SHAMAN

Formed by former Angra frontman Andre Matos, Shaman is another one of those typical power/progressive metal bands that are pretty unknown and only have small, cult followings to go by. I'd seen 'Ritual', their 2002 debut album, pop up on a number of websites such as Amazon and eBay, where it was being compared to prog metal pioneers Dream Theater, and while I was never under any illusion that they were as good or prominent, it just seemed like they were a bit of a cult band that had something special to offer.

Unfortunately they're not really anything out of the ordinary when it comes to this kind of music.

That's not to say they're bad, in fact, 'Ritual' took quite a few listens to get used to, but it's actually a pretty decent album. It's not overly 'progressive', but is definitely a typical power metal record with fast, upbeat songs (with an almost 'happy vibe'), incredible musicianship, and in fairness, Matos vocals are damn impressive too. The tracks are all well produced, and with solid songwriting that takes influences from Brazilian music, it's an interesting enough debut, if not generic, but still pretty good none-the-less.

Tracks like 'For Tomorrow', 'Distant Thunder', 'Time Will Come', 'Here I Am' and the title track are all pretty good songs that are definitely worth a listen if you're into this kind of thing. While most of them employ the usual traits of the genre, there are a few moments that do make Shaman stand out. 'For Tomorrow' has a very nice, tribal sound, with some interesting vocals and guitar work, while 'Time Will Come' has some very tasty, speed metal-inspired riffs.

Shaman aren't anything particularly unique or innovative, and while it took a fair amount of time to get into, I'm glad I stuck it out, because 'Ritual' is a pretty solid debut that shows a band that certainly has potential to improve.

Mediocre sequel. No sense of why they didn't rename the band. This is not Shaaman!

Shaman was basically Andre Matos project. Something happened, they disbanded, and the drummer remained with the name of the band and gather up a new lineup. Shame, I think the music maybe is not that bad, but if you came with the standards of that moody dark Prog Metal that the mystical Shaman brought out in their two previous albums, this third album is a dishonor and they fail to succeed or at least remain on the standards of the disband band.

Sure, the ambience mystic surrounding is there, but they fail in the composition and the direction of the music. As the "new" lineup of Angra, this sequel of Saaman becomes into a generic Power Metal band with nothing that distinguish them of any other average band. Yeah, fast keyboard solos; yeah, fast guitar solos; yes, double bass drums all over the place. What is so exciting about? Great musicians? For sure, but the music has no soul at all, and that was the thing Shaaman was all about.

Maybe if they have a different name I won't be this disappointed but the true is that average Power Metal bands do not do anything to me. Plainly and painfully flat, formulaic and with nothing special to talk about. I'm not sure if even the fans of the previous albums would be glad with this poor shadow of the great band it was. 1 star is fair enough. Notice that I'm not clamming about the quality of the musicians (the whole band is impressive) but the lack of songwriting and the absence of musical taste is what let down the album. Sad, but true.

A coming home. That's how I feel it.

The second chapter on this brief journey of André Matos and Co. is a great produced and still fresh Prog Metal album with creative dynamics between symphonic phrases, some brazilian folk rythms and metal riffing. The result is very close to their debut album, musicians working for music and not the opposite. Prog Metal with sense and soul is how I call it.

There were two bands that literally convert me to prog: Dream Theater and Angra. After the disbanding of the latter, André Matos rejoined with other ex-Angra members and continue with his original songwriting and after a few years I found this album and I get very excited to see all the good things that I like from Andrés Era in Angra, all improved: better singing, touching and moving soft phrases and impressive Prog Metal development, never loosing sense or direction.

Shame this was the last production of Matos in Shaaman, who again changed line up and became a mediocre average Power Metal band. But at least we have this wonderful album. A short production (less than 50 minutes of music) of all good songs, great for new fans or people that do not know well Prog Metal.

If you want to feel good by hearing music with sense and with good amount of strength and meaning, Reason is the album you should hear. Shame that too many people is aware of this project. Easily one of my favorites bands in the Prog Metal sub-genre. 4 stars. Great addition to any prog collection.

A wizard, a beholder of the knowledge of the ancient, who can heal the soul and knows how to read the signs of time. That's what Shaman means and André Matos is what we can call a "Musical Shaman" without a doubt.

After the disband of the power symphonic metal band Angra, André Matos gather up some of the partial members of Angra and continue the musical journey under the accurate name of Shaman. More mature, still fresh, original and dynamic, Matos and company brings out the best of their repertory, managing to bring great metal riffing with melodic lead vocals, touching piano parts and great impressive symphonic ensemble with a few more Brazilian folk music. The result is a great progressive metal album, one of the best productions of the century, without doubt.

The songs are very accessible and somewhat charming. The mystical approach of lyrics and the epic "taste" of some of the songs contrast with the easy going of the melodies and the appealing of the concept, which is very accessible to any new fan used to less busy stuff than prog. Some shadows of power metal remains there, but the spirit in the overall is improved. In the technical side, sure they are good musicians and they quite show it in this album but their capacity never overshadow nor the concept nor the beauty of the songs. This is a great place to start digging into Prog Metal.

There's no weak song, every theme gives something original and fresh to the mix. Matos voice is better than ever and his trademark of music with soul and emotionally heavy is all there. Some could find some of the melodies a little cheesy but for me there's nothing wrong with it. Sure you won't find the Stratovarious "I can defeat all the demons in the sky" kind of over cheesiness here. This is music with soul and purpose, so, you won't regret to try it and enjoy it.

For those who think Prog Metal don't have soul, sense or wise musical meaning, I invite you all to try this particular album of Shaman, which is something that really lift my spirit high. 5 stars is the correct rate, sure it is.

Yes this one is as good as advertised. I hesitated in getting this one for a long time mainly because i'm not the biggest ANGRA fan, and SHAMAN features ANGRA's former vocalist, drummer and bass player who all left to form this band. By the way they added the bass players brother to play lead guitar. "Ritual" is their debut album and by far their best. Many guests including Derek Sherinian offering up a solo on one track. I have to say that Andre's vocals never sounded so good. And the album cover and liner notes are all done so well. A very impressive package all around.

"Ancient Winds" opens with a haunting atmosphere as heavy drums and orchestral movements also fill out the sound. "Here I Am" is where they let their hair down and let their intensions be known. An all out assault ! Vocals a minute in. I like the section after 3 1/2 minutes as vocal melodies come in followed by a ripping guitar solo. Big finish. "Distant Thunder" opens with thunder and the sound of a horse then a wolf's howl. Enter the music. Great beat followed by vocals and a crunchy sound. Love the passion of his vocals on the chorus. The guitar lights it up after 3 minutes then it settles with piano. It kicks back in late. "For Tomorrow" opens with what sounds like acoustic guitar, percussion and flute. Strummed guitar takes over as reserved guest vocals come in. It kicks in before 1 1/2 minutes. Hell ya ! Andre comes in vocally with passion as the guitar makes some noise. Great vocal display 4 minutes in as drums pound relentlessly. Guitar then follows with a cool solo. It ends in a heavenly manner. "Time Will Come" opens with atmosphere and piano. It kicks in before a minute. Nice. Vocals follow. This song sounds so good. Blistering guitar 4 minutes in.

"Over Your Head" opens with children's voice samples before it kicks in heavily. It settles quickly as vocals arrive. It kicks back in as contrasts continue. An ethnic flavour before 3 1/2 minutes.Check out the keyboard solo that follows from Sherinian ! Great track ! "Fairy Tale" is my favourite. It opens with female soprano vocals as piano comes in beautifully. Reserved male vocals follow. Such a moving section. It kicks in before 2 minutes with female backing vocals.Themes are repeated. Simply a breath-taking tune. "Blind Spell" opens IRON MAIDEN-like before settling in with vocals. A nice heavy section before 2 1/2 minutes as guitar and synths follow. "Ritual" sounds so good to open with those synths. Drums and vocals follow. This is a blast ! Synths are back before 2 1/2 minutes then the guitar lights it up. Blistering guitar after 4 minutes. "Pride" hits us with a stampede of drums quickly with vocals. Killer sound. Nice bass before 3 minutes then the guitar torches the soundscape.

If your into Power-Metal with a twist you need to check this out. This will go down as Andre Matos' legacy.

One of the best progressive metal albums from this decade!

Shaman is a metal band formed in the early 2000's after the crack in Angra, when 3 out of 5 members left the band due to artistic incompatibilities, what, in lay terms, means that the band had two distinct and separate groups and that they hated each other!

So, when singer André Mattos, bassist Luis Mariutti and drummer Ricardo Confessori left Angra and decided to start Shaman, they recruited Luis's brother, Hugo Mariutti, to play the guitar for the album recordings until they found a proper guitar player, but Hugo turned out to be the guitarist the band needed, so he was asked to join the band. With a band assembled, they had a clear objective: to be bigger and better than Angra in every aspect, starting with what is now know as their album, Ritual.

Ritual was everything that they hoped and more. The album was, stylistically, similar to the music these guys did in Angra: complex power metal, filled with feeling and emotion. However, Shaman's debut had THE twist that Angra still needs and that Shaman was never able to achieve again: they took the power metal that they did (as Angra) to the next level, meaning that they embraced diversity and experimentation. Here, the band blends their music with arabian folk music, brazilian folk music, classical music and, of course, progressive rock and progressive metal. The result is incredible because they put out a progressive metal piece that do not sound like any other band, not even Angra (except for some minor similarities in a limited number of parts)! This is truly a standalone album, a landmark of progressive metal.

The album is good as a whole, from songwriting to lyrics, from the instrumental parts to the vocals, from beginning to end. The album is very likable and the only downside of it may be André Mattos's vocals, if you are not used to the way he sings. As for the songs, the only song that is not as remarkable as the rest of the album is the last one, called Pride, because, unlike the rest of the album, Pride is just a straightforward (power metal) song, but even so, that is a very good song, despite not bringing anything that is really new to the table.

Ritual only has good songs, but even so there are songs some that just stand out more than the others, being those Here I Am, For Tomorrow, Over Your Head, Fairy Tale and Ritual.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Great songs + good lyrics + great execution = 5 stars

Generic and uninspired power metal

Back in the early 2000's Shaman was a pretty big metal band: they made shows all around and they were as big as other big brazillian metal bands, such as Angra and Sepultura. Back then I was very impressed by their debut, so when their second album came by I went to buy it right away. However, something was wrong. The band was all around, the music simply could not flow right and there was this ever present new metal feeling in their music which I just hated. I hated the album so much that I re-sold it, in hope to get some of my money back!

Some time ago, for some reason that is beyond my comprehension, I got interested in the album again, so I borrowed it from a friend that was a Shaman fan. After listening it for some months I must say that my impression haven't changed much: I still do not like this album and still find it kind of boring. This time, however, I could see that this album is not a total waste, because there are some songs that are actually quite good, which are Innocence, Scared Forever and Born to Be, being Innocence the best of them all. The thing is that the rest of the album is just so uninteresting, so lacking any kind of new ideas, that the quality of those songs is lost in the sea of cheese, and even the good songs are not that good at all, with the notable exception of the songs Innocence and Born to Be.

Here, you can really see that the cracks are starting to show themselves. The band can't work as well as it could when they composed Ritual and the result is just tragic: the progressive metal is gone and is substituted by this generic and uninspired power metal. It is no wonder that ALL founding members of Shaman left the band. If I can give any piece of advice to you who are reading this review, they would be the following: 1) buy this album only if you really like power metal and 2) if you want a really impressive and mind blowing piece of progressive metal, get Shaman's debut, entitled Ritual, which is one of the best progressive metal albums from this decade.

Reason is the second release by Shaman and sadly also the last with Andre Matos as vocalist. Along with Mariutti brothers, Andre left the band and starts his own new band, Andre Matos. Reason is my favorite between the two Shaman's albums that I have, it's far from easy listening at the beginning and need your patience to grow on you. Don't expect to click with you at the first spin because it's more inaccessible and somewhat darker than its predecessor Ritual. Though this album has less Brazilian traditional music influence than Ritual, but for me, this album stirs my emotions deeper than its predecessor and musically it flows beautifully from one track to another.

Reason has no interlude or instrumentals composition to start the album but it has Turn Away, the powerful and energetic track. I really like the part when bass guitar playing dynamically after the first guitar solo to start the instrumentals section in the middle of the track. The second track is a beautiful ballad, Reason. A nice and tender piano starts this track and then gradually becomes faster. The spoken part by a female vocalist of this track is depressing and beautiful. The guitar solo and piano touch of Reason is beautiful. More is a cover track of the original one written by Sister Mary and musically it blends perfectly with other tracks of the album. I never heard the original one but this cover track by Shaman is beautiful with catchy keyboard work. Innocence is another beautiful ballad. I like so much the Indian Dioruba playing and the guitar solo in this track, beautiful! Scarred Forever is the next, it has great guitar and drums works at the beginning and highlighted by a solid orchestration. In the Night is one of my favorite tracks in this album with beautiful instrumentals section at the middle of the track and also beautiful guitar solo afterward. I really like the pounding drumming at the second verse of this track and the beautiful percussions by Ricardo near the end of the track. Rough Stone has a beautiful opening part. It started by bass line and drums then highlighted by beautiful sitar and violin before change into acoustic guitar and vocal part. The next track is Iron Soul, an energetic track with beautiful orchestration in the beginning and a nice piano touch in the instrumental section in the middle of the track. The piano touch is short, simple but beautiful and makes a great impact for me. It's just beautiful and I like it so much. Trail of Tears is another energetic track. It's a fast tempo song and has great guitar playing. Born to be is another my favorite tracks and one of the most emotional tracks by Shaman. It opened by beautiful yet depressing piano touch followed by heavy guitar riff, bass lines and drumming before it calm down again to let the vocal in. It also has a beautiful Indian Dioruba playing during the second vocal part after the first bridge. It ends with the same opening piano touch but a bit longer and backed up by whispering vocal and haunting sounds. Dark yet beautiful!

Once again, a solid album composed by Shaman. The only complain from me is the vocal parts by Andre Matos, he rare to use his high register note in this album unlike what he did with his vocal in Angra's albums or previous Shaman's album. maXmuri - Yogyakarta Indonesia

"Reason" is a outrageous CD, carrying with him a new proposal, that combines a dark Heavy Metal with a great Hard Rock, all surrounded by a progressive 'aura' that Shaman has always had.

Songs like "Reason", "In The Night", "Rough Stone" and "Trial Of Tears" YOU WON'T FIND ANYWHERE... Shaman - and specially his singer and leader composer ANDRE MATOS - is well known for his daring, his search for new elements, his INOVATION... things not really appreciate nowadays... unfortunately, since Progressive Music LIVES FROM THAT!!!

SHAMAN has rediscovered Prog Metal twice: by making a NEW and very PERSONAL sound, and making it with simplicity! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

If you love power metal music, this DVD is a viewing (as well as listening) pleasure because it delivers excellent performance from start to finish. From viewing this DVD I can see vividly that Andre matos is a very talented musician. He is not just singing the lyric verses but he is also playing KAWAI keyboard and pan-pipes. It's beyond my expectation that Andre can sing as high as studio version of "Ritual" album. Like in studio version, the show opens with quite long "Ancient Winds" in ambient orchestral arrangements. Yes, I'm now fantasizing like watching a silver screen movie. Through the sound of high hats from drum set "Here I Am" blasts the venue with fast speed music in high energy. Andre Matos starts his voice in confident. He can handle high register notes brilliantly. All other members of the band do excellent stage acts in line with the music. It's so attractive. The band continues with the captivating "Distant Thunder", performed in excellent way.

The show is quite dynamic as far as interaction with the crowd. During "Time Will Come" where the opening keyboard part is played by Matos, the band communicates with the crowd through its music. There are interesting music segments that play as interlude where the band communicates with the crowd. What a nice shot! The band also play song from ANGRA period with "Lisbon". In here the crowd is now totally "in communication" with the band as they sing along during the opening part. Howling guitar solo is also interesting part of this track - followed with the crowd sing along. Oh .. what a great live vibes, my friend! This is one of the most enjoyable part of this DVD. Oh man .. Andre Matos delivers his high register notes perfectly! Guitar solo and drum solo are another excellent attraction followed with "Over Your Head" and piano solo by Matos. This piano solo provides perfect landing for great ballad I have ever heard "Fairy Tale". When the piano sounds like an opening of this song, the crowd reacts through screaming. They even sing along with Matos. What a surprise is that there is a violin player (Marcus Viana) that plays during the opening part of "Fairy Tale" (my favorite track!). Oh my friend .. tears almost drop in my eyes . it's so melodic and it's so good how the band performs this track brilliantly! Oh my God .. now I see how Matos sings high register notes beautifully! Awesome!

What a surprise is that this concert has special guests of big names in metal world. They are: Tobias Sammet (Edguy), Andi Deris (Helloween), Michael Weikath (Helloween), Sascha Paeth (Heaven Gate, producer, guitar). Tobias and Sascha play two songs "Sign of The Cross" and "Pride". Andi Deris and Michael Weikath perform Helloween's song "Eagle Fly Free". The way Michael Weikath plays his guitar is entertaining and it's similar when he played in Jakarta two years ago. It's interesting to see how two guitarists play their solos at the same time. Great performance! Oh by the way, the band's performance on ANGRA's "Carry On" is superb!

Overall, this is a perfect live DVD you would expect from a power metal band with many prog touches during the stream of the music it produces. Yes, my rating is devoted to the fact that this is a power metal band with powerful composition. Highly recommended. Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW