ALIANÇA DOS TEMPOS

Here's perhaps one of the more disturbing prog rock albums I've heard (you'll find out as you keep reading). OK, so this band, based out of São Paolo, Brazil plays prog that isn't too different from many other prog bands past and present, bringing to mind bands like Hungary's SOLARIS (but with vocals), with its fair share of fanfare synths obviously inspired by ELP (without sounding like ELP). The band consisted of vocalist Aron Shade, guitarist Gil Vieira, bassist Ivan Lion, drummer André Georges, and keyboardist Fabio Ribeiro. "Aliança dos Tempos", originally released on a small Brazilian label called Rock Forever (on vinyl only, until Musea in France reissued on CD about two or three years later), was apparently a concept album, I guess on time travel, but all the music is sung in Portuguese, so I can't tell.

The album starts off with, "Prelúdio", a synth fanfare, but then many of the problems of this album starts to surface. You have next the slow-paced "Limiar do Alvorecer", and Aron Shade, instead of using a normal voice, uses this disturbing wheezing voice like he has asthma. That wheezing voice is used from time to time throughout the album. That, by itself, was the reason I considered it one of the more disturbing albums I got. I guess he was supposed to play a sickly, old man on those cuts. Luckily on other cuts, he uses a more normal voice, plus the album is full of instrumental passages. There's even "Ilusão Inacabada I" and "II" where they give the music a more Afro- Brazilian slant to the album, but those are very short pieces. I'm an not entirely impressed with this album. The production is rather lousy. Fabio Ribeiro unfortunately uses digital synthesizers in the fashion that I don't find the most appealing (analog synths would've benefitted the guy big time, but I guess being 1990, people hadn't quite rediscovered analog, and a band like ÄNGLAGARD was still a couple years off).

Apparently the original LP of "Alianças dos Tempos" was the first part of the concept album to be concluded, which apparently the conclusion only made it on the Musea CD reissue. Anyway, this album is probably not the first Brazilian prog album you should get. Those wheezy vocals and crappy synths sure bog things down, but it does have its moments. Not essential.

This album could become a real masterpiece. It features everything that's necessary, starting with luxurious musical ideas and ending with excellent performance and musicianship. However its peculiar charm is particularly destroyed by the awful vocals. Yes Aron Shade knows how to compose great music. (Don't be confused by Fabio Ribeiro's participation, on this album he played all keyboards but wrote only a couple of tracks.) But Mr Shade's (sorry, Lord) singing is dreadful. When a singer thinks he has an acting talent while in fact he hasn't, the result is tearful. Mr Shade tries to simulate an oldman, but de facto simulates a hoarse-voiced youngman instead. In addition, when he sings loudly he sings out of tune. By golly, he'd better remain the main composer but delegate the singing to someone who really can sing. It's annoying when a great musical work is spoiled by an easily removable factor.

There are two main composers on this work. Singer Aron Shade, and keyboard player Fábio Ribeiro. It's a very unique combination. Ribeiro is an experienced prog rock musician by then, and Aron had some classical training. For this review I'll prefer the LP format, because I find the CD bonus tracks inferior than the other songs. When Aron sings for the first time, you may as well want to hear something else. The interpretation is annoying and exaggerated. Don't be worried: if you insist on the audition you may have some good surprises. Most of the folks I know that went to the end usually considers it a great prog effort. From "Ilusão Inacabada I", the fifth track (the LP has 18 tracks) onwards, his singing is much better, and other vocalists engage on some great snippets with chorus. Aron's skills goes from delivering a very powerful chant, but has also the capacity to sing and whisper at the same time, in tune and consistently. The lyrics he created are smart, with complex rhymes. The chant gets weird again on 13th, but he's on the right mood: the main character is in agony on the story.

Musically, the executions are bombastic on the heavier passages, reminding Solaris or Neuschwanstein. The smoother parts have a gloomy feeling, like VDGG. Guitar player creates excellent riffs and phrasings on the electric and specially on the acoustic guitar. Ribeiro executes different atmospheres, ranging from a more symphonic prog playing, to a more heavy prog way, or even some psychedelic/spacey tunes. That's why I don't understand the reason he is quoted as a guest musician. After one year of this release, Ribeiro was already participating on the recording of the first album from Blezqi Zatsaz. And two years after that, on a group called Desequilíbrios.

3.8 on a 5 star scale.