Negua is a new Spanish five piece band with members from former Spanish prog bands Dracma and Unoma. During my first musical encounter with Negua I was pleased with their sound but to me it sounded a bit polished. However, as usual for good prog, a further investigation delighted me: what a varied, adventurous and especially dynamic prog this is!

The first song Bagdad (about political failure and suffering civilians) contains a lot of tension, often with bombastic interplay between guitar and organ and inspired vocals. The ominous middle part delivers furious guitar and propulsive, militairy beats, it sounds like the musical translation of raining bombs and screaming people and reminds me of Forgotten Sons by Marillion (another complaint about political failure and suffering people).

The next three songs showcase Negua their adventurous mind and variety: A Reason To Believe is melodic rock with strong guitarwork (sometimes evoking Eighties U2), Late Night contains a tight beat with delicate orchestrations and fiery guitar and Bright Light is alternating with halfway soaring keyboards and a moving guitar soli with howling runs.

The final two tracks are quite long: first the very dynamic Lullaby (from dreamy to bombastic eruptions) with great guitarplay (from sensitive runs to propulsive riffs and swirling interplay with the organ) and a grand finale with emotionals vocals, slow synthesizer flights and adventurous drumming and finally the three-piece composition View From The Castle (more than 20 minutes) that features Negua at their best, from biting guitar and sumptuous parts to tender piano, flashy synthesizer and twanging guitar with soaring keyboards. The vocals contain a slight accent but the emotional overtones match perfectly with the dynamic music.

The entire running time of one hour I have enjoyed Negua their fresh and modern blend of melodic rock (evoking modern Rush), neo-prog (IQ and Marillion) and symphonic prog (Genesis), this is a very promising band that has a lot to offer for progheads!

Erik Neuteboom