FREAKEYS

Freakeys is one group I have never given any attention untill recently. I ignored them for almost 4 years because I was very skeptical about their album and thought that, with most of the band being formed by Angra members, it was some form of sub-par Angra, besides nobody could give a straight explanation on how do they sounded. To make matters worse, their album, by the time it was released, did not have a reasonable price at all (what was actually the biggest reason why I didn't had it so far)!

Recently, however, I found their album much cheaper than on its release time so, why not have it? Well, I have to recognize that I was very very wrong in almost every way. Firstly because they are nothing like Angra. At all. Freakeys have a display if progressive metal that is much more diverse, creative and open minded than Angra's more straighforward, but still interesting and progressive (at times), nevertheless, approach on heavy metal. Instead of the usual twin guitar stuff, all instruments interact together, almost as if they were in a constant question and answer motif, with one feeding the other, but without showing the need of having a specific soloist.

Secondly, as for the inability of describing them, now I can understad what was the problem. They have a distinct stanalone sound in the heavy metal scene. They definitely don't sound like anything here in Brazil and the band that sound the nearest as they do is Liquid Tension Experiment, but they are still quite different in many ways.

LTE was manly focused on spontaneity, improvisation, above the average playing abilities, the band have a distinct jazz influence and most songs are just single compositions. Freakeys, on the other hand, have all of their songs composed by one person, the keyboardist Fabio Laguna, with arrangements made by the other band members for their instruments, the band is, for the most part, a studio project (so no improvising around), the album have such a flow that it seems that all songs follow a line, a single train of thought and the music is more focused on heavy metal, but quite diverse and well worked heavy metal.

There are, however, some similarities between the bands. Both had, at some point in time three of their four members as members of the same band (Angra and Dream Theater), both have a jazzy flow or drive (though Freakey's jazz influence is much more subtle), both have incredibly diverse, interesting and exiting music and both have a powerful, strong and distinct signature sound.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Freakeys is one of that albums that you must have and that are destined to become a classic. Every song is well written, every musician recorded this in his prime (or, at least, in the apex of their careers) and the production is perfect, resulting in a extraordinary album. Whenever you have the oportunity, grab it with both hands and don't let go.

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