Band:	Melandrolia
Album:	Transicion
Style:	Rock, Gothic rock
Release date:	May 2005
A review by:	Herzebeth

01. Fármaco
02. Nada
03. Water & Blood Spaces
04. Horla
05. Sheol
06. Lascivia
07. Rain
08. Prayer
09. Óleo

Mexico became a potentially big country when it comes to Metal since bands like "Disgorge" and "The Chasm" showed to the entire world we can do great music no strings attached. Ever since, I've come across with many great bands that are doing their best to be perceptible to the metal fans, I'm glad I now came across with "Melandrolia" which is actually one of the most respected bands in the Mexican underground scene.

Transición is the name of their debut Full Length, a good debut which shows to us one of the coldest forms of Artistic Gothic Metal I've ever heard in my years as a reviewer. The album breaks the atmosphere with "Fármaco" a mellow song which is in fact the best prelude to what we will be hearing after. The entire album works with intricate progressions and layered structures in the backgrounds (violin arrangements and surrounding effects for example); so you'll be hearing all kind of feelings in the music whilst the lyrical content helps you to understand everything about the track you are listening to, at least more o less tough because the lyrics come close to surrealistic writings and a lot of metaphors.

Transición is not all about mild atmospheres and theatrical overtones; you'll be able to hear hostile movements in this album such as "Rain" "Sheol" "Lascivia", etc. those violent tracks have also odder vocal arrangements, for example "Horla" has a really bizarre dramatic chorus which sounds a little cheesy the first time, but it sounds decent once you get used to it though. The execution is as good as everything else, the chord progressions wrap the music marvelously leaving no chance to flaws in this matter, the riffing is catchy, melodious at times and aggressive once in a while; the breakdowns are the best feature in "Transición", those bridges will blew the minds of most metal-heads I know; the only thing I can't explain is the lack of long complex solos, these guys sound complex, so they should try adding more leads if you ask me.

So as you can read this album will be a jewel shining in every metal collection, the music is great the lyrical content is fantastic, the production is not really that good actually, there are some bits where the guitar drowns the other instruments, sometimes even the vocalist sounds in second plane; besides those things the album is really good, and I highly recommend it to all those willing to check Artistic Metal at its best.

Best Tracks: "Rain", "Prayer", "Nada"