Rivendel - The Meaning (1996)

The second album from this Spanish band.

Rivendel is a quartet with a lineup of keyboards, bass, drums, wind instruments, guitars and Spanish, English & French vocals. A female opera singer contributes with vocals on the first track.

To my knowledge, this is my first meeting with this band and their music. Their debut album was the Manifesto album from 1990 and their third album was the DHD album from 2015.

I tried to review this album one year ago, but chickened out of it. This is my second attempt....

Fifty-two minutes, three songs. Phew ! That is ambitious. In particular when the title track is half an hour long.

There is not much Spanish music here. The music is a mix of neo-prog and symphonic prog. There is a lot of keyboards and guitars here. The music is not hard at all. Neither is it soft and featureless. There is most definate substance in their music.

The first track La Telerana, the Spanish song, has a good female opera vocal throughout the fourteen minutes. A rather good song.

The half an hour long title track has some sporadic English vocals and is a suite. Large parts of this suite reminds me about Pink Floyd anno Dark Side Of The Moon. It has some good to very good moods and melodies.

The final track, the nine minutes long L'art Brut has some good half-acoustic guitars and French vocals. This is another good to very good track.

The end result is a hugely ambitious album and a good one too. It is by no means an easy listening album. But those who understand what they are going to will like this good album. Tune in and get into it.

3 points