Giant Squid
Cenotes

And then, strangely, almost by chance, you stumble upon albums that you don't expect, works shrouded in class and music like you never would have imagined. An ensemble of emotions, musicality, and songwriting. An unexpected, laborious work that seeps under your skin never to leave. A true surprise carrying the label of Giant Squid, a semi-unknown band from Austin, Texas, that has reached the release of its third platter with "Cenotes."

Beyond a suggestive but not entirely convincing cover, what captures attention is the content. The muffled, damnably "dense" sound of the American quartet is almost perfect in balancing musicality, harmony, power, and dreamlike, pantheistic suggestions, and more. A magmatic yet always well-defined cauldron of music with a vague melancholic sensation that rests on the backdrop of the ocean, which seems to set the scene for "Cenotes."

There is a fundamental factor that must be highlighted and may make some turn up their noses: Giant Squid, in their primordial broth where heavy, doom, and progressive wonderfully turn, also add the cello, managed by Jackie Perez Gratz, a lady who in some pieces also assists the singer Aaron Gregory behind the microphone. The warm and enveloping sound of her instrument has the merit of adding originality and variety to the Calamaro Gigante's proposal, as well as nurturing a pathos that remains high for the entire CD, thanks to that typical ancient sound that the cello can produce. "Tongue stones" is proof of what has been said: over nine minutes of original, atmospheric, enveloping, progressive metal, and above all well played, where the modus operandi is a series of accelerations and sudden braking upon which dark scenarios open, only partially tempered by Gratz's female voice. How can one remain indifferent to the "reasoned" grandiosity of "Mating scars"? How not to appreciate the bellicose and tribal rhythm of the title track?

"Cenotes" is a novel of the abyss, a work that is at the same time dark and "airy" that winks at an anomalous progressive but is always outlined on tracks that the band shows they know well. The Giant Squid has taken lessons from Tool, and this is perceptible in some passages, but their reworking remains completely personal.

Beyond, therefore, a touch of presumption that willingly or not remains inherent in albums of this type, Giant Squid has managed with "Cenotes" to produce a sound that is theirs but also belongs to others, in a prolific and profitable union. The album in question flows wonderfully, does not know the meaning of the word boredom, but rather amazes for its pathos and theatricality without being pompous. The Texans maintain a solid musical verve for the entire 35 minutes of the CD, keeping on precise coordinates.

You just have to dive into the blue depths of the ocean.

1. "Tongue Stones (Megaptera Megachasmacarcharias)" (9:16)
2. "Mating Scars (Isurus Metridium)" (8:05)
3. "Snakehead (Channidae Erectus)" (7:48)
4. "Figura Serpentinata (Pycnopodia Sapien)" (3:53)
5. "Cenotes (Troglocambarus Maclanei)" (6:07)