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Review:
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Aly is a musical project of Alonso Romero, he was born
in Mexico (1979), started to study piano when he was 8 and
he is playing guitar since his 13th. He has a varied taste:
with the band Toccata he released the album entitled Circe
(2005) on which he plays guitar in the progmetal vein but
he also made a classical album with flute and guitar.
We can find back this captivating contrast between
rock and classical on Aly their instrumental debut album
Hypotesis Ubicua. Alonso has invited a wide range of musicians
featuring drummer Adolfo Ramundo who recently toured with
the new line-up of Italian progrock legend Il Balletto Di
Bronzo. On most of the nine compositions Alonso delivers
heavy guitarwork with obvious hints of Steve Vai and Joe
Satriani, fueled by a thunderous rhythm-section evoking
Metallica and Opeth, very exciting and I am impressed by
Alonso his furious, blistering and biting guitar runs and
propulsive fat guitar riffs. The most interesting element
of Aly their music is in my opinion the way he blends the
sound of varied keyboards with the powerful guitarwork,
often this evokes a lot of tension in the Aly sound: dazzling
interplay with synthesizers (El Aspecto Sombrío De La Desinhibición
and Sirenas Poseídas En La Mente De Omicrón), lush organ
waves (Necesidad Ilimitada), dreamy piano work (Instinto
En La Nostalgia) and orchestral keyboards (Ocular). Another
wonderful contrast on this album is the short track Ocaso
Inesperado that contains classical guitar, it sounds very
warm. But the highlight is the ‘magnum opus progressivus’
Meh - Lahn - Coh - Lih – Ah, a 25 minutes composition that
is divided into six alternating parts: from a majestic violin-Mellotron
intro, soaring keyboards with howling guitar runs and an
interlude with dreamy keyboards to an exciting wah-wah drenched
guitar solo with populsive drums, powerful Hammond organ
with heavy guitar work, a bombastic prog metal climate and
a beautiful final part delivering acoustic rhythm guitar
and a choir-Mellotron-like sound, goose bumps! -
What an exciting debut album, I am sure the progmetal
– and Heavy Prog fans and heavy metal guitar freaks wil
be delighted about Aly their music!
www.progwalhalla.com
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