Areknamés - Areknamés (2003)

Artista: Areknamés

Álbum: Areknamés
Año: 2003
Género: Retro Prog / Progresivo ecléctico
Duración: 54:53
Nacionalidad: Italia

Lista de Temas:
1. A Day Among Four Walls (12:04)
2. Wasted Time
3. Down
4. Season Of Death
5. Boredom
6. Grain Of Sand Lost In The Sea

Alineación:
- Michele Epifani / órgano, piano eléctrico, sintetizador, mellotron, clavicordio, guitarras acústicas y eléctricas, voz, recorders
- Piero Ranalli / bajo
- Mino Vitelli / batería, djembè, arabian tabla, spring drum

Ahora sí, este posteo es propio, nadie me mandó este disco para que lo comparta, lo hago yo solito. Cuando conocí este álbum me llamó la atención el parecido de la tapa al inquietante disco de Amon Düül... aunque cuando descubrí su música, no tenía nada que ver con ellos. Pero musicalmente me impactaron hasta ahora, y espero que lo sigan haciendo en sus próximos trabajos.

Areknamés es una banda italiana de Progressive Rock. Influenciada por bandas como Van Der Graaf Generator y la escena de Canterbury, la banda logra crear un sonido mezclando estas influencias con su propio estilo. Lanzaron su álbum debut en el 2003, el cual fue muy bien recibido por los amantes del Prog. A este álbum le seguiría el Love Hate Round Trip de 2006 y In Case of Loss… de 2010.

Quise traer este disco porque esta banda me llevó a re-escuchar a los maravillosos VDGG, y que dentro de poco (cuando me dejen y den un respiro con tantos aportes de nuestros amigos)En aquel momento había escrito la siguiente reseña sobre este disco:

¿Quieren escuchar cómo sería una oscura mezcla entre Van der Graaf Generator y Black Sabbath?. Aquí, la música de Hammill se vuelve más oprimente, trágica y potente.
Incluso, en los agradecimientos el primer lugar están los Van der Graaf Generator y eso se nota, aunque hacen mención a una docena de bandas más: Balleto di Bronzo, King Crimson, Caravan, Soft Machine, UFO, Atomic Rooster, Magma, Gong, etc. y... por supuesto, Black Sabbath.
Resumiendo un poco: esta es una banda una banda de rock sinfonico clasico setentero potente pero sin ser llegar a ser hard rock, con muchísimos tintes oscuros pero sin ser dark.
Este es el álbum debut de estos italianos que cantan en inglés, es un álbum decididamente retro y oscuro, muy setentero, a mi me pareció reconocer a Morte Macabre (aunque no lo nombren en el listado mencionado anteriormente) pero con secuencias más agresivas y frenéticas (quizás es aquí donde aparecen más las similitudes con Sabbath, la combinación entre potencia y climas opresivos), pero en este caso, a diferencia de la banda de Iommy, la potencia proviene principalmente de los mellotrones, Hammonds y órganos que pueblan las canciones. con una gran muestra en la parte instrumental y muy buenas composiciones, este álbum tiene varios momentos memorables. Me han comentado que el segundo trabajo de esta banda, titulado "Love Hate Round Trip", del año 2005, es excelente, pero no ha llegado a mis manos.

No creo que ecriba mucho más, ya he presentado sus últimos discos de estudio y faltaba este, tengo por ahí también un disco en vivo que si me lo piden no me podría negar a traerles, pero con todo lo que ya he hablado sobre ellos, no tengo ganas de seguir haciéndolo, ni tiempo. Vamos con algunos comentarios ajenos y a disfrutar del disco y del fin de semana anticipando el show vandergraaftiano que pronto aparecerá en el blog cabezón.

Areknames es una banda italiana que interpreta un rock sinfonico clasico setentero a lo VDGG, Egg y Genesis con pinceladas al Stoner o Doom Metal de Black Sabbath y algo de la parte mas cosmica de Pink Floyd.
Mencionar que su lider Michel Epifani produce, graba, mezcla, compone, canta y toca toca clase de teclados junto a la guitarra acustica, que mas se puede pedir, no?
... y volviendo al tema ... es que realmente el trabajo de Areknames suena un poco a todo, sus composiciones son complejas, tristes como manda los canones del Doom en este caso llamemosle Progresivo, de esta forma tenemos la vandergrafiana (1) "A Day Among Four Walls", un gran tema de apertura, luego tenemos la melancolica y Pink Floydiana (2) "Wasted Time".
Con (3) "Down" sino ha quedado patente el Stonianismo de Areknames, aqui lo desarrolla completamente, aunque se deje ir el cantante con algun histerismo y dramatismo a lo Peter Hammill, en mi opinion el mejor tema del album. LLega (4) "Season Of Death" la paz instrumental aparece brevemente, incluso en el tratamiento vocal, pero lo Hammiliano rompe de vez en cuando esta sensacion. Se incluye como efectos de sonido fragmentos de discursos de Hitler, tras esto hau un solo de organo hammond delirante y algo heavie.
En el tema (5) "Boredom" y en el que cierra el album (6) "Grain Of Sand Lost In The Sea" encontramos la complejidad y buen gusto compositivo que reina en este trabajo, un tema bastante genesiano pero con momentos muy stoner y es que una vez mas se vuelve a mezclar lo agresivo con lo sinfonico.
En definitiva un soprendente album por esa mezcla y complejidad del dramatismo de unos VDGG, con lo stoniano de Black Sabbath y elementos sinfonicos de Genesis y la psicodelia de Pink Floyd.

Juan Egara

Viendolo en perspectiva, creo que el segundo álbum es mucho mejor que éste, pero el que presentamos ahora igualmente les asegura momentos por demás disfrutables.
Vamos con algún comentario en inglés y al disco que se nos viene el finde!!!!

Unlike Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator can't pretend:-) to be considered the most influential progressive band. Which, in my honest opinion, is just for the better, because the number of their followers is just tiny in comparison to the enormous amount of Genesis-derived bands, though, not only because of that. Generally, it may be an arguable point, but personally, I never did meet Neo bands, whose music is influenced by VDGG, not to mention blind imitators of their style. The guys of Areknames prove their devotion by forging into familiar, but still viable creative realm, and nevertheless, the album is free of any distinct cliches, which, though, is by no means the only virtue therein. They have very successfully mixed classic VDGG (1970 to 1976) with their own vision on A Day Among Four Walls, Down, and Season of Death (1, 3, & 4), though the VDGG factor is vastly evident only on the first two of them (equally in vocals and instrumental parts). The other three songs: Wasted Time, Boredom, and Grain of Sand Lost in the Sea (2, 5, & 6) are original enough to avoid any comparisons. Besides, they are full of clearly innovative ideas, which are so striking that they just cannot go unnoticed, especially those within the purely instrumental arrangements. Please note that with saying so, I don't imply the heavy guitar riffs that are present on each of the songs here, though they are among the distinguishing features of the album, too. The style is Classic Symphonic Art-Rock with either some (on 1, 3, & 4) or pronounced elements of Doom-Metal, though the said genre exists here exclusively in the form of guitar riffs. The music has a distinctive "seventies'" sound with the parts of organ and Mellotron playing a prominent soloing role in the arrangements. Multi-instrumentalist and composer Michele Epifani is a very talented musician. Well, he does Banton-like keyboard solos here and there, but not everywhere, and he just shines with inventiveness on the second half of the album.
Conclusion. Just like >Discipline and Parallel Or 90 Degrees, Areknames is a striking example of the band, which, while being influenced by VDGG, is able not to only to avoid any distinct derivatives, but also to develop the familiar style in a new and, often, very unexpected direction. The connoisseurs of profound Symphonic Progressive, not to mention the lovers of a classic VDGG, shouldn't disregard this release, to say the least.

Progressor

Despite the huge amount of bands that have been founded in Italy in the 40-year history of progrssive rock,Italians seem to prefer either their personal symphonic sound or a more jazz-oriented style of prog rock.Any band that slips away from this rule could be considered as unique.AREKNAMES are a very good example of such a band.This band is very retro-sounding and heavily influenced by the darker bands of 70's prog rock,mainly VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR and in a lesser extend CIRCUS (the Swiss band) and KING CRIMSON.The main figure behind this project is the talented multi-instrumentalist,vocalist and producer Michelle Epifani.He is accompanied by two other talented musicians,bassist Piero Ranalli and Mito Vinelli,who takes place behind the drum kit...
In this first eponymous album of the band you will face a dark sounding,yet inspired combination of retro- and modern prog with heavy guitars and great Mellotron and organ played by Epifani himself.The band plays at times very complex prog in the vein of KING CRIMSON and the vocals,although Epifani doesn't sound anything like Hammill,do follow Peter Hammill's vocal lines.Overall the music follows a slow doomt tempo and it is obvious tha the band tries to sound as more atmospheric as it gets.The exception of the rule iss the last track where the gears are lifting a bit up with a nice result.At the end of this listening you will find yourself amazed with this release,a very atmospheric,dark and perfectly arranged album...
Despite being accused as a VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR clone,AREKNAMES have their own style of playing combining the Crimson-esque complexity and Hamill-ian darkness and cleverness with slight symphonic elements and some doses of psychedelia.The one and only negative thing I can notice is the lack of diversity between the songs.However the quality of the musicianship covers this slight disadvantage and I expect a more diverse effort in their next album...
For one more time a generally unknown band managed to surprise me positively.This talented trio have my respect and hopes for even better,qualitive music and my rating is 4 solid stars...Well done!

apps79

Call me old fashioned if you like but ain't these guys a bit...old fashioned? I mean who fills a whole CD with memorable hooks delivered with crunchy gusto these days?, if that were not damning enough, they have the temerity to flaunt excellent song writing skills in our faces without so much as a 'by your leave' with the final straw being that arsenal of mouth watering 70's timbres to draw upon, well that just takes the custard cream by being just so retro..Even Mrs L doesn't hate this:
Very atmospheric and spooky
So not creepy like you think VDGG is then?
Nah, not creepy but they need to cheer up a bit. Go and get drunk or laid lads jeez...Did Albert Speer design the cover?
I was surprised to learn that Areknames are from Italy, as there are precious few traces of the proggy lineage of their fellow countrymen i.e. the writing is very far removed from RPI and has a closer kinship with that of the heavy psychedelia of Crazy World era Arthur Brown, an early Sabbath with a wider compass of arithmetic and Atomic Rooster with viagra in the chickenfeed. Add in a sprinkling of Cure atmospherics, Black Widow/Jacula panto gothic, Devil Doll vocal theatrics, Genesis dynamics of pace and don't be stingy with the Chateau de Hammill to bring things to a satisfying and dizzy head.
Perhaps the one barb that may be continually thrown at this band is how much they owe to the past as a source of their inspiration but compared to someone like those shameless plagiarists Black Bonzo, this criticism would be rather wide of the mark and reveal more about the accusers than the accused i.e. of blaming the paint factory for the graffiti. It does seem clear that Michele Epifani is a big Peter Hamill/VDGG fan but apart from the verbatim organ quote from the Generator catalogue on the opening number A Day Among Four Walls the influence is mercifully restricted to that of style rather than content.
However, in deference to Mrs L (or Tina: There Is No Alternative) the track titles indicate that the lads do need to get themselves out a bit more. How about bowling? - Wasted Time - Down - Season of Death - Boredom and in the case of the latter rib tickler, a word to the wise fellas, don't fall victim to self fulfilling prophecies by playing into your worst critics hands eh? You don't deserve it.
This is a mighty fine album that took me completely by surprise, as my own lazy association of ideas deemed that the faux Bosch imagery of the artwork was indicative of another morbid self pitying sludgefest of forgettable fuzz laden riffery. (Have I just unwittingly defined progressive metal ?) Not so, as Areknames represents a very independently minded creation that flies in the face of much of the prevailing Zeitgeist of contemporary prog and should be cherished for such thrillingly wanton perversity alone.

Iain

I don't really understand why some masterpieces, as this one, haven't got this label as such. We find in this album all the greatness from the 70's plus a fantastic production that few bands achieve on their first record.
Dark atmosphere accompanied by visceral feelings that make you go deeper into your mind. I can't avoid naming Van Der Graaf Generator as their biggest influence and AREKNAMÉS is one of the bands that approach the unique sound generated by them, just tremendous!
The singer sometimes delivers vocal melodies that make you think of Peter Hammill's unique way of creating tension.
Very close to Van Der Graaf generator, but not lacking originality. AMAZING!

dsanful

Espero que lo disfruten! y sea acuerden de nosotros, sus amigos del blog cabezón.