28th January 2025

Review: “Quadrivium: Resonances” by The Third Grade

Hailing from Valencia, Spanish Progressive Metal collective The Third Grade have been writing, recording and performing since 2010 with a revolving door of musicians leaving multi instrumentalist Jose Masiá the sole founding member. Beside him since 2017 stands vocalist María Cobos, three years later drummer Ivan Tacchella joined the fold. Together they have been working on an EP trilogy that follows the story of a protagonist, who travels from the present to the past, encounters her younger grandfather, and confronts the challenges of time. That began with 2022’s “Quadrivium: Geometry of Time” with the second instalment titled “Quadrivium: Resonances” as they look to continue their tradition of blending intricate storytelling with genre-defying soundscapes.

Symphonic Metal opening cut “A Glitch In Time” is a thing of beauty, spiralling upwards to infinity with a delicate balance between synths and distorted rhythm guitars at the heart of the matter. Intertwining vocal harmonies from multi instrumentalist Jose Masiá and vocalist María Cobos give this one the feel of a movie soundscape, an arena filling sound adding to the majesty. Very well composed, each layer brings something new, pushing the lyrical narrative that much further with each twist and turn, the trio creating in the studio what they’d need a six piece to carry off live. Orchestrations and pounding drums give “Sonata in Am Op. 10 No. 2” the Gothic Opera sound of Muse as a nine minute surpassing tune unfolds, the vocal harmonies once again impressive. Classical piano passages chemically enhance the space age odyssey, the switch to fuzzier, warmer guitars an interesting touch as the trio go off-piste into 1970s Progressive Rock. A fleeting flamboyant virtuoso guitar solo is followed by a keyboard one as Masiá shows off with theatrical flare, the extended instrumental passages uplifting as they play out. A captivating track with a lot of style and substance, this one feels like its been composed by a different band, something which is pushed home when instrumental “Road to the Past” takes hold. A play on Latin rhythms, the guitar work is surprisingly intricate with plenty of lead parts to keep you guessing. Whether it was intended to be or not, it has been offered up as a single entity but feels like many passages conjoined by splicing DNA. Each movement is strikingly different and despite smooth transitions and cinematic appeal, you can’t help feel that these had different destinies. Acoustic guitars and programmed drums take us back to the storytelling style of the earlier material with “The Void“, some electric lead parts intertwining with the vocal harmonies. Gradually building up with some funkier guitars underneath, this one has the presence of a Nightwish track without the power, every minute detail taken care of [7/10]

Track Listing