VISIONS

Usually, when you talk about the major progressive rock acts from the 70's, some bands just seem to be, somehow, forgotten by people, just because they didn't have a flying piano during their live performances or because they didn't sold millions and millions of album or because they didn't have hundreds of copycats back in the days. Camel is one of those bands.

Although that may be true around the world, at least in this part of the Equator Camel is a fairly popular band among progheads and had surely been influential in this sunny land, as Aether can attest with their releases so far. In their debut, the band Aether shows us that they are heavily influenced my Camel's music in many aspects, from being mostly instrumental, to the type of singing (almost monophonic) and to the ethereal guitars and synthesizers. Also, in some degree, they seem to have some Floydian influence as well. However, unlike other modern bands who look to the 70's prog acts for inspiration, their music do not sound derivative.

There is, however, one big problem with this album: some songs sound way too generic. Don't get me wrong, the album is, overall, great, but some songs just sound like the generic 90's prog, like the songs Whales and November. Maybe that happened because they intended to make a broad approach, experimenting and trying the different aspects of their music instead of focusing in just some chosen few. That may be it, because this debut lack some focus, it seems to be everywhere.

The highlights go to: Millenium, Autumn, Kings & Knights, The Altenburg Suite and The Woods.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Being one of many prog bands that came to life in the 90's in Brazil, Aether was able to deliver a solid debut with great overall quality, but still a bit raw and lacking focus. That would be fixed in their next release, but that is another story. For a very good release like this one, i think 4 stars is a fitting grade.

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