UMUR "Pidanoma" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Argentinian progressive metal act Random (or Los Random as they´ve opted to call themselves on this album). the album was released through Las Tías Records in January 2014. It´s also available for download at a "Name Your Price" tag on the band´s Bandcamp profile. "Pidanoma" features the same three-piece lineup, who recorded the band´s debut full-length studio album "Todo.s los colores del (2011)" and the "Prrimo, the" EP from 2009.

...and it´s obvious that these three guys have played together for a relatively long time now, because the musicianship on "Pidanoma" are absolutely brilliant (not that it wasn´t the case on the two preceeding releases, but this time around Random have outdone themselves). These guys are very talented. Technically skilled but still with a great focus on adventurous and boundary breaking ideas and playing.

Stylistically the music on "Pidanoma" is a bit hard to tag correctly. It´s progressive alright (I guess 3 tracks with a playing time of over 15 minutes each tell that story), but not in the respect that this sounds anything like Dream Theater and their ilk. This is more in the vein of artists like Intronaut or maybe Yakuza, but still with a unique sound of their own. The riffs are heavy and aggressive, the rythm section are busy and the drumming fusion influenced, and the vocals are expressive. Sometimes raw and sometimes more sensitive in nature (sometimes working more as an instrument than regular vocals). It´s only occasionally riff based aggressive music though (actually mostly the opening track "Corto Normal") and the music is predominantly more atmospheric. There is a psychadelic/experimental element to the sound too, which generally works really well for Random. Actually most of the playing time of the three longer tracks on the album is taken up by jamming parts with noisy and experimental guitar sounds and in the case of "Mee Chango" screaming saxophone playing.

All tracks on the album are quite different sounding though. "Corto Normal" and "Mia Gato Está Solo en la Oscuridad" feature most structured riff sections (the latter features around 6 minutes of experimental/ambient guitar nooding towards the end though), "Ojota y Media" is a short track featuring samples and electronic manipulation, "Mee Chango" has some structured parts but features a long jamming section, and the closing 20:53 minutes long "Guri Guri Tres Piñas" features beautiful and mellow guitar playing and subtle rythmic playing before more loud and busy climaxes appear. It´s a very dynamic track that develops quite a bit through it´s playing time.

The sound production is professional, detailed and very well sounding, providing the perfect platform for the tracks to shine. "Pidanoma" is another step in Random´s development of their musical style, and while I personally could have wished for more structured sections and less jamming and slow building post rock/metal parts, the music is so well performed and produced that it´s impossible not to be intrigued. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Warthur Random's unique brand of avant-progressive metal on this debut album has at the heart of its sound a metalcore framework, twisted out of all recognition by the ornate musical tangents built on top of it. Raúl García Posse on guitar and vocals is inevitably in the spotlight a lot and brings a lot of the metalcore to the table, but the tight rhythm section of Marcos Crosa and Pablo Lamela Bianchi play an essential role in shepherding the band's compositions through their labyrinthine coils. One which demands a few listens before its secrets open up for you, but I think it is worth the effort.

Conor Fynes 'Todo.s Los Colores Del' - Random (8/10)

The word 'random' brings to mind, a lot of mental and musical imagery. Sporadic, jagged, and even nonsensical, the word is used to describe everything that is unpredictable, uncertain, and unplanned. Now, the band Random and their music are not quite as unexpected as the name may suggest, but there are definitely more than a fair share of surprises on this debut album from the Argentinian trio. Firing from a wide range of different angles within the metal world, the verbosely titled 'Todo.s Los Colores Del' is an incredibly eclectic hour of music that surprised and even shocked me at times; but most of all, it has left me feeling very impressed by what the band has accomplished here.

'Todo.s Los Colores Del' goes through a few different stages within the course of the hour, with each section gravitating towards a different stylistic approach. Random's sound is very diverse, and throughout this album, I was hearing everything from Pantera to Tool to Meshuggah to Primus to Mr. Bungle and even The Mars Volta and Pink Floyd. Despite being a fairly newcoming act, Random has already mustered one of the most exciting sounds I've heard from a debut album this year, although most of the sounds they make here can be traced to a fairly explicit origin. Hearing such a wide range of influences thrown together was very exciting, and Random makes sure to emphasize that they don't adhere to any one trick. On the whole, there are plenty of surprises here that couldn't all be concisely touched upon, but 'Todo.s Los Colores Del's first half draws mostly from alternative metal and thrashy grooves. Some of these ideas are executed pretty strangely, with the strange electronic lead of the first song's intro played out of sync with the rest of the music being a great example. There is Gojira's heaviness here, and when the band decides to get really intense, I was hearing the sort of slap bass quirk that Primus would use. It was really exciting stuff.

The second half only gets better. Here, the band tones down their thrashy edge and gets more adventurous. There is a much greater atmospheric vibe to the music on the latter part of the album, as well as a lean towards the harsh post-metal sounds of Tool and palm muted riffs of Meshuggah. It was here where I started noticing how diverse the band really was, especially towards the middle of the album where I was hearing latin rhythms and psychedelic soloing that could easily pass for the handiwork of The Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. As far as gripes here go, the whole thing is phenomenal musically speaking, with some incredibly intense moments that impressed even someone who is now well-passed being a veteran of metal music. The album does seem to close out in a somewhat anti-climatic fashion, continuing to build up and then simply fading out quickly, which- even after listening to the album several times- still does not feel right to me. The biggest thing here that could have been a little better are actually the vocals, which at times sound perfect for whatever style they are playing in, but when the band gets heavy, I was not too impressed by the pseudo-melodic thrash vocals, which sounded out of key and therefore, very out of place on an album that consistently dazzled me on an instrumental level.

'Todo.s Los Colores Del'- suffice to say- has been a real jolt of fresh energy for me, and something that took several listens to grab me. There are a few faults here that I really hope the band deals with, but here is a real grower of a debut album, and I now eagerly anticipate what Random does next with their sound.

UMUR "Todo.s los colores del" is the debut full-length studio album by Argentinian alternative/ progressive metal act Random. The album was released in late August 2011 and is a self-released affair. I reviewed Random´s first release, the "Prrimo, the (2009)" EP a couple of years ago and was very impressed by that release and I was pretty excited to hear what the three-piece had conjured up for us this time. After all there´s a difference between entertaining and delivering music for the duration of an EP as opposed to a full-length album.

On "Todo.s los colores del", Random play alternative/ progressive metal. The tracks are very complex in structure with multible parts and innovative ideas but still Random manage to keep the tracks catchy and memorable. They successfully walk the delicate line between being technical/ progressive and being catchy and powerful. Random incorporate elements from groove thrash, alternative metal and progressive metal into what I think is a very unique style of music. Random are obviously very skilled musicians and pull off the stylistic changes with ease and elegance. The vocals by lead vocalist/guitarist Raúl García Posse are varied. He is able to deliver both really aggressive and raw vocals, more melodic raw vocals and beautiful clean singing too. His vocal range is actually quite impressive and a great asset to the band´s sound.

The album is very well produced and the sound production brings out the best in the music.

"Todo.s los colores del" is an eclectic listen and for those who like genre blending adventurous music it´s a great listen. Some tracks sound slightly patchy because of the many sections and ideas thrown into them, but I´d call it a slight issue and mostly it´s actually quite charming that you don´t know what´s in store for you. The band have chosen to write their lyrics both in their native language and in English and I think that combination works very well for them.

From the mellow and beautiful "As Far As Impossible" to the heavy and groovy "Cachafaz" to the progressive "Tururú", "Todo.s los colores del" is through and through a great album. Powerful sound production, excellent musicianship and adventurous songwriting. There´s not a single reason why this album should receive less than 4 stars.

Time Signature Tarzan's void...

Genre: eclectic progressive metal

I admit that I really like it when a band can operate within the confinements of a single genre and make use of the conventional features and aesthetics of that genre and still make something new out of it (like many retro thrash and speed metal bands do these days). However, I also really like it when a band just completely transgresses the boundaries of genre and implements aesthetics and elements from a lot of different genres into their music. This is, along with general derivation from the conventions of popular music, one of the reasons why I like progressive music.

Argentinian act Random fall into the second category, as they completely disregard all genre boundaries within the universe of metal. There is a bit of thrash metal, a bit of djent, a bit of metalcore, a bit of groove metal, a bit of alternative metal, a bit of grunge, a bit of sludge/doom, and a bit of extreme metal as well as hints of industrial metal, noise rock and melancholic indie rock - and they are not afraid of very melodic 'oohs' and 'aahs' either.

A lot of the riffage is crushingly heavy and Random are very good at combining simple, almost grungy riffage with more complex odd metered and rhythmically ambiguous sections, and this juxtraposition of heaviness, simplicity, uptempo-ness, and complexity generates a very dynamic feel to the music, and this dynamism is made even more evident via Random's insertion of clean and mellow passages, as well as more soundscape-like, jazzy, funky, and whatnot sections ('Tururu' is very much epitomic of Random's eclectic brand of modern progressive metal and full of all these changes, passages, moods and feels). Much of the riffage is, in addition to being solid and heavy, also quite groovy, and metalcore fans can look forward to a lot of crushing quality breakdowns - but Random certainly does not rely on breakdowns, they just use them very effectively to general dynamism in their music with tracks like the melancholic almost atmospheric track 'As Far As Possible' and the acoustic 'Cuando el blanco no es color' popping up amongst the heavy tracks.

All tracks are very dynamic in structure, as is the whole album, as Random are obviously skilled songwriters who have very broad backgrounds of inspiration, which shines through in their music. The performance is top notch on all accounts, to, and the production is wonderfully organic (especially the drums) and unpolished, yet it is clear and well-defined.

Progressive metal really seems to be expanding these days, as younger progressive metal artists start drawing on sources of inspiration that do not figure in more traditional progressive metal, and if you like artists like Fair to Midland and White Walls, who are know for their alternative metal-based approach to progressive metal, you are certain to like Random, too.