While Medina Azahara is considered part of the rock andaluz scene, they were actually relative latecomers to that scene. Sure, the band is from Andalusia – from Córdoba, to be exact – and they blend rock with Andalusian music, which means flamenco, but also strong Arabic influences. Medina Azahara is also very clearly influenced by rock andaluz pioneers Triana, even releasing a Triana tribute album and a half – and that is not an exaggeration. However, with a more modern rock sound than many of their peers, I would argue Medina Azahara introduced a new era of Andalusian rock.

The rock segment in Medina Azahara’s sound actually evolved over time. On their first few albums, the band’s rocking side was very clearly rooted in the lighter, folky progressive rock stylings of the likes of early Genesis. When guitarist Paco Ventura joined the band in the late eighties, however, his neoclassical heavy metal guitar work pushed the band in a heavier direction, with more pronounced Arabic melodies to boot. Shortly before his arrival, Medina Azahara had already started experimenting with AOR influences, and those have remained for the rest of the band’s career as well.

Your enjoyment of Medina Azahara will depend on your tolerance for Manuel Martínez’ vocals. He is a full-on flamenco wailer in a rock band, which I personally enjoy, but I could see him being a bit much for some people. Also, their albums tend to have three or four overly saccharine ballads too many. Their best material is exceptional, however, and recommended if you are looking for adventurous and exotic, yet accessible rock music. Last year, Medina Azahara announced its retirement after 47 years of uninterrupted activity, concluding their farewell tour in November of this year.

20. Caravana Española (1987)

‘Caravana Española’ must have been an incredible disappointment when it first came out. Medina Azahara had not released anything in five years, and what they came up with doesn’t sound like anything they had released before. If Manuel Martínez wasn’t singing these songs, they could literally have been made by any C-grade pop/rock band that was having trouble adapting to the eighties. The rhythms are soulless and sound programmed – it would surprise me if José Antonio Molina actually plays on the album – while the blaring keyboards are loud and sound ugly, in the way that only eighties keyboards can. Then there is the horrible production, which destroys the one song that could have represented the classic Medina Azahara sound in ‘¿Cuando Llegará Ese Día?’. I would advise anyone to say away from this album. Including the band.

Recommended tracks: ‘¿Cuando Llegará Ese Día?’, ‘Navajas de Cartón’, ‘¡Ya No Queda Nada’

19. Dónde Está la Luz (1993)

Disclaimer: if you aren’t as nauseated by happy, upbeat rockers as I am, you might enjoy ‘Dónde Está la Luz’ significantly more. After all, it’s stylistically not that different from its two predecessors. Paco Ventura’s guitar work is on point, but I don’t think the songs are all that strong. As I said, the rockers are too cheerful for me, and the ballads generally don’t tug at my heartstrings enough, though I like the fact that the band offers a version of ‘Otoño’ that isn’t caked in sugary gloss. Though ‘Dónde Está la Luz’ does get quite good towards the end, the powerless AOR and the uninspired ballads you have to get through before reaching that part of the album just make the whole thing feel much longer than it actually is.

Recommended tracks: ‘Miedo a Despertar’, ‘La Tierra Perdida’, ‘Dame Tu Mano’

18. El Sueño Eterno (2023)

Let’s get the positives out of the way first: I love how Medina Azahara goes for a more organic sound on their final studio album. Even the ballads are like that, and I like that Manuel Ibáñez often goes for a Hammond organ rather than more glossy keyboard sounds. However, did ‘El Sueño Eterno’ really need to be a double album with over a hundred minutes of playing time? There’s barely a single disc’s worth of good material here; the samey mid-tempo rockers sound like the work of burnt-out musicians rather than seasoned veterans. There are some very good songs here – the flamenco-heavy title track, with genre great El Barrio guesting, is actually one of the band’s greatest ballads to date – but not enough to justify it’s excruciatingly long runtime.

Recommended tracks: ‘Llegó la Hora’, ‘El Sueño Eterno’, ‘Busca Una Salida’

17. Andalucía (1982)

While I think that ‘Andalucía’ is better than its reputation suggests, the order in which the songs appear doesn’t do it any favors. Medina Azahara’s third album blatantly sees them aiming for the pop market, though they were not quite ready to say farewell to their prog roots yet. Which is just as well, because the band wasn’t great at writing pop songs at this point. The album starts out quite nicely with the streamlined neo-progrocker ‘Me Pregunto’, only to be followed by two dreadful attempts at eighties mainstream pop/rock. Fortunately, ‘Andalucía’ does get better after that, and the surprisingly heavy ‘Una Extraña Pesadilla’ is actually fantastic, but the album never really settles into a groove that works, and it feels like a confused work of a band caught between two eras as a result.

Recommended tracks: ‘Una Extraña Pesadilla’, ‘Andalucía’, ‘Me Pregunto’

16. XX (2000)

Unlike its title may suggest, ‘XX’ is not an anniversary compilation. It actually celebrates Medina Azahara’s twentieth anniversary in a better way: with new songs. The album sees the band moving away from the strong Arabic leanings of its predecessor in favor of somewhat more conventional melodic hard rock. That isn’t necessarily a good development, but at least ‘XX’ rocks surprisingly hard for a Medina Azahara album. It does start with a few rather weak songs, but ‘XX’ settles into a nice groove a few songs in. Most ballads are quite good this time around as well. The album does have a sizeable amount of pedestrian material, which makes it difficult to argue that it really needed to be a whopping fourteen songs and sixty-five minutes long. But at least more than half of it is quite good.

Recommended tracks: ‘Mundo Loco’, ‘Un Cuadro de Colores’, ‘Todos Necesitamos a Alguien’

15. La Historia Continúa (2011)

It’s very easy to miss ‘La Historia Continúa’, as it has been released as part of a box set with live recordings. And though it has been released separately, even its title implies implies that it might be a career retrospective of some kind. ‘La Historia Continúa’ is in fact a collection of eight original songs, and while it is by no means essential, you would be missing out on some excellent tracks if you skip past it. ‘Esa Luz’ is one of the best songs the band ever released, the surprisingly modern-sounding bite in its guitar and keyboard approach being very welcome. Closing track ‘Mi Andalucía’ is a must-hear as well. Most of the remaining tracks has Medina Azahara following their chosen template, but they do it well enough for that not to be an issue. The snare drum sound is annoyingly thin though.

Recommended tracks: ‘Esa Luz’, ‘Mi Andalucía’, ‘La Música Suena’

14. …En Al-Hakim (1989)

With the arrival of Paco Ventura, Medina Azahara goes all-in on the Arabic side of their Andalusian rock, and they get notably heavier. ‘…En Al-Hakim’ feels like a breath of fresh air after the lifeless ‘Caravana Española’, even though the overblown, glossy eighties production remains from that album. The album’s live staple ‘Velocidad’ fails to resonate with me, but at least it’s just dull and repetitive rather than confused and directionless. I also think ‘…En Al-Hakim’ could use at least one more uptempo rocker, or at least something as huge and mysterious like opening track ‘Al-Hakim… Otro Lugar’, though I really love how heavy the album is on the folk music from the band’s home region. Later flamenco superstar Vicente Amigo even appears on ‘La Guitarra’. Flawed as it is, ‘…En Al-Hakim’ is an important transitional album for the band.

Recommended tracks: ‘Al-Hakim… Otro Lugar’, ‘Desde Córdoba’, ‘La Guitarra’

13. Origen y Leyenda (2009)

A Medina Azahara album without any schmaltzy ballads? Sign me up! To be fair, some of the more melodic hardrockers are borderline, and closing track ‘Que Te Quiero’ is a textbook power ballad, but no other Medina Azahara album needs fifteen songs to get to its first full-on ballad. Even the keyboards are relatively subtle on ‘Origen y Leyenda’, leaving plenty of space for Paco Ventura to do his thing. All of this seems to point towards ‘Origen y Leyenda’ being the perfect Medina Azahara album. Unfortunately, many of the songs around the middle of the album in particular are quite samey, especially in terms of tempo and melodic ideas. A fifteen-song, 63-minute album really should have more variation than this. I like the overall sound of ‘Origen y Leyenda’, though, and there are some truly great metallic rockers on the album.

Recommended tracks: ‘A la Deriva’, ‘Quien a Hierro Mata’, ‘Humo y Papel’

12. La Memoria Perdida (2012)

‘La Memoria Perdida’ is a difficult album for me to review and rank. It’s extremely laid-back, which would usually be an issue with me, but it does explore different shades of laid-back very effectively in a manner quite uncommon for a Medina Azahara album. There aren’t any overly sugary power ballads, neither is there any exaggerated melodrama. The dynamics work really well, giving the album as a whole an extremely pleasant flow. Part of me wishes there were one or two speedy, metallic tracks with Paco Ventura going wild on ‘La Memoria Perdida’, but in all honesty, that probably would have hurt the flow more than it would have helped. The back half of the album rocks slightly harder overall, though never so hard that it shakes up the slightly theatrical Spanish rock experience.

Recommended tracks: ‘Libertad y Luz’, ‘Al Pie de la Alhambra’, ‘Mil Colores en Tu Corazón’

11. La Esquina del Viento (1981)

Overall, Medina Azahara’s second album ‘La Esquina del Viento’ sounds more focused than the debut album, and it leans slightly harder into the progressive rock side of the band. While a similar mix of influences is on display, ‘La Esquina del Viento’ has a very different atmosphere. The surprisingly heavy, riffy ‘Sueños de Locura’ is one of the band’s early highlights, but it probably would have clashed with the debut album’s almost dreamy vibe. Miguel Galán and Manuel Molina deliver some incredible work on guitar and bass respectively, and the songwriting is on point here. In fact, ‘Una Mañana de Mayo’ is one of the band’s finest ballads. While the debut album was the better total experience, ‘La Esquina del Viento’ may be a tad better on a song-to-song basis, simply due to its increased focus.

Recommended tracks: ‘Sueños de Locura’, ‘El Rincón de Mi Mente’, ‘Me Invade una Gran Pasión’

10. La Estación de los Sueños (2005)

In many ways, ‘La Estación de los Sueños’ is the album that sees Medina Azahara getting comfortable with the style they have settled upon ever since keyboard player Manuel Ibáñez became part of the songwriting team. That is both a blessing and a curse. ‘La Estación de los Sueños’ is an album with a very pleasant flow, and it is notably less saccharine in its ballads and AOR tracks, but it’s also kind of low on true highlights. Everything is very streamlined, and the album feels a bit more laid-back than its predecessor ‘Aixa’, with even the heaviest tracks having more of an old school hard rock vibe. Its consistency deserves praise, however, as there aren’t many skipworthy tracks. The folky touches are slightly toned down, but that does increase their impact when they do show up.

Recommended tracks: ‘El Sabor de Tu Ausencia’, ‘Si Tú No Estás en Él’, ‘Alcemos las Manos’

9. Tierra de Libertad (2001)

Keyboard player Manuel Ibáñez started contributing to writing songs here, though he isn’t listed as a full-time band member yet. If anything, his approach to writing keyboard parts lends credence to the AOR songs, and ‘Así Es Madrid’ is one of the best Medina Azahara songs in that particular style. ‘Tierra de Libertad’ is also a bit more dynamic than ‘XX’ was, which ultimately makes it the much better album. Paco Ventura is absolutely on fire on more than a few tracks as well, and he wastes no time letting the listener know, as both the instrumental intro ‘Insomnia’ and the following title track are full of musical fireworks. A few too many songs are nauseatingly upbeat to make ‘Tierra de Libertad’ the full album experience it could have been, but the good far outweighs the bad here.

Recommended tracks: ‘Tierra de Libertad’, ‘Así Es Madrid’, ‘Mora’

8. Paseando por la Mezquita (1979)

Technically their self-titled debut album, but geneally referred to by the title of its downright incredible opening track, ‘Paseando por la Mezquita’ was released less than a year after the band had formed, which given how well-established their sound already is here is quite remarkable. Guitarist Miguel Galán mostly builds his parts out of clean chords and arpeggios instead of riffs here, but it works with the overall atmosphere of the album. He does deliver a number of fantastic solos though. The album does suffer a bit from being very frontloaded, and a little more rhythmic variety would have done it well, but those flaws are very easy to forget when you just surrender to the atmosphere let the album take you on its flamenco filtered through mildly symphonic seventies prog journey. Great album cover too.

Recommended tracks: ‘Paseando por la Mezquita’, ‘Recuerdos del Ayer’, ‘Si Supieras’

7. Árabe (1995)

In a way, ‘Árabe’ is the perfect illustration of everything great about Medina Azahara, as well as everything wrong with them. There was no doubt that it was going to rank this high, as the rockers range from great to downright spectacular. But there are so many ballads on ‘Árabe’, and most of them are terrible, though the profoundly sad ‘No Está Sola’ is quite good. And since both extremes are more or less alternating each other, the album never really settles into a pleasant flow. ‘Árabe’ is still very much worth owning for Paco Ventura’s fantastic riffs and solos alone, however, although it doesn’t lean quite as heavily into the Arabic side of the band’s sound as the album title and the amazing opening track ‘Favorita de un Sultán’ may imply.

Recommended tracks: ‘Todo Está Escrito’, ‘Favorita de un Sultán’, ‘Dudas’

6. Paraíso Prohibido (2016)

No Medina Azahara album suffers as much from its track sequencing as ‘Paraíso Prohibido’. It starts out powerful and surprisingly modern with the almost Myrath-like ‘Ven Junto a Mi’, then the album’s quality dips immediately, only to recover a few songs later with the surprisingly strong semi-ballad ‘Cuando Estoy a Solas’. From then on, however, the album builds massive momentum which it manages to maintain throughout the rest of the album. The secret of ‘Paraíso Prohibido’ is two-fold. First off, the more contemporary production job of Manuel Ángel Mart – singer Manuel Martinez’ late son – adds some bite to Paco Ventura’s guitar riffs in particular. Secondly, while the songs are still easily digestible and fairly concise, they are also more adventurous, more dynamic, and as a result, less predictable. There is a near-flawless 45-ish-minute album somewhere in this 59-minute one.

Recommended tracks: ‘El Dolor de Mi Alma’, ‘Cuando Estoy a Solas’, ‘Ella Es’

5. Aixa (2003)

The opening diptych of ‘Puerta al Mundo’ and the classy semi-ballad ‘Córdoba’ is likely meant to overwhelm, with the Orquesta de Córdoba guesting on it, but it also kind of misrepresents ‘Aixa’. This is the closest Medina Azahara had gotten to a full-on folky power metal album up until this point in their career, and the middle part of the album in particular shows off how great they can be at playing the style if they put their minds to it. Also, the Arabic and flamenco influences have regained a bit of prominence after two albums of mostly remaining in the background. ‘Aixa’ would have had a serious shot at the top spot in this ranking if it didn’t end on such a relatively weak note; out of the last five songs, only ‘Se Acabó’ and ‘Pegado al Suelo’ are worthwhile.

Recommended tracks: ‘La Verdad’, ‘Azahara’, ‘Rompe Esa Cruz’

4. Trece Rosas (2018)

‘Trece Rosas’ rocks harder than most of the latter-day Medina Azahara albums, but somehow, it’s also more subtle. Neither the rockers nor the ballads are as immediate as usual, and neither is centered quite as much around huge choruses. Also, there is more melodic variation on the album. It’s not like there are any speed monsters or super slow grinders here, but the band simply gets more mileage out of their typical bandwidth here. For example: most of the rockers are upper mid-tempo, but you won’t mistake any two for each other, because the band made sure that all of them have clearly distinguishable riffs and melodies. The AOR-leaning songs also have a bit more power behind them this time around. ‘Trece Rosas’ is the last exceptional Medina Azahara album, and one of their best overall.

Recommended tracks: ‘Libres Sin Nada’, ‘La Lucha’, ‘Nunca Me Rendiré’

3. Tánger (1998)

In a way, ‘Tánger’ is the logical endpoint that Medina Azahara had been evolving towards for a while by having by far the strongest focus on the Arabic side of the band’s Analusian rock. On a few tracks, the band actually works together with Moroccan musicians, though the way the album is presented – and the fact that opener ‘Danza al Viento’, one of the best songs the band ever recorded, was the first single – implies that the influence of the guest musicians is greater than it actually is. However, Paco Ventura in particular really runs with the idea of making an Arabic-styled Spanish hard rock album, and he does so in style. ‘Tánger’ may have been my favorite Medina Azahara album if the numerous ballads weren’t mostly absolutely dreadful. Fortunately, though, the melodic hardrockers are particularly strong this time around.

Recommended tracks: ‘Danza al Viento’, ‘El Lento Atardecer’, ‘Confusion y Realidad’

2. Sin Tiempo (1992)

If you approach Medina Azahara from a metal angle, ‘Sin Tiempo‘ is the perfect album to start with. It blasts right out of the gate with the intense ‘Niños’ and the more melodic, but no less metallic ‘Hijos del Amor y de la Guerra’, and it still remains the heaviest opening to a Medina Azahara album ever. This is Paco Ventura’s second album with the band, and you can just hear that he has become more confident in adding riffs and solos. Pablo Radabán’s keyboard sounds also have some unnecessary gloss removed, which makes the more accessible rockers – such as their big hit single ‘Necesito Respirar’ – and the ballads a lot more palatable as well. Manuel Reyes’ drum sound is massive as well. Old school Medina Azahara fans might disagree, but to me, ‘Sin Tiempo’ is a masterpiece.

Recommended tracks: ‘Niños’, ‘Hijos del Amor y de la Guerra’, ‘Todo Tiene Su Fin’

1. Las Puertas del Cielo (2014)

‘Las Puertas del Cielo’ is really what you get if you trim ‘Paraíso Prohibido’ of most of its fat and tighten the production just a tad – although it came out two years prior. Manuel Ángel Mart truly was the perfect producer for Medina Azahara: he realized the band’s strengths and truly made them focus on those, and this album is proof. Despite a minor dip around the middle of the album, ‘Las Puertas del Cielo’ is without a doubt the most consistent set of Medina Azahara songs, with Paco Ventura’s riffs and Nacho Santiago’s drums having the perfect modern punch to make everything hit harder than usual, including the excellent melodies. It also sounds like ‘Las Puertas del Cielo’ isn’t trying to be anything other than the best set of songs Medina Azahara could come up with at that time. It’s a shame it’s out of print, because the album belongs in any serious melodic hard rock and heavy metal collection.

Recommended tracks: ‘Eres Estrella Errante’, ‘Un Grito de Amor’, ‘Gracias a Vosotros’

Lastly, a word of warning to people seeking out physical copies of Medina Azahara’s discography. The vast majority of their work has been released by Avispa Music. However, there are lots of releases floating around the channels of official merchants that appear to be from Avispa, but could just as well be a counterfeit label posing as them, that feature CD-R’s. They do feature full booklets, though generally on paper that feels somewhat cheap. My advice would be to always ask the merchant in question if you will be getting a pressed CD.