GLOBUS “Cinematica”

Imperativa Records, Inc, 2022

Music: Epic Rock/ Symphonic Rock / Symphonic Metal
Website: globusmusic.com
Duration: 01:14:45 (17 tracks)
Country: U.S.A

Its hard to resist your urge if someone shows up and tells you the man behind an Epic Metal/Rock project was also an integral part of blockbuster Hollywood movies such as Spiderman, X-Men, and Harry Potter. Yes, Yoav Goren, brainchild of Globus, has an excellent track record in Hollywood. “Cinematica”, a 17-song album, released in 2022 – is a reflection of his capabilities.

Speaking of the album, Yoav said, “With Cinematica, I wanted to create a musical journey, much like the best of cinematic experiences, which takes the listener through a myriad of visual landscapes and deep connections to the essential fibers of the human condition. The album contains a diverse representation of musical genres, with lyrical explorations of complex relationships, mental health, tyranny, war, unifying struggles, healing and hope. Much of the inspiration came from a familiar production process for Globus – using original orchestral instrumental compositions to evoke and inspire new melodies and additional arrangement elements, creating new Cinematic Rock songs. It’s vital to me that the intended result is a visceral, immersive, bigger-than-life aural experience for the listener.”

Right off the bat with the first single “Sprockets” and all the way through the last track, “Golden Dream” – he has stood by his word. The standout throughout the album is Yoav’s intent to not just keep everything in solid “genre bracket”, but explore a diverse set of instrumentation, which at times sounds like Motley Crue – while like Within Temptaion at some other point, neatly blending with vocals wherever necessary. Mind you, this is no easy task considering the range of vocalists featuring on this album. If it had been just one vocalist, instrumentation can still be arranged easily as the range and the depth of deliverance won’t change much. Here, working with different vocalists ranging from Lisbeth Scott to Anneke Van Giersbergen, he has still managed to pull this off!

No Prog album gets released without a solid theme to back the instrumentation.  For ” Cinematica”, it is majority into war, peace, religion personal healing, inner politics, mystical, life-affirming wisdom and a healthy dose of the abstract unknown. If there’s one thing that a lay person like me would have liked to see in the album is the concepts arranged in a meaningful manner for people to understand. It may be just me, considering my inexperience in Progressive music, I found it hard to relate the theme to songs.

Unpopular opinion – I mightt probably get bashed for this, if I were Yoav Goren, instead of 17 tracks released under one album – I would have ideally split this into 2 parts. Parts to continue where the previous set would have left off. This way, it’ll be easier for people like me who is just getting into Prog to invest time in understanding the songs rather than worrying about 17 more tracks to go.

Overall, “Cinematica” was everything I had hoped for from someone like Yoav. It exceeded my expectations and I would be definitely on the lookout for more albums from this collective.

Line-up:
Yoav Goren: Piano, Synths, Guitars, Bass, Drums, Vocals
Ryan Hanifl: Vocals
Dann Pursey: Vocals
Lisbeth Scott: Vocals
Anneke van Giersbergen: Vocals
Lindsay Solo: Vocals
Adam Max Goren: Vocals
Stacy Wilde: Vocals
Jane Runnalls Poole: Vocals
Tate Simms: Guitars, Bass
Ariel Mann: Guitars
Mark Phillips: Guitars
Kfir Melamed: Bass
Gregg Bissonette: Drums

Tracklist:
01: Sprockets
02: Peace In Our Time
03:  O California
04:  False Redeemers
05:  War
06 : I’m Afraid Of Americans (cover)
07:  Peltier: The Art of Healing
08: Mighty Ship
09: Recover
10: Seraphim
11: Brothers In Arms
12: You’ll Never Walk Alone (cover)
13: Air I Breathe
14: You and I
15: The River
16: Carry The Flame
17: Golden Dream (letter from Adi Abeyito)

Rate: 8.5/10