Few bands in the last few years have made me sit up and take notice like this band have.
Brazil's not especially known in the rest of the world as a breeding ground for rock bands of any persuasion. So for this progressive/hard rock band to sound so accomplished, so damn surefooted came as a huge, but very welcome surprise.
Though judging by the sheer enthusiasm of the crowd at Helloween's Sao Paulo gig, the metal/rock genres are hugely popular there.
The press info doesn't explain how the band, Leo Mancini (guitars/songwriter), Edu Cominato (drums, songwriter), Paulo Soza, bass, and BJ, vocals, caught the attention of Jeff Scott Soto, but fortunately for them they did. Soto provides guest vocals on '
Insanity Desire', one of the more aggressive tracks here - a little bit Talisman, a little bit contemporary Winger.
The influence of Dream Theater's technical precision and serpentine arrangements are apparent on
'Faked By Time' and '
Too High's shouty progressive metal, though the latter track becomes mired in its own complexity toward the end.
It's the simpler stuff that really impresses.
'Fallen Moon' is an electricifying melodic hard rock song, full of verve, vigour and pace and punctuated by short bursts of progrock energy.
It closes in a fabulous blast of accelerated riffing and razor sharp axework. Great track.
That said, the album's most interesting proggy workout, the instrumental, '
Redoma' astutely avoids progrock's many pitfalls, expressing a wealth of melodic ideas, and combining these with alternately undulating, hard hitting percussive action.
Album standout, by a considerable margin, is
'A Life's Alibi'. A Champion's League contender if I ever I heard one, full of life and beautiful melodic moments. It opens like a show song, carefully articulated, accompanied solely by strings. Progressively, guitars, drum, bass and keyboards join in. BJ's voice goes from velvet to sandpaper in the space of a verse/ bridge/chorus, bringing the song to a combative climax, followed by a sudden return to the subdued style on which the song opened.
But it's only a peak among many highpoints.
A band to watch, no question.
Written by
Brian Friday, July 20, 2007
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