Progressive rock; Neo Prog
Latest release: Vigesimus (2021).
The band is still actively playing live. They have 21 studio albums, so how much more do they have to offer? We'll see.
Nimbus (2004)
Nimbus is the 12th studio album from Mexico's Cast. At their beginning, Cast were heavily influenced by the neo prog marquee names such as Marillion, IQ, and Pendragon. They released an enormous amount of material in a short period of time, all characterized by the familiar NWOBPR sound, while singing in English. By the time of Nimbus, the band have become more confident with other styles of progressive rock, and are now utilizing their native language primarily. In addition to that, Cast has brought in more instrumentation, which allows for more tonal color, which was missing from their earlier releases. So even though this is their 12th album in a 10 year time frame, it's remarkably fresh and not stale at all. '911' recalls their earlier neo prog past, whereas 'Un Singlo de Invierno' dabbles in prog metal. But mostly this is classic European progressive rock, as might be found in Spain during the late 70s - a band like Crack for example. Make no mistake, Cast aren't retro in the slightest, and this is clearly a work of the 90s and 00's. As with most of the Cast albums I'm familiar with, the album is quite lengthy (the equivalent of two LPs), so it takes quite a bit of time to absorb all the material presented here. To be honest, I don't have much exposure to Cast past their Angels and Demons album, so I'm not sure where the band transformed their sound. Given the strength of Nimbus, I'm quite open to exploring more.
7/16/18; 11/19/23 (new entry)
