SAGRADO CORAÇÃO DA TERRA

Their debut album: it is almost perfect, except on a couple of pop songs; but the title track is wonderful, then also "Deus Dancarino", characterized by a stunning solo at the keyboards and violin as well and a sort of pastoral poem too,such as "Gloria Das Manhas", which is well worth checking out!!

This is one of the most well-known brazilian bands around the world, and this is their debut self-titled album, not always the first album is the best, and this isnt an exception, this is not their best IMO. They have a particular sound, something like PFM meets Camel, but anyway, this album is something symphonic, but a bit poppish, that is not so bad, because also poppish could sounds good. Sagrado Coracao da Terra is a band with lots of instuments in their music, here we can find besides the elemental guitars , drums and bass, a nice violin sound in the most of the songs, a very particular and soft piano work and also in the last song we can hear the beautiful sound of a flute.

The lyrics are in portuguese, both, male and female voices, male voice is reminiscent to any italian band, maybe Area or something, its good, and female voice is also good in some songs, symphonic sound predominates here, violin makes it better, some mood changes, the best song i think is A Gloria das Manhas, its the largest song, but good work, but i think in some ways it is a bit boring, because it doesnt have something "new" to show us, this was the first brazilian album that i heard, i think there are better albums.

I`d like to say again that what i think is the most special of this album, is the Violin, its not a superb violin sound, but its always in the best point , in the right place and thats what i enjoy the most here. If you`re looking for some brazilian prog, maybe it is not the best place to start, it is good, but not as good as i thought when i bought it. For that reasons, i think this album deserves 3 stars.

SAGRADO's debut and namesake album contains the 4 Ns so characteristic of the mid-Eighties releases: Neo-prog, New-Wave, New-Age and Nothing spectacular. This album is fairly catchy and hearable but none of the songs are memorable; much more important is to check the original nursery where this great band was shaped and the promising and uplifting band's skills. Also noticeable is the high-quality production, a witness of the time, around 25 years ago, when many Brazilian recording studios were au pair with their peers from other countries.

The mentioned Ns make this release a bit dated and sometimes boring (although that was a very reckoned mood in the 80s) and I think that SAGRADO should revisit a couple of songs here in their future compilations, especially 'A glória das manhãs' and 'Sagrado', the best album's tracks , along with 'Deus dançarino', the proggiest album's moment.

Average but the lack of continued progressive segments and the weak tracks makes me recommend this album for collectors and fans only.

Until a few months ago all I knew about SAGRADO CORAÇÃO DA TERRA were the positive comments about them, because despite Brazil limits with Perú, the albums from this country were never popular or accessible in our country, except maybe for BACAMARTE.

So, when a friend traveled to Rio, I asked him to get me the first four SAGRADO CORAÇÃO DA TERRA, hoping that as usually this ones were the best, something partially truth in this case, and only from the fourth release "Farol da Liberdade".

Their self titled album starts with "Asas", a track clearly in the 80's vein, not Neo Prog but some sort of weak Symphonic, despite the excellent violin performances and the correct vocals by Marcus Viana and Vanessa Falabella, they don't fly too high.

"Luces da Historia" has one of the longest introductions I ever heard, almost half of the track so you could expect a climatic conclusion, but never happens, just a couple of seconds when the whole band joins for a couple of interruptions. Absolutely disappointing.

"Arte do Sol" starts as a soft ballad but after a minute and a half acquires a bit more of strength but in the same mood, the tack flows gently to the end with exquisite performance but a weak structural work, seems that they never allow themselves enough freedom to reach the climax.

"A Gloria das Manhas" begins with a sweet flute that goes on almost 5 minutes without radical changes, it's just in the last minutes when you can enjoy a short elaborate section, again they don't know where to cut the intro.

"Feliz" in contrast with the name that means happy, is a nostalgic song with an incredibly beautiful violin solo that lasts the 55 seconds and works as an introduction for the excellent "Deus Dancarino", a pompous and well elaborate track where the whole band gives one of the best performances, especially Marcus Viana with his violin. The highest point of the album until this point.

Seems that the last track gave SAGRADO CORAÇÃO DA TERRA de impulse they required to go for the prize, another outstanding song that mixes rhythms with a jungle flavor with a keyboard performance in the vein of VANGELIS first albums. Pompous and brilliant, another great song.

"Corpo Veleiro" is just another ballad with little interest for this reviewer, after the past two tracks anybody could expect something more impressive.

"Sagrado" puts the band again in the Progressive Rock path, with pompous arrangements, excellent performances, radical changes and a couple of amazing solos and the sweet voice of Vanessa Falabella who puts the cherry over the cake.

The album ends with "A Vida E Terna", again they fall in the easiness of the soft ballad with little to comment.

To summarize, "Sagrado Coração da Terra" is an uneven album, with magnificent and very weak moments; with strong and elaborate tracks side by side with long boring ballads, so the rating can't be too high.

So I will go with 3 stars and recommend new listeners to begin with the third album Farol da Liberdade which is much more rewarding.

Undoubtfully SAGRADO CORACAO DA TERRA is one of the most well known groups ever to come out of the strong brazilian progressive rock scene.SAGRADO had a bif and succesfull career in Brazil and the main man behind the group was the master of violin Marcus Viana.We are talking about 1985 here when the band made their debut with one of the most uneven albums I've ever heard...

...and we are not talking about different style of tracks but also about uneven parts in the same track!For example ''Arte do sol'' contains some excellent symphonic piano work and fine violin solos by Viana but where the vocals are added the track turns to cheesy...or even the longest track of the album ''A gloria das manhas'' where the first part of it delivers boring keyboard/flute work in a hypnotic slow tempo while the second section delivers some intense piano and nice work by Viana on violin...What about the rest of the tracks?Well some of them are far out of prog purposes and it is obvious that the band tries to approach a wider audience like the ballads ''Asas'', ''Corpo veleiro'' and ''A vida e terna'' which have a sound and vocals close to the soundtracks of the most famous love stories in brazilian soap-operas...''Memoria das salvas'' is track influenced by the brazilian tradition with little interest while ''Deus dancanarino'' and ''Sagrado'' contain some nice symphonic work with beautiful keyboards and classical influenced violin...

Unfortunately,and despite the fine moments, over half of the album contains rather pop influened music or some uninteresting moments while the rest of the album has a symphonic sound that,in my opinion,remains undeveloped or unfinished...So it is better for you to leave this album out of your collection...Only for collectors and fans of the band...2 stars...