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One day I was on a message board and I heard some people talking about a band called Tribus. I had never heard of the band, but the very next day I got their CD in the mail to review. Before listening, by just looking at the CD cover I was thinking industrial. However, after popping it in the CD player I was surprised to hear a rock/metal instrumental album. Christian music is not known for many insturmental albums except for artists like Lanny Cordola and Jeff Sheetz, but now there is Carlos Soto and Alex Llorens. Now this is not metal all the way through. In fact, at times these guys are all over the map, but for the most part it sounds like some progressive metal with some jazz-type influences among other things. Carlos and Alex are very talented musicians and it shows on this release. Every song stands on it's own, which is good, cause without vocals it could get difficult to tell songs apart. The first song "The Hymn" is just some choir vocals. The next song "Take it By Force" is probably the weakest song on the album, although it is probably the heaviest. They do the heavy stuff well, but the other styles interspersed in this song don't fit at all. However, they make up for it at the end as the crunchy guitars get heavier and a crazy guitar solo plays alongside. The rest of the songs are decent, but nothing groundbreaking. At times they delve into some much calmer music, which would be better suited for a relaxing rainy day. They keep enough heaviness in it to please the less picky fans of heavy music. The extreme metal fans that hate even the hint of a slow-down should stay clear of this release. But if you're open minded you should enjoy this. Best songs include "Mr. Unknown", "Blue Flame" (which has a guitar solo that sounds like it would fit on a Resurrection Band album from the late 70's - cool!), and "Innocent Blood". I think the numbering on the CD got messed up though cause the CD cover lists 10 songs, but only 9 show up. I think "The Hymn" should've been #1 and "Take it By Force" #2, and so on...but the CD shows both those two as #1. A problem only to be solved by Carlos or Alex themselves since their are no lyrics to help out. The production on this album is also quite good which definitely helps when the music is the only focus. Anyways...normally I'm not a big instrumental fan, and I'm still not, but this album was quality enough to hold my attention. As for an album that I'll be going back to again and again...I don't think so. To get ordering info, e-mail Carlos Soto at tribustheband@aol.com (Review by Matt)
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