Time Signature Humanimals...

Genre: atmospheric post rock/metal

The Chilean one-man project Bauda is normally classified as a folk metal band in various music databases on the Internet. Now, this genre classification might indeed be appropriate with Bauda's earlier releases, but Bauda main mand César Márquez' latest release does not really strike me as being folk metal as such.

There are a couple of folk elements to be sure, but the style of music on this release transcends folk metal and strikes me more as being a type of esoteric and atmospheric post-metal. And like so many other post-metal releases (think Old Silver Key's debut, Ghost Brigade latest album, or Solstafir's more recent releases), "Euphoria..." transcends metal and features many post-rock and alternative rock elements. Make no mistake, there are metal elements such as double bass drums, some black metal-inspired tremolo picked figures, a couple of doom-laden heavy passages and so on, but these are merely components in the big picture and appear side by side with acoustic passages, shoegazing intro-rock attitudes, 90s alternative rock vocal lines etc.

But, you know what, all of this comes seamlessly together into an album of very well-made atmospheric music which is very easy to lose oneself in. The beauty of it is that the genre-transcendence makes "Euphoria..." a truly progressive album but it is free of all the show-off wankery that normally characterizes progressive music, making it a quite expressive album, too.

Perhaps not an album the metal purists would accept as metal, Bauda's "Euphoria..." nonetheless features metal elements enough that it might appeal to post-metal and alternative rock fans alike. In any case, we are dealing with a very good album.