Musicellaneous ‣ Ostura

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It’s Friday again, which means—another gulp of exotic music in the eleventh edition of Musicellaneous!

This time I’m going to sidestep the tradition of reviewing instrumental djent stuff. Our guests today are the cinematic progressive metal band (in their own words) Ostura from Lebanon.

Ostura is Arabic for legend. The band has been formed back in 2009 and, as far as I reckon, had quite a bumpy ride, changing the line-up several times.

Music

Ostura has released two full-length albums to date.

Ashes of the Reborn

If you ask me, their debut Ashes of the Reborn (2012) wasn’t something extraordinary. I’d describe it as good old progressive power metal. What’s important though, is that it’s demonstrated the creative potential of the musicians…

The Room

… which was put to best use in their most recent release, the monumental (alright, cinematic) progressive saga The Room (2018).

I must admit the vicissitudes the band has gone through seem to have fully paid off. It’s an amazingly quality performance which I can hardly find another example of.

A few big names took part in this recording, like the drummer Thomas Lang (Peter Gabriel, Robbie Williams, Sugababes), singer Michael Mills (Ayreon), guitarists Marco Sfogli (James LaBrie, Jordan Rudess) and Ozgur Abbak, and even our Dutch prog legend Arjen Lucassen. Plus, to make this glorious picture complete, the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra!

The result proved to be mind-blowing. Every instrument, the vocals, the orchestra are placed exactly where they ought to be. You get immediately carried away by the sound and the arrangement, all the way to the end of the album.

That was my own first impression of “The Room”, and feel free to experience that yourself: