WHAT'S BEYOND

**1/2

An average album by this interesting Brazilian band. The name Tisaris means "the bridge to quintessence". This is their debut album. It's a concept album with many tracks extracted from the rock opera "The Story of Blaze and Darkman", a tale about two ordinary but opposite characters in the brazilian society - the rich and the wretched. As you might guess, this album sounds quite a bit like a symphonic rock opera.

The musicians are clearly skilled but this album suffers from a really bad production. I can't help that it affects the listening enjoyment a lot. This album shows a great potential but somehow all the components just doesn't come together in an effective way. A nice try for a debut album though. The lyrics are in English and the great singer Andrei Vieira sings basically completely without accent. The highlight tracks include "The Reflection", "Elegy to Magdalene" and "Libertas Quae".

Conclusion: An ambitious work. Worth a listen and includes some beautiful moments.

This is the debutalbum from the Brasilian band Tisaris. It contains 13 tracks that in general sound bombastic, evoking early Marillion (keyboards) and Pink Floyd (Gilmourian guitarwork), featuring lots of shifting moods, breaks and soli. The violin solo in the opener "Animee" is very moving and showcases the variety that Tisaris offers. I agree with fellow reviewer Geezer that this album suffers from a bad production. Nonetheless, Tisaris has made a promising debut-CD that sounds very pleasant and entertaining but there is not an inch Brasilian in Tisaris, they could have been a British or USA band.

TISARIS ? What´s Beyond

First album of a very interesting brazilian band. They come from Lavras, a small town with a fine university and crowded with students, which leads to a good environment for musical creation. I was presented to them in the first half of the nineties in the city of Belo Horizonte by a fine progressive fan who owned a very good cd store at that time. And what a kind of good recommendation he did!

The album is clearly neo prog, based on a strong presence of guitar, keyboard and vocals. And what a strong singer Andrei Viera is! Sometimes he "slides" (literal translation of a brazilian slang meaning "distraction"), and we can notice his accent; and this, in reality, adds a good taste to his singing. The "kitchen" (rhythm section), provided by Chebli Haddad (bass), and Edson Cruz (drums), fits the musical approach of others performers very well. Also, in order to complete their artistic effort, we have a strong story to be told by means of well elaborated lyrics and music. It is easy to identify them reaching the main requests for a good progressive album.

So it is a strong album that yields three stars. However, the band´s whole work (two more albums) deserves more than only three. The rating in What´s Beyond is not higher due to a lack of a perfect production (this is easy to understand if we consider the condition they have for recording a first album); as well as lack of maturity as a band. Another aspect is the need of adding touches of folk to a Brazilian progressive band sound; as it was perfectly done by master Marco Antonio Araújo.

But the best of Tisaris is not here, it will come yet. They took their time, became more mature and reached their peak in their next effort, Once Humanity!

Tisaris is one of the better examples of symphonic prog acts from Brazil in the early '90s. Offering 3 albums in that period Tisaris manage to recive aplauses from listners and respectable reviews specialy for their second album Once Humaninty. Issued in 1994 their second album is considered by fans their best from all 3. The debute album see the light in 1992 and is named What's beyond. This is a fairly good symphonic prog album with lots of instrumental sections and bombastic arrangements, all are pleasent and well played. There are some complex instrumental sections that are really awesome, specially the guitar chops are intresting for sure. The sound is not among the best I've heared on a prog band, but hey what the heck the music really matters after all, at least to me. So, a very decent and fair work by this unknown brazilian band, is clear that they worked hard on this release, but I can't say is something really excellent and inovative. Fans of symphonic prog can take some spins I think Tisaris worth to be discovered by many listners as possible. Similar maybe at some point with High Wheel, and bands who incorporated in their symphonic prog arranagements spacey long instrumental parts. 3 stars for sure.

You will liket it if you like piano driven symphonic prog. It is a very nice, promising, debut for the band. It clearly borrows to Pink Floyd (Chorus and drums in the last track are straight out of The Wall), mixed with a tint of Supertramp / Roger Hogdson (A sinner), and some neo-prog influences, even some jazzy bars. While a bit lacking, production is still very good. Most tracks include vocals ; André Vieira voice is a bit rough but warm and in tune. All tracks are enjoyable and melodic, but Spinning Loom is the track that should not have been included, the intruder there. Elegy To Magdalene is the most memorable track, with good dynamics great keyboards and melody. It's not the best album of the band ; tracks are heterogeneous. Still there is probably not a single track that you will not listen twice or even more.