Sonus Orbis -
Anthropoid Notion


(CD 2021, 38:12, Private Release)

The tracks:
  1- Apsophetos(05:29)
  2- No Country Man(07:07)
  3- Strangers(06:58)
  4- Owner Of The World(04:22)
  5- Hyperion(05:48)
  6- Master Of Time(08:29)




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Sonus Orbis is a progressive rock band from Navarra, Spain formed in 2018. The band consists of Hirus on lead vocals, Aimar Lana Llorens on drums and Inar Lezaun Merlo on guitars, keyboards and bass. Anthropoid Notion is their debut album.

The album's opening track Apsophetos is very promising beginning with some excellent classic prog piano work followed by a brief interlude of prog-metal guitar before returning to acoustic guitar and piano. This introduction is followed by some very well performed guitar-keyboard interplay. A very good track.

The second track, No Country Man, introduces us to vocalist Hirus. Unfortunately, through heavy use of vocal processors and auto-tune the vocals end up sounding un-natural and spend most of the track fighting with the instrumentation for space in the mix. Musically this is not a bad track though the drums sound pre-programmed and mechanical.

Next up is Strangers which begins with some nice guitar work, but once again the heavily processed vocals ruin what could have been a very good track. The instrumental sections of this track are quite good. Once again the vocals seem to be fighting with the instrumentation.

Owner Of The World opens with a good heavy riff and heavily processed vocals, although being used as an effect here, it actually works. This is the shortest track on the album and probably the least progressive tune. Once again, though, the drums end up sounding very pre-programmed and un-natural.

The next track, Hyperion, starts off with a fantastic piano introduction and vocal section, which if the voice had been left un-processed would probably have been the stand-out performance of the disc. As it is, this beautiful track ends up sounding un-natural and contrived. The drums sound out of place and are needlessly playing fast and complicated on a track that should have remained a more of a ballad.

The album closes with Master Of Time which again features some fantastic keyboard and guitar work but suffers, like the rest of the album from heavily processed vocals.

In my opinion this could have been a fantastic album if the vocals had been handled differently. Instrumentally this would rank as very good debut album and I am sure that Hirus has a very good voice, but the processing that was done during the production of this album ended up ruining a very good product.

** David Carswell

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