Estygya (from Barcelona) is another promising new Spanish prog band (along Senogul, Taifa, Neverness and Albatros) that sounds very fresh and dynamic on their debut album entitled Los Ojos Verdes. Most of the music in the 8 songs is rock-oriented (often Metallica and mid-Seventies Rush come to my mind) but also delivers a lot of variety and a very tasteful colouring: from dreamy with wonderful strings and flute to bombastic with choir-Mellotron-like arrangements in Preludio, from orchestral keyboards with twanging guitar and warm Spanish vocals to a slow rhythm with theatrical vocals and again those majestic choir-Mellotron-like arrangements in La Fuente De Los Alamos Part I and from dreamy with acoustic rhythm guitar and Floydian guitarwork to bombastich with howling electric guitar runs and sumptuous keyboards in La Fuente De Los Alamos Part III. The two epic compositions are loaded with moving and howling guitar runs and biting wah-wah drenched guitar solos and contain lots of interesting musical ideas like the parts featuring mellow organ and fat synthesizer flights in La Fuente De Los Alamos II (11.33) and swinging, Latin-American inspired piano and flute with acoustic rhythm guitar in the titletrack (19.42). Due to this tasteful eclectic musical approach and the splendid guitarplay, Estygya succeeds to keep my attention in every song. A band to discover!

• Drums and kit percussion, Alberto del Canto
• All Guitars and arrenged Keyboards, Luis del Canto
• Bass Guitar and voices, Xavi Gallego
• Flute, Julia Fritz

Erik Neuteboom