Viaje A 800- Coñac Oxigenado (Alone Records AR039LD)

The Spanish psychedelic rock band, Viaje A 800 are back. I had only read about the band but never heard their music. They are a trio and have been around about 10 years. This double LP features 5 long tracks (about 50mins total). Each is an experiment with many different changes and dynamics. Side A starts with about 10 min track Oculi Omnium in te Sperant Domine. It starts pretty fast and almost like a stoner rock song and then it has a lot of time changes and some great guitar before slowing down into a more slow doomy section. It exits this section with some really cool guitar playing as the pace really picks up again before going into a drums solo! The track ends with a cool jam. A really brilliant and dynamic song. All the words are sung in Spanish and there are no lyrics or translation in the record. Damn cool song. Side B has two tracks starting with Ni Perdon, Ni Olvido. The opening riff reminds me of a very old Megadeth track from their 1^st or 2^nd record, quite metal but then they enter into a short psychedelic section back to the riff and then a totally cool spaced out section. A Tagarnina Blues starts with some cool delay guitar and a really hard hitting drum before the organ changes the mood completely and the spoke word vocal kicks in before the band brings up the intensity again.  A totally different song. Side C starts with acoustic guitar and hand drums and slowly builds up. A heavy guitar comes in to counter the acoustic rhythm and then finally the organ, which gives the track a real cruising feeling, a cool driving rhythm for the open Spanish highway. But don’t get too comfortable. Half way through the track, the electric guitar riff takes over and gets more intense as the spoken word vocal and acoustic guitar make this section quite psychedelic but still very melodic. Another great song. What’s going On ends this record and returns to the more heavy stuff like the first two sides. It reminds me a bit of Black Sun Ensemble this track, actually the last track as well, if I had to compare the band to someone. This track has so many complex and cool parts and gets quite spacey at one point. This is a damn cool record and it was worth the wait. I will have to go hunt down some of their other stuff now….

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