Guapo take their prog obsession and turn it into a full fledged prog rock freakout experience on the frequently gorgeous and overwhelming Five Suns. The sound and mood conjured within the album’s eight songs call to mind a bunch (well, three in this case) of 60’s acid-rock refugees teleporting into the present day, picking up a random metal album or two along the way, all the while listening to a drone compilation after having noon tea with The Boredoms.

The album’s raison d’etre is the title track, a sweeping 46-minute epic divided into five seamless parts. You’re immediately encapsulated in a swirling bed of persuasive, lolling drums, gentle piano key taps and shimmery gongs. It builds, growing subtly louder, when all those same elements, so inviting a few minutes before, suddenly sprout fangs and you find yourself on the receiving end of an all out assault that vanishes just as unexpectedly in a squall of feedback. A lone gong hit ushers in a minimal keyboard line which introduces a full, yet lazily paced exercise of bass and drum percussiveness.

And that’s just the first five minutes. Track one sets the tone of the album; it’s practically an outline of what’s to come as Guapo takes these same (multi) dynamics and stretch them to sometimes unfathomable lengths. A propulsive rhythm will go on and on, with single minded direction. Little distractions pop up from time to time: a lone keyboard line, abrupt guitar noodling, a barely there underpinning rhythm. And then once again, after you’ve settled into a groove built so meticulously, it’s split open with some animalistic drumming, orchestral organ or guitar histrionics. After being aurally slapped across the face just so, the rupture repairs itself with the introduction of yet another methodically crafted base for the next set of instrumental incursions.

Five Suns is a journey, a long one. Full of twists, turns, trapdoor exits, detours, blocked paths and indeterminate stretches of road where the only end in sight is the vanishing point on the horizon. It will take stamina if you want to undertake this. You will be frustrated, thwarted when you think the culmination is at hand. You will want to give up numerous times. Yet if you follow the trail to its end point, finally able to look back though the immense amount of terrain covered, an utmost sense of satisfaction will fill you, the knowledge that you trudged on, made it to the end. (8/10)