Mar Assombrado - Canções Do Farol. 2017 Brazil

Along with Mantra, Mar Assombrado represents another independently released progressive rock album from Brazil. And while I loved Proximo, Canções Do Farol is even better for my tastes. It's been forever and a day since a new album came out of nowhere like this and knocked me on my ass. The music is assembled in the same way that the Italian masters of the 70s would do it.  Flute is a major component of Mar Assombrado's sound, yet another Italian hallmark. It's a mix of soft and hard passages (but never metal), and the compositions never stop evolving. While Mantra is a bit more eclectic, and could be considered a hard rock band at times, there's no mistaking Mar Assombrado for anything but hardcore progressive rock. The instrumentation is not retro, so again we are dealing with the modern era, but I found the tones here quite pleasing. I heard this album 3 straight times in one evening (I hardly ever do that anymore), and it continued to improve with each listen. A really great album as far I'm concerned, and looking forward to hearing more from this band. Didn't realize until very recently Brazil had so much interesting new music coming out in the progressive rock space!

Ownership: CD: 2017 private. Nice professionally produced digi-pak.

5/26/20 (new entry)