a dream" in Spanish, as well as Lucena's own lyrics in English. In all its complexity and grandiloquence, we could say this is a really ambitious Prog Opera.

When it comes to music, this album reminds me of the best years of Prog, and that's something I can't find in most of nowadays bands and musicians. Alms uses a huge instrumentation which creates a perfect symbiosis between a classic rock sound and epic orchestral passages. Everything in "An Irosmic Tragedy" is dynamic and eclectic, with frantic rhythmic patterns, melodies in constant change and odd musical developments which end in evoking atmospheres, or medieval melodies, or folkie tunes... As in "Beyond", his debut album, the music captures your attention from start to finish, and that's something quite hard for an almost entirely instrumental album.

Though Aitor is the leader of this project, he counted on some collaborators to record this album, and all of them are excellent at their instruments. All of them complement each other to make a solid work with a beautiful vintage sound that will delight classic Prog fans.

The three tracks have a mixture of Spanish and English words and lyrics. Aitor is certainly a talented multi-musician. The tracks are very classically oriented, which okay with me as I am rather partial to classical music. Aitor says he has been strongly influenced by the likes of Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant, Mike Oldfield and Pink Floyd and it certainly reflects that in this album.

Musically the three tracks are very similar in their sound and structure with long instrumental parts with sporadic lyrics or spoken words. Unfortunately I heard nothing in this album which excited me to recommend it and I still don't know what "Irosmic" means!

Alms, which real name is Aitor Lucena is a Spanish multi instrumentalist, which music travells between a medieval word and a bit of Mike Oldfield. What I hear here is excellent and the record wasn't far from being a perfect one. I think the cover has a very old style, both the fonts and the items you see represents a time not fix in modern world.

"Beyond" consists of three song songs and according to me they become better and better and I have rated the songs: 3.5, 4 and 5. But if I listen again perhaps my favourite would have been another. This music contains so much of interest. Perhaps I like the parts of acoustic guitar most, or the barock parts, the classical and the medieval. It could also be like this that I like the parts that sounds just like symphonic rock most.

The listening of Alms' Beyond is very enjoyable time. We hear wonderful flute, organ, guitar and a nice wholeness. Many influences of folk music seem to be a part of this too, I hear something celtic and in the last track we hear a moments of very special percussion.

"Caronte" would I say is the peak of this record, but as I wrote, it could also be "Thanatos" or "Hypnos", it is a very good record. I wonder how just one person can do such nice music.

What I miss is not much: perhaps some vocals and something standing out more than it does.

Recommended record!

This album has problems, though. The structures are messy. Very messy. The flutes overpower everything else, and erase any subtlety that may have been displayed in the other instruments. Sometimes, it seems like the flutes are playing a different song entirely. Sometimes it's the violins that feel this way. The album just comes across as beautiful, but incoherent and chaotic. Maybe that's what they wanted, but it doesn't make for a good listening experience. It's a pretty album, but the music needs work and maturity.

Except for the usual suspects as MIKE OLDFIELD or VANGELIS, I'm not too fond on one man bands, but the first time I heard ALMS debut Beyond, was positively impressed, AITOR LUCENA is very talented in all the instruments, but what I liked more were the drums, being that this is usually the weakest point of multi-instrumentalists, but in this case, the sound is great.

Beyond is a conceptual album about the journey of man after death and it's divided in three epics with clear Symphonic structures, but deliciously blended with Folk and Hard Rock sections, creating a unique experience with his eclectic sound.

The album is opened by the Hypnos, a 14:14 minutes epic that starts with a percussion and flute intro, after almost two minutes and without any warning, a full orchestral sound hits the listener whio can only applaud, but when you're getting ready to expect an orchestral Symphonic album in the vein of Heaven & Hell, Aitor surprises us with a heavy passage, from then on, the changes are so radical that the only rule you need is to expect the unexpected.

Sweet piano, Moog, acoustic guitar, full orchestra, one after the other, fused with dexterity and great taste crossing through every imaginable style, from Medieval to Baroque and frenetic Rock as a musical travel in time, simply delightful

Even when Thanatos maintains the Symphonic structure, Aitor adds abundant Folk with Celtic references, but after a medieval passage, the drums announce a change and the music starts to go in crescendo leaded by a dramatic organ, and then, as in the first track, the listener must be ready for anything, this time sounds a bit as Symphonic Metal with the usual classical references. Aitor again hits the nail right in the head with the second of three epics that remind me of the heavier JETHRO TULL albums.

The album is closed by a third epic called Caronte (the ferryman of Hades), much more dramatic and Classical oriented than the first two pieces, with more unexpected changes specially the one from a frantic organ passage to a sweet flute in the vein of THIJS VAN LEER, then to an almost Metallic style to end with a Celtic passage, all in a matter of two minutes. Really loved this track, has every single detail and excesses that obsessive progheads as myself enjoy so much.

As a rule, I almost never rate a debut album with 5 stars, because that would be like admitting that the artist has reached his peak, and in the case of ALMS I expect much more. To be fair, Beyond deserves no less than a 4.5 rating, sadly the system of our beloved site only admits full stars, so I will have to go with four solid stars, and wait with anxiety for ALMS next release.