This is the second album by this Brazilian band and after the intro "Penance"
the first track "Under the Sun" starts with a tribal rhytmn typical for the most
known power metal band from that country; namely Angra. Singer Alirio Netto has
a voice rather similar to the Angra vocalist and that even underlines the
connection with that band and I fear for a cheap copy.
But that is not the case, half way thru the first track the guitar players Nathan
Grego and Gabriel Soto show that they are well skilled and serve some beautiful
soli. Fortunately the band has a progressive touch too and they don't play power
metal from start to finish. There is a lot of variety and influences from the
AOR genre appear in several songs. "The Waking Hour" is one of the heavier songs
with a more aggressive singing style, but with a very almost poppy refrain.
After the piano intro the song "Hunger and Shame" turns into an emotional serene
song reminding me a bit of Dream Theater. In "Melted in Charisma", "Childhood"
and "Your Smile" some Brazilian tribal influences are used again and
they make me
think of Angra again.
The second half of the album has a lot of balladesk pieces and that sees to it
that I loose my attention and after the ballad "Winding Road" and a piano
version of "Take Me Home" the album ends a bit like a farth blown away in the wind. Personally I like the first half of the album
the most,
because it is a tad heavier.
All in all, this band is more than Angra 2.0, they are a lot more progressive
and the melodic (AOR) refrains make them nice to listen to.
