Band: Novus Rex

CD Title: “Plowshares into Swords”

Label: Independent

Label Website:

Release Date: 2009

Hailing out of Colorado Springs, Colorado comes the debut disc for the musical project called Novus Rex, founded by multi-instrumentalist J.R. Fernandez (keyboards, guitars, bass) who grew up in New York City during the seventies. It was the rich music and arts scene there that inspired him to pursue a career in music and it was the progressive rock genre that proved to be the most dominant inspiration. Aiding him in the execution of the music is his son A.I. Fernandez on bass and the late Anthony Davis on vocals. The disc entitledPlowshares Into Swords is a concept work drawing it’s inspiration from end time prophetic writings from a variety of sources. Musically it’s a blend of electronica and symphonic prog with a hint of jazz-fusion.

Plowshares Into Swords begins with “Look! It’s Coming” [7:45] a track that is strongly reminiscent of the music of Vangelis circa Albedo 0.39. Lush synth chords deliver powerful accents over droning layers of synthetic string pads. It’s quite hypnotic. Things take a turn at the 3:30 mark where the songs takes a more conventional approach sounding here more like Patrick Moraz’s early work. The disc is made up of six tracks in total, all of them quite long. And while four of them have vocals, they are limited to as few lines as required to convey the composition’s context within the story. The next track “Old World News” [8:22] comes across with a harder edge. In amongst some nice Hammond organ work are all kinds of other jagged widdley synths delivered in minor keys. It’s busy with notes flying everywhere and the guitar ads an off-kilter aspect to the proceedings. The track is intended to be jarring and to some degree I’m reminded of the Japanese band Ars Nova because of the intensity. The vocals here handled by J.R. aren’t so much sung as they are chanted. I’m reminded of Steve Hackett’s early attempts at vocals. Track three “Truth Seeker” [9:48] begins with piano and acoustic guitar strums for the first minute before unfolding into a more complex series of musical crescendos with a very Spanish flavour and then the tunes changes into a more aggressive march with searing lead guitar lines. These compositions are fairly well developed with many changes in musical direction, going from aggressive to spacey. There’s also a nice mix of synth sounds. Blended with the guitars and drums Plowshares Into Swords avoids sounding samey and instead each musical selection presents some unique and rich sounds.

There is much to appreciate and enjoy with the music of Novus Rex. Plowshares into Swords is quite an accomplished first CD and certainly offers a bright future for the music of J.R. Fernandez. Fans of the music of Vangelis, Moraz, Ars Nova and perhaps even Emerson Lake and Palmer will find much to enjoy.