DURANTE O VERÃO

Their second album is showing a much higher degree of progressive and as well some rock elements. Unfortunately it's very short with just about half an hour, but at least none of the nine songs is a real failure. Unlike their first one it's not that much dominated by a quiet mellow sound featuring as well breakouts like Os Pilares da cultura where they even use electric guitar and this song is compared to their usual style almost a "hardrocking" one. Although being very short with less than 3 minutes it's a quite intricate composition. Another outstanding song is Memorial Day starting a bit weird with ambient noise, then a more acoustic part with flute, strings and percussion followed by a rather furious finish with great electric guitar. Belladonna, lady of the rock, longest track is a very good one as well, especially in its second half when they're presenting some Gentle Giant-alike vocal harmonies followed by great electric guitar and flute attacks reminiscent of Jethro Tull. Hotel Colonial is another one of those tracks where they show their great musical skill on flute, cello, viola and percussion. The mentioned songs are marking only the highlights of the album, but the rest of the tracks are really almost as good, just a bit more quiet.

As a SUMMARY I can say that Durante O Verão is at least for me the more interesting album by this band. Although showing some slight influence by British bands they had a very unique and original style. For optimal value-for-money ratio I would recommend to buy the CD Dois Momentos containing both of their albums.

Excellent addition to any prog collection!