The Arkitecht – Acústico – Album Review

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Mexican Progressive Rock/Experimental Rock band The Arkitecht began life as a one man band formed in 2005 by Genaro Ochoa (playing all instruments) and a transient group of session musicians. By 2010, the band had been constructed by Ochoa with permanent members – a journey which seems to have been difficult for them to achieve – resulting in a far too noticeable difference between the original album tracks and this live acoustic album. Whether this is due to the changes in band members at various stages in their evolution or actually underlines the desired effect from the outset is difficult to tell.

The Arkitecht claim to be experimentalist and experimental would seem to be an apt description for this foray into the world of the unplugged. “Hyperstructure”, from the acclaimed album of the same name, doesn’t translate well when compared to the ‘powered’ version and has completely lost the drive and Metal feel of the original. “Crimson Pain” does pull back a little and is highly reminiscent of Metallica and Megadeth when unplugged but there is a chasm of difference in talent, while Acústico‘s final track contains a distractingly misplaced “Eye of the Tiger” intro.

How to quantify this effort? The Arkitecht are certainly capable of delivering the goods – previous work stands as testament to that – but Acústico seems to have taken a left turn somewhere along the line. 4/10