Style: Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Djent (Mixed vocals)
Review by: Mathis
Country: Germany
Release date: 01 April, 2022
Ambitious progressive newcomers Aquae Furtivae released their intriguing debut album Road To Square One earlier this year on April first. It’s a concept album that tells the story of a father struggling with Alzheimer’s.
Aquae Furtivae are covering what sounds like some heavy subject matter here, but sample just a snippet of their debut album and you’ll find that there is a massive separation between the story and the music. From carnival tunes to latin guitar, to brazenly heavy djent; Road To Square One has a shocking amount of variety in genres. Just listening casually you probably wouldn’t guess the album is about a disease that steals away precious memories of friends and family. The creative approach to storytelling that Aquae Furtivae employs is the main appeal of this album, keeping their sound fresh and interesting while at the same time telling a devastating story, and how each family member is affected by the fathers declining mental state.
Road To Square One has a core progressive metal sound similar to Haken, Caligula’s Horse, or Dream Theater. The various other genres weave in and out of the more consistent progressive metal style, creating a mildly quirky style that is a notch or two more conservative than something like Others By No One or Edge of Reality. I love wacky stuff, but I am the first to admit that sometimes boundaries are pushed too far and the finished product ends up convoluted and over the top. Aquae Furtivae’s approach is perfect. They are experimental in their writing, but not to the point where it becomes a gimmick. “South” the intro track begins with a bluesy riff and ends with alien horror movie vibes. They aren’t sampling every restaurant (Genre) at the food court, rather just choosing a few that compliment each other. This is an awesome direction for other experimental acts to take in the future, however most others will probably just go for rockabilly djent disco instead.
Now that you have a good understanding of what makes this band ambitious and how that works in their favor, I will now proceed to rip this album to shreds. Road To Square One takes risks and naturally there will be some hang ups, shortcomings, or aspirations that didn’t quite hit the mark. While I was only joking about ripping the album to shreds, there is one major issue with it that rubbed me the wrong way. It is one of the strangest concept albums I have listened to. With a total of eight tracks Road To Square One only has vocals on three. Two of these tracks are back to back, with the latter showing up after a slow and bland three track instrumental interlude. The last track with vocals is the namesake “Road To Square One”, a fourteen minute long epic, and I suspect that the intention was to distance the epic from the other two lyrical tracks. However as aforementioned, by doing this Aquae Furtivae have created a run of boring instrumental tracks that kill the album’s momentum.
The parts of Road To Square One that I enjoy seem to vanish as soon as I have finished listening to the album. I know for a fact that there were choruses or some other vocal performances I liked, but I’ve listened to this album at least twenty five times and I can’t remember anything. It doesn’t stick. In one ear and out the other.
All filler no killer, Aquae Furtivae lost my interest just as quickly as they grabbed it. I am being harsh, Road To Square One isn’t that bad, but it feels very empty and goes by far too quickly. Unique ideas are overshadowed by instrumental nothingness, and I may have found it more enjoyable if I only listened to the first three songs and the namesake epic.
Recommended tracks: South, The Path of the Lost, Road To Square One
Recommended for fans of: Haken, Dream Theater, Caligula’s Horse, Earthside
You may also like: Altesia, Soulsplitter, Edge of Reality
Final verdict: 4.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram
Label: FGMusic
Aquae Furtivae is:
– Jérome Kaufman (Guitar)
– Anaïs Lefebvre (Extreme Vocals)
– Iago Franco Gonzalez (Drums)
– Guest: Lucas de la Rosa (Vocals & Guitar)
– Guest: Marc James (Bass)
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