This Spanish band ICEBERG came (like Manuel from Fawlty Towers) from Barcelona. Their debut album "Tutankhamon" (1975) is the most ‘symphonic’ release: tasteful songs with many shifting moods, ranging from fluent with biting and howling, wah-wah drenched guitar solos to dreamy with floods of choir-Mellotron and tender Fender Rhodes piano. The vocals are often passionate and the interplay between guitar and keyboards is flowing. Recommended.. !

Spanish prog has a reputation of being jazzy. This is with good reason, as most of the bands from Spain that I've heard, such as Om, Cai, Guadalquivir, and Azahar, have a strong fusion or jazz element. But Iceberg stands out among them as being a top notch fusion album not only of Spain, but of all time! With a lineup that rivals those of Return To Forever in terms of skill, Coses Nostres is a fusion-lovers wet dream with it's masterful drumming and bass playing, wildly brilliant guitar, and complementing keyboards. Anyone who has been impressed by the guitar styles of Al Di Meola or John McLaughlin should hear Iceberg's Max Suñé play. His searing leads travel the entire neck of the guitar with remarkable fluidity. He avoids the Trevor Rabin-esque playing fast for the sake of playing fast, and instead combines a traditional Spanish style with the modern rock guitar style of the seventies. The drummer plays on the level that you might expect from Lenny White or Billy Cobham. And lets not take anything away from the keyboardist and bassist, both of whom are excellent. The music is a complex, time-shifting combination of riffs and leads, with an all around aura of musicianship that reminds me of Area (only missing are the vocals and the wild experimentation). Iceberg's themes are upbeat and bouncy most of the time, but don't let the jazziness turn you off. If you're into well written and played progressive fusion like Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy-era Return to Forever, or Visions of the Emerald Beyond by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Iceberg is a must. Coses Nostres easily makes my top ten fusion favorites.

Digipak remaster (with two bonus tracks) of the first album by this fine Spanish band. "Tutankhamon" was originally released in 1975 and is considered to be the weakest of all the Iceberg discs but it's not really a fair comparison. Where as the following albums were instrumental affairs, "Tutankhamon" features vocals and is more of less a symphonic rock outing. There is plenty of firepower to go around from guitarist Max Sunyer and keyboardist Josep "Kitflus" Mas but overall it's not "special" in the same way the later fusion albums are. This is more in line with bands like Bloque and Granada.

01. Tebas [0:01:15.10]
02. Prologo [0:03:08.21]
03. Sacerdotes de Amon [0:02:53.03]
04. Amarna [0:02:55.54]
05. Lying on the Sand [0:05:23.07]
06. Amenofis IV [0:03:00.54]
07. Himno al Sol [0:04:25.69]
08. La Muerte [0:04:21.34]
09. Close to God [0:04:05.54]
10. Too Young to be a Pharaoh [0:03:33.32]
11. Tebas [0:01:48.27]
12. Close to God [0:05:07.01]
13. Too Young to be a Pharaoh [0:03:58.45]


Line-up
- Jordi Colomer / drums, percussion
- José "Kitflus" Mas / keyboards, synthesizers, Mellotron
- Angel Riba / vocals, saxophone
- Primitivo Sancho / bass
- Joaquín "Max" Suñe / electric guitar

EAC extraction logfile from 21. March 2006, 13:46 for CD
Iceberg / Tutankhamon

Used drive  : LG      DVD-ROM DRD8160B   Adapter: 0  ID: 1
Read mode   : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 594
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Used output format : C:\eac095pb4\Ape\MAC.exe   (Monkey's Audio Lossless Encoder)
                     High Lossless Compression

Other options      : 
    Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
    Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
    Installed external ASPI interface


Range status and errors
Selected range
     Filename G:\Iceberg\CDImage.wav

     Peak level 99.9 %
     Range quality 99.9 %
     CRC BFE4D04B
     Copy OK

No errors occured

End of status report