LIVE - OFFICIAL BOOTLEG FEB'98

1999 was truly a great year for this Brazilian prog band.Alongside with their first two studio albums(with quite a comercial impact,considering their overall style)they released this bootleg,Tempus Fugit Live,which,unfortunately,fails in any atempt of impressing due to an awfull sound quality.I mean,it is really bad,specially for a live album,where the recording quality is always an important factor.

It would be unfair to take away 3 stars for this alone,but flaws are not limited to the sound quality:despite the very nicely done instrumental sections(thankfully,their all quite long),the vocal-driven pieces could be dismissed without any hesitation at all.In fact ,it would be very healthy to themselves if this band decided to cut out any vocals from their arrangements,having in mind that some quiet passaages(from what you can here in the recording)are unbelievably beautifull,as it is in the mid-section of The City and the Crystal,and in the intro of War God.Something that is also quite noticeable is the overall bad percussion in the album,taking away some of the brightness in the arrangements.So being,I'm very secure in saying that the best moments are those in which the keyboards softly sing in harmony with the holding guitar notes,without drums or vocal permormances.

Some moments of tear-splattering beauty save this album from a one-star rating,considering there is one last factor that bothers me in a major way:A screaming pomposity throughout all of the album's lenght,which goes away only in little bits spread here and there.'War God'? 'Princess Vanessa'? That alone would already be ridiculous,but nothing comes near the terrible impression left in the album's intro,in which a narrated tale from the 'forgotten world' is told in portuguese by the band's lead singer.It always makes me eager to burst out laughing,because,unless you're quite familiar with the language(and speak it in your day-to-day routine),you have no idea of how dull and childish is this.I'm better of with Peter Gabriel's stories,thank you very much.