ART ROCK

Another interesting brazilian group that I had never heard of until recently, which seems odd since Brazil is my country (and I had to be advised by a dutch fellow about them!). So far, so good, anyway. Even if the CD cover is apalling their sound is quite good: melodic and accessible, and still bombastic and complex enough to please the demanding average symphonic prog fan. The guitar parts are the highlight: Valdir Zamboni is a creative and skillful musician that leads the band all the way through the CD. If you like guitar led prog bands, this is for you!

The band plays mostly instrumental pieces and this is clearly their forte: I liked very much their variety of sound landscapes and mix of styles. The CD never gets boring. Zamboni even includes some mandolin bits that are really nice. The other band members are as able as him.The vocal parts on the other side suffers from the same plague of so many prog bands through the style´s entire history: they are weak and uninteresting, more a hindrance than a good add on to the overall work. Not that bassist Valdir Guimarães is bad vocalist. But with a real, trained singer with a better voice it would have made all the difference. Fortunatly vocal parts are few and far between. The best track in my opinion is the first, the 16 minute epic Krakatoa (great keys and shifting moods all over it)

With a good production, good ideas, tasteful arrangements and excellent playing the band succeeds to deliver a fine CD that promises better things in the future. Unfortunatly it seems that those guys didn´t release anything since this album was out. I hope they will come back soon with something like this one. My rating: 3,5 stars.