Detailed Reviews [Supernova - 2002 - "Lleva el brilo del Sol"]

Supernova (Argentine) - 2002 - "Lleva el brilo del Sol"
(56 min, 'Supernova' / "Viajero Inmovil")

Preamble. I know that "Lleva el brilo del Sol" is the second album by the Argentinean band Supernova. However, I haven't heard their debut album and don't even know what is the title of it. Sorry.

The Album. The music on "Lleva el brilo del Sol" is not only both highly complex and original, but also very, very interesting. Stylistically, the first three tracks on the album: El hypernauta, Apocalipsis II, and Despuses de todo, the latter of which is an instrumental piece, slightly differ from the 33-minute epic Isis (4). All three of them are about quite a heavy and intensive, hard-edged and highly intricate Symphonic Art-Rock. Each of them contains a wide variety of different themes, changing each other suddenly and exclusively through the complex odd measures, and very little repetitions. The female vocals are great and are mostly of a dramatic character, though purely instrumental arrangements cover no less than two thirds of each of the first two songs on the album, as well as both of those on the first half of Isis. All of the solos on the album, and especially those of varied keyboards (including the Hammond organ and piano), bass guitar, and flute are both highly original and of a virtuosi character. The same can be said regarding most of the drum parts. As for the solos of electric guitar, they're really notable only on Apocalipsis II (2). The excellent passages of acoustic and semi-acoustic guitar are present on the album's first and third tracks, respectively, while all of the other parts of this instrument on "Lleva el brilo del Sol" represent so-called riffs. Although each of the four short instrumentals on Isis are indicated on the CD player's display as a separate track, all of them are just intros to the songs that follow them. Nevertheless, I'll try to describe all eight of the parts of Isis separately. Let's begin with instrumentals. Only the first of them, Nacimento (4-a), featuring the parts of string-, chamber-, and brass-like instruments, most of which sound fantastically realistic, is a real piece of real Classical Music (Classical Academic Music, to be more precise). Although the interplay between passages of synthesizer and solos of guitar on El esplendor (4-c) is also in the state of a constant development, this track can't be regarded differently than as the Classical Music-like piece. Both of the intros to the last two songs on the album are of the same story overall, though in addition, each of them features vocalizes. The first two songs on Isis, Divinizacion and Immensidad total (4-b & 4-d), must be described almost the same way as all three of the first compositions on the album. So I won't repeat the sentences that, if necessary, you can reread above. As for "almost", it concerns the presence of lush orchestral arrangements on both of the said parts of this epic and the absence of heavy structures everywhere on it. Both of the last songs on Isis: Secretos divinos and El Viaje de Isis (4-f & 4-h), contain approximately the equal number of the vocal and instrumental parts, and also a few noticeable repetitions. While being excellent overall, these are a bit less impressive than any of the other songs and both of the first instrumentals on the album (3 & 4-a).

Summary. It seems to me that the Argentinean Prog consists exclusively of outstanding bands and performers, while Supernova, judging by this album, is one of the best representatives of it. "Lleva el brilo del Sol" is undoubtedly a masterpiece. However, it would've been more than a mere masterpiece if all the musical events of it had stopped along with the last note of track 7 (4-d). The contents of the first forty minutes of this album are absolutely on par with those of most of the 'titanic' albums released at the heyday of Progressive's glory. Honest.

VM: January 20, 2003