Hailing from Puerto Rico, Progressive Rock/Metal band Avandra have been steadily making headway through the underground prog scene thanks to their first two releases and now look to reach an even wider audience with their third outing “Skylighting”. Originally started as a solo project by guitarist/vocalist Christian Ayala, the band have grown into a four piece (five if you include the renowned talents of guest keyboardist Vikram Shankar) and expanded their sound to match.
“Skylighting” is smooth! As smooth and relaxed a prog album as you will find. The time-changes never jar, just flow into one another, enhancing the complexity of each passage with an almost understated ease. Avandra aren’t about showing off jazz stylings or lengthy noodle-fests, they are about painting a scene, unveiling a soundscape and capturing a mood. The twin harmonized vocals ride on the wave of the music, soaring and diving to the betterment of the composition. There’s only a few bands recently that have captured this vibe well (Sisare spring to mind with their last release), but Avandra nail it so effortlessly. Yes, you can hear smatterings of Porcupine Tree, modern day Opeth and Riverside, but Avandra take those touched-upon elements and blend them into their own sound until they are just a mere distant influence. If you are so inclined, you can throw in “Post-” this and that into the band’s description, but for me this a Progressive Rock/Metal band at its core, who also mix a hint of Psyche and Space Rock here and there with their own unique style, in turn giving everything a more modern and forward thinking edge.
Avandra’s songwriting tends to revolve around a central theme, riff or melody, which the band work on, expand on and develop until it seamlessly drifts into another passage almost unnoticed. They develop that too and then suddenly you realize that the initial focal point has returned once more, but in a different guise – it’s very intelligent stuff. All this is enhanced by fabulous lead and acoustic parts as the keyboards dance and weave their magic throughout, rounding and filling out the band’s sound, somehow making it even…smoother! The overall feel of this album has a uniformity and similarity from song to song making “Skylighting” the sum of its parts, rather than making a single song stand out deliberately. Unlike some Progressive Metal bands, don’t expect to be stunned by the shear complexity of the songs on this album (though when you really listen there is plenty of complexity on offer within, from all band members, but working as one), instead join them on a totally enveloping progressive sonic journey.
(8.5/10 Andy Barker)
24/11/2020 at 5:43 pm
Nice one! Interested to read this as Avandra are a band I should have seen at ProgPower Europe this year – hopefully it’ll happen next year and they’ll be there.
24/11/2020 at 7:39 pm
From the evidence here they would have been really good, it’s a shame you didn’t get to see them – hopefully they’ll get added to next year’s line-up!