ZARAVÁSH

I decided to lend an ear once again to some newer Brazilian bands and fell over the name ZARG. Apart from this site here and one German one with reviews quite contradictory to each other I could hardly find any references about them in the web. Here we have two short ones with 5 stars and on the German site I read a very (badly written) negative one concentrating mainly on the admittedly very low quality of vocal performance. So actually what can be expected from this work and is it something to recommend at all? Let's start with the positive points like the musicianship for example which is absolutely top notch and could be rated certainly with 4 stars. Second positive thing of this record is its versatility and the very good balance between guitar and keyboards. The compositions are ranging from mellow acoustic ones ("Soul", "Wake Up Fools") over nice symphonic rock sometimes with a blues touch ("Night In The Tavern") to even lengthy jam like parts like in the final track (one that I don't prefer actually). Apart from the title track there are hardly any weak ones present speaking solely about the music I've to say, altogether something between YES, PINK FLOYD and DREAM THEATER in a more gentle vein. But mentioning YES I've to come to the vocal performance on here. Alexandre Siqueira has an extremely high-pitched voice similar to Jon Anderson which would be no problem at all. Unfortunately it does not have any comparable quality to his. Strictly spoken it's sometimes completely out of tune and unbearable to the ears. Really too bad and almost a pity that due to this "Zaravash" cannot be considered as the excellent record that it would be if only the band would have chosen a different singer.

Despite my low rating (to compensate slightly the obvious overrating here) I've to say that ZARG is a promising South American band with highly talented musicians that would just need a better vocalist to be considered as essential. I could honestly recommend this album only to the ones being not too allergic against bad vocals as well as not expecting too much innovation.