The first RC2’s album did not quite match my taste. 5 years ago, when it landed in my hands, it seemed to me rather repetitive and not very interesting. What’s more, it contained vocal parts in Spanish. Repetitive prog rock in Spanish? Somehow I couldn’t stomach it. The album “RC2” was buried somewhere in the attic and I surely wouldn’t remember much about this Venezuelan band, but some time ago the package with new releases sent by ProgRock Records arrived at my door. Among many albums I saw the CD of this group and… it initially landed on the very bottom of the pile of the new CDs... It’s only now, after a couple of months I finally managed to dig it out and I listen and listen and listen… with growing astonishment. Immensely surprised by the great progress the band have made, I realised how much had changed in the group themselves, their surroundings and above all, in their music. Firstly, RC2 had moved to Barcelona. It is where the material for the new album “Future Awaits” was composed. The band had undoubtedly matured. The new guitar player, Mauricio Barroetta, breathed a new life into their sound. RC2’s music is more and more recognisable in wide circles of the audience. They were invited by Dream Theater to participate in their tournee in South America. New material is much easier in reception and in addition RC2 began to sing in English.
“Future Awaits” comprises 8 tracks in good, traditional prog rock style. Many a time, in RC2’s music one can hear some elements of metal music, but they are not frequent enough to classify their music as pure prog metal. RC2 penetrates the solid (prog) rock territories, with elegant piano parts (I recommend long instrumental parts in “Coming Down Again”), complex ideas typical for progressive music (like in “Time Pieces “ and in the title track), with enough place for a lyrical ballad (again the title track and in “Autumn”), neoprogressive displays (composition “11” with a breathtaking Hammond solo) and also some Latin-American evolutions in the instrumental track that is kept in the convention of a musical joke “El Diablo Suelto”. Finally, in current RC2 stuff there are a lot of moments full of epic flow. If we call the opening 11-minute “Time Pieces” a miniepic, then the two-part “Voice Of The Storm” is 16-minute pure prog rock rollercoaster – played on a very decent level. What is amazing in this track, are the expressive guitar sections (earlier mentioned Mauricio Barroetta), rich Hammond parts (Rafael Paz) , very good drums (Eduardo Benatar) and juicy bass playing (Pero Misle). The vocalist, Felix Duque, also needs being mentioned. His pleasant voice, capable of singing in high keys, is reminiscent of Dennis DeYoung of Styx fame.
To sum up, “Future Awaits” was a great surprise in comparison with the RC2’s debut. The music (with a shade of hard rock and diverse prog rock features) is played in an accessible manner, yet it is not devoid of complicated structures. Some remnants of metal can also be spotted, but the group’s style had definitely come closer to the prog rock pole. And, which is most important, RC2 perform in English. It all made definitely a change for better.
Translated by Kachat
