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Send an angel with unbroken wings! ” Those metalheads familiar with the Swedish Christian progressive power metal band under the banner of Narnia or progressive metal act Mind’s Eye shouldn’t need any further introduction to the man, with the voice of goldness, also known as GERMÁN PASCUAL. Everyone else listen carefully. After the death of his beloved band Narnia three years ago, he moved on and joined forces with another Christian power metal band called DivineFire, and since then his gifted voice has been borrowed by many metal bands such as the melodic power metallers Golden Resurrection and SoulSpell, so it wouldn’t be fair accusing him for resting on his laurels. What’s his next move then? Surprisingly he returned last year and kick started his musical career once again, this time as a soloist with his debut release entitled “A New Beginning”. Great things await Mr. Pascual and you, our fellow readers… Let’s take a glimpse back at where it all began for this talented musician. The first chapter of the life of Germán Pascual’ was written in Uruguay many years ago. He was raised in Brazil, and later on as a young kid moved along with his family to the cold north of Scandinavia in the heart of Sweden, also known as Stockholm. Starting out as a drummer, he later found his true calling in life as a singer, when his special and rare gift was discovered by the Swedish progressive metal band Mind’s Eye. You can name it fate or destiny, but let us all thank him for his wise decision to follow his heart and fulfill his dreams as a rock and metal singer. Back to reality and what this is all about. Finally, German has returned into the spotlight again with some guest musicians and good old friends of his by his side. He has handpicked some of the most well-known and talented holy warriors hunting on the fields found on the power metal scene today like his old buddy and multi-instrumentalist Carl-Johan “CJ” Grimmark (Narnia, Rob Rock, Fires Of Babylon), who is delivering well executed heavy guitar riffs with guitarist Martin Hall (Forged Wings) and Thomas Plec Johansson (Unmoored, Torchbearer). The outstanding bass lines are created by Raphael Dafras (Seven Horizons, Almah), who also are in charge of the powerful drumming. And to spice it all up Guilherme Oliveira (Menahem) lays down wonderful and mesmerizing melodies on the keyboard on most of the tunes. So Germán is in safe hands in company with such seasoned musicians, but will the end result still be worthy an “Oscar” statuette…hell yeah, I’ll tell you why so keep your eyes peeled. Well, where should I begin then? Right from the start to the final destination of this musical journey our ears will be delightful entertained with a production of supreme quality defined by its crispy and diamond clear sound, and guess what? Who else could pull of this trick successfully other than Mr. Pascual himself and his friend Raphael Dafras. Of course they only succeeded with the helping hand of Thomas Plec Johansson, who deserves some respect and standing ovation as well for the flawless mixing and mastering of this perfectly carved and polished gem. I had a hard time picking out my favourites amongst the ten well-crafted songs, since they all are more or less of the same high quality standard. Still I would recommend the first and second track as a perfect appetizer though. The opener “Seek the Truth” begins with a bombardment of our ears with mesmerizing collages of beautifully keyboard melodies performed by Guilherme that will invade your mind like musical worms, and then it explodes like an volcano into a heavy tune with the frenzied and aggressive guitar work ravaging our ears in a beautiful way complemented by the rich and soaring vocals on top of it. Its follower “The Wrath of God” increases the tempo and the violence level a bit, and introduces a different vocal style by Germán with his hellish screams, and it simply sounds brilliant. Unlike those two first songs, the closing song “Cancion Con Todos” launches Germán Pascual into a full-blown power-ballad territory, a beautifully song especially when sung with such passion, emotion and perfection by Mr. Pascual. I’m not an expert of the Spanish language, actually I don’t understand one single word of it, and still this song is a killer. This guy is like an angel sent from the almighty metal gods. His gifted voice is a sheer joy to listen to, and if I’m not mistaken he even has his own wings. They are tattooed on his back, but who cares right? This is pure “kick ass” melodic Christian power metal, straight out of the box, with maybe one of the best vocalist found on the metal scene today. This release definitely deserved a spot on my top 20 list of best metal albums last year, but because of my laziness it didn’t make it. I feel deeply sorry for that, so I’ll add it to this year’s list, better late than never right? Well, Mr. Pascual has welcomed a new fan on board his power metal flagship today, and I’m convinced this will be “a new beginning” of many great things coming from the one and only, GERMÁN PASQUAL. This album has my highest recommendation and you will be felling right home here, if you are a devoted power metal freak. Maybe I’m not normally too fond of this genre, but Mr. Pasqual has seduced my prog metal heart, and knocked me off my feat this time. I’ll surely stay here awhile before returning to the holy place of progressive metal. | ||||||||||||||||||
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