Beto Vázquez´s Infinity - Beto Vázquez´s Infinity - 2001
intro
Warning: This review is a living proof of the magic inside progressive rock. Beto Vázquez´s Infinity was chosen by Richard Zywotkiewicz as one of the best CD's released in 2001 and I destroy it with my review. Is Richard right?, am I right?, who shot J.R.?. Since all reviews published in progVisions are not influenced by record labels, record stores, etc., and we are absolute independent, my advice will be always to listen to the CD's before you buy them. Perhaps you´ll agree with Richard or perhaps you´ll agree with me.
review
Maybe in Argentina Beto Vázquez and his ex band Nepal had achieved a great success but in Spain they are perfect unknown. I don´t know whom Beto will tricked, but this CD has very special guests such as Jörg Michael (Stratovarius), Candice Night (Blackmore´s Night), Tarja Turunen (Nightwish), Fabio Lione (Rhapsody), o Sabine Edelsbacher (Enderbridge), but I´ve never seen so many guests in such a mediocre CD.
Personally I´m getting tired of these stories of dragons, princess and fantastic worlds created by this prog? metal bands for teenagers. But in this case I think there won´t be any teenager interested in this story because it is very babyish. And the music is worse than the lyrics. The creative health of this kind of metal (or progressive) is worrying. Perhaps these CD's sell a lot, OK, but are "season" CD's, and next year will be in the second hand market.
The music pretends to be a mediaeval version of bands like Rhapsody or Nightwish and finally is a collection of lineal, flat and dynamic-less songs. Not even the three great female singers sing with impetus and personality. The general keynote of the CD is pseudo epic songs and forgettable ballads ("Until Dawn (Angels of time)", "Wizard", "Sadness in the night", "Promises under the rain") and a couple of songs more aggressive ("The laws of the future" and the el impressive "The battle for the past" a cross road of "The final countdown", "Only time will tell" and the eternal chords of Rhapsody. Pure Spinal Tap), but there is no soul, there are no brilliant instrumental moments, and there is no virtuosity. Specially remarkable is the mediaeval suite titled "Voyagers of time". The suite is very funny and reminds me to Ken Follet when he tries to write books about European mediaeval history having no idea about it. Candice Night does the best she can in the sung parts ("Through times" -parts I and II- and "Golden hair") but she doesn´t convince because she´s not comfortable (Blackmore DO understand this kind of music), and the metallic instrumental interlude "Infinity Space" has no sense at all. The third part of "Through times" has a nice sax, a little bit bizarre but it´s OK. After all of this mediaeval authenticity I´ll have an overdose of Camerata Medionalense or Rosacrux and I´ll compensate the effort.
conclusion
I´m very sad because this is a musician who came from a loved country, but the experience of having listened to this CD has been inconsequential and tasteless.
In short, much ado about nothing in one of the most boring CD's I´ve ever heard. It is meritorious that an Argentinean musician crosses the boundaries of Spanish market, but for me the most interesting Argentinean legacy is still Malevaje, Gardel and Calamaro. If you live in Madrid, send me an e-mail and I´ll recommend you some great Argentinean restaurants where you can spend all the euros saved if you don´t buy this CD.