El último caballero

Last year I lived in Spain for nine months and something struck me as very surprising there. It’s not very unusual to hear a simple but quite long and melodic guitar solo or at least a few leads in the middle of a spanish pop/rock song. In other words, spanish pop music doesn’t seem to harbor the same amount of hostility towards actual instrumental skill as it’s american or swedish (where everything above garage band level is pretty much frowned upon) counterpart. With that said, I find it difficult to understand why Spain hasn’t managed to produce more quality metal bands. I guess the language barrier is to blame for this, that’s at least the only reason I can figure out as to why this debut album didn’t make waves when it was released two years ago. Opera Magna is a young spanish power metal band and El Ultimo Caballero is the best debut album I’ve heard in years.

Old Dark Moor, Angra and Rhapsody of Fire are the biggest influences here, so we’re talking about the kind of power metal where the guitars have to fight a tought battle against both keyboards, vocals and some symphonic elements for the listener’s attention. Song lengths vary from 5 to 13 minutes which gives the band a lot of space to show off their impressive songwriting abilities. The longer songs such as El Fuego de mi Venganza, Inmenso en el Fragor and the 13 minute title track are straight up progressive metal with various tempo changes and extensive instrumental sections, and even the shorter tracks have some progressive tendencies, such as the medieval-sounding keyboard break in the opener Horizontes de Gloria. The performances are incredibly tight for such a young band. At times, as on Largo Viaje or the album highlight El Fuego de mi Venganza, the performances are so intense and technical you would think the band would fall all over themselves, but they never do.

As I mentioned before, this is a young band. Drummer Adrian Romero is only 21 years old, but many established power metal bands would kill for a skinbeater of his caliber. He is almost machine-like in his dexterity on the double bass and goes easily between fast 16th notes and a slower gallop without breaking a sweat. The rhythm guitar work is nothing overtly special and serves mostly as a foundation for the lead guitar and keyboards, but the lead guitar work is highly impressive, with an abundance of melodic leads, neo-classical shredding solos and jaw-dropping arpeggios that would make Luca Turilli proud. I would put Enrique Mompo right up there with Alberto Maroto (Dreamaker, ex-Dark Moor) and that’s some of the highest praise I can give to a power metal guitarist.
Vocalist Jose Vicente Broseta sounds quite similar to Àngel (Tierra Santa) but I would guess that his upper range is at least an octave higher. His wails on Horizontes de Gloria and Inmenso en el Fragor could probably shatter glass from ten paces.
The whole package is wrapped up by a classy, crystal clear production that, except slightly overloud bass drums and vocals, is pretty much perfect.

Opera Magna isn’t doing anything new or groundbreaking here, but they play their power metal with the same energy and youthful enthusiasm that characterized the new wave of european power metal bands in the late 90’s. El Ultimo Caballero is the best power metal debut I’ve heard since Timeless Miracle’s Into the Enchanted Chamber in 2005, and apparently a follow-up is in the making. Watch this band!