My first musical encounter with this promising, very interesting new Spanish progrock band was Omphalos (2006), their fourth studio-album since the debut CD entitled Structures (1999). I ended my review with an euphoric sentence: This CD is a very captivating musical adventure, Kotobel prooves that 40 years after the birth of the progressive rock, bands are still able to make progressive rock in the true meaning of the word! So I was very curious how about Kotebels development on their new album, 3 years after their previous release.

Well, from the very first moment I am absolutely delighted about Ouroboros and every listening session I got more excited, what an excellent blend of symphonic rock and jazzrock (with some avant-garde sidesteps)! The six studio tracks contain very inventive arrangements (evoking the great spirit of Gentle Giant) with a lot of tension and dynamics, the interplay between the musicians is awesome and we can enjoy many strong musical ideas. The powerful and propulsive rhythm-section, fiery electric guitar and majestic violin-Mellotron waves remind me of 1974-era King Crimson but Kotebel sounds less dark and aggressive, more in the vein of the King Crimson inspired bands that emerged in Sweden in the Nineties like Anglagard, Anekdoten and White Willow. On this new album I would like to emphasize the ingredients that in my opinion makes listening to Ouroboros to such a captivating musical experience. First the excellent interplay between the musicians, second the huge tension between the guitar and the keyboards and third the exciting breaks, build-ups, accellarations and shifting moods, never a dull moment: the one moment a swinging rhythm with powerful bass and fiery electric guitar or an intro with tender Grand piano and sensitive electric guitar, the other moment a tight rhythm with powerful jazz rock oriented guitar and propulsive drum beats or a splendid build-up from dreamy with xylophone, acoustic guitar and choir-Mellotron to bombastic with heavy work on drums, guitar and keyboards. The focus on this album is a bit more on the interplay between the harder-edged guitar and the energetic and dynamic rhythm-section but I would like to mention the outstanding way the two keyboard players colour the compositions, from tender Grand piano, a soaring strings sound, ominous violin-Mellotron waves, spacey synthesizer sounds and impressive choir-Mellotron eruptions to spectacular synthesizer flights, sparkling piano and lush violin-Mellotron waves. Especially in the short track Legal Identity V1.5 I am blown away by the virtuosic interplay between the swinging piano and majestic church-organ-like sound. This CD ends with the long (around 16 minutes) and varied live bonus track entitled Mysticae Visiones (recorded at the Portuguese Gouveia Festival in 2007) featuring singer Carolina Prieto with her high pitched voice along lots of variety and strong solos on guitar and keyboards.

What a fantastic new album, even more impressive than their previous one, check out their website to listen to extracts of this exciting and captivating new album!

Erik Neuteboom