CICONIA „Animal Chapters”

Art Gates Records, 10 February 2023

Music: Instrumental Progressive Metal / Modern Metal
Website:
https://www.facebook.com/ciconia666
https://ciconia.bandcamp.com/album/animal-chapters
Duration: 37:38 (9 tracks)
Country: Spain

Spanish CICONIA is currently on the European tour Animals Chapters Tour 2023 promoting fourth album. Just in March, they finished their part in Poland, which Metal Center took the media patronage over…

The music of this trio is very specific, because it is completely devoid of vocal parts, so the rich instrumentalizations presented by CICONIA must somehow make up for the lack of vocals (but not verbalizations, which, sampled, appear in the form of choral sounds)…

And they make up for it… First of all, very low-tuned guitars introduce guitar power, which literally crushes with its progressive-djent riffs. These are really heavy hits, sometimes in a groove-metal style (“Animalarium”), sometimes a bit in math-core (“Mammothman”), other times they are surprising by stoner-metal (“Predator Inside”) or southern-metal licks (“Whales”)… These mercilessly heavy guitar riffs create a very contrasting background to very atmospheric solos, sometimes calm (at times inspired by classicism), sometimes dynamic (like in power-metal compositions, or progressive-metal virtuoso raptures)…

However, between this guitar power emerge delicate, moody post-rock themes (for example in “Animalarium”, “Musca Draconia” or “Lullaby for a Platypus”), or short blues-rock ballad elements (“Scolopendra”), which do not they only create short motifs but also the main themes…

In the compositions it can be heard that CICONIA in its creation is inspired not only by broadly understood rock and metal music, but also by classical music. And in addition to their compositions, they also allowed electronic, often industrialized samples, techno-motifs, symphonic orchestrations (e.g. “Whales”, “Musca Draconia”, “The Golden Fleece”, “Mammothman”), which emerge more and more boldly during time-line of the album… These treatments speak very strongly for the fact that CICONIA plays modernist Metal!

There is always something going on in this music… CICONIA does not let you breathe, it changes the subject every moment… emotionally lifts you up… then calms you down… in a moment it surprises you… And even mixes different themes at the same time… The songs are richly charged with sounds, they literally bombard us with their various topics… But what is the most important? There is a lot of emotion in all this virtuosity!

Tracklist:
1. Animalarium
2. Predator Inside
3. Scolopendra
4. Lobisome
5. Whales
6. Musca Draconia
7. The Golden Fleece
8. Lullaby for a Platypus
9. Mammothman

Line-up:
Jorge Fraguas – Bass
Dani Dean – Guitars
Hector Galindo – Drums

Guest:
Jorge Fraguas – All additional instruments & orchestrations
Dani Dean – Strings section

Rate: 8.0/10