SLEEPWALKER SUN

This is an interesting Brasilian musical project featuring violin player Marcus Viana from SAGRADO and Andre Mello from TEMPUS FUGIT. I had heard many positive stories about this CD and was very curious to hear it finally! Well, from the very first moment I was struck by their sound, this is very good progrock and deserves more attention!

This eponymous debut CD contains seven alternating and dynamic compositions (between 4 and 15 minutes): from dreamy or compelling to bombastic and propulsive with often a great tension between the majestic violin and heavy electric guitar. The music delivers many shifting moods and accelarations, most of the time fluent and bombastic and loaded with great guitar work (fiery and biting soli and heavy riffs) and a huge portion of sumptuous keyboards. The female singer Giana Araujo does a good job but I prefer her singing in the more mellow parts. My highlights are the exciting opener Blindfold (great contrast between the classical violin - and electric guitar sound), Russian Roulette (wonderful Mellotron waves), the mellow Jalen's Eyes (beautiful classical violin and piano) and the dynamic, a bit Rush-inspired Nocturnal (great bombastic sound and strong soli on guitar and keyboards).

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

An album that slowly grew into me

As a lover of progressive metal and of brazilian progressive rock, it was only natural that sooner or later i would buy this album, after all it is a brazilian progressive metal album. However, what drove me to this album, what made me buy it, was the beatiful slipcase and cover, just incredibly eye-catching. When I asked to listen to the album at the store, I took the oportunity to see the bookelet and it was also pretty good. Since the first two songs were pretty good, I decided to buy the album, but when I listened to it carefully for the first time I had a major disappontment: their lead vocalist (Giana Araújo) sings with her nose (she support her singing with the nose), what is definitely NOT good. That can be seen more clearly in the third song, called Sleepwalker Sun.

However, more than a year after the day I bought the album have passed and now I realise that the vocalist problem isn't as bad as it looked at first. Sure her singing its not perfect, but even though that is a downside, she still have some qualities, like having a great diction and a considerably sweet voice.

Moving on, like most progressive metal albums out there, the most impressive feature of this album (and most probably the most impressive feature of this band, but they still need to release other albums to make me sure about it) are the instrumental parts. The (core) band seems very cohere and top notch, although having a large amount of invited / featured musicians, like the Sagrado Coração da Terra violinist Marcus Viana and the Tempus Fugit keyboardist André Mello, but that does not interfere negatively in the overall quality of the album, au contraire, it works in favor of the album.

It is also important to note that all the album has a dark atmosphere. Don't know quite why, maybe because minor keys are used in most songs throughout the album and also the vocals sound, somehow, gothic.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Despite the initial problem with the vocals, I realised that Sleepwalker Sun is actually a pretty good album and, therefore, should be graded as such. 4 stars then.

01. Blindfold The Progressive Metal Sleepwalker Sun begins calm and serene, being guided by the voice of Giana Araújo. After the initial quiet time the weight comes into play, this time the vocals are shared with Luiz Alvim, a big surprise in this track is the violin of Marcus Viana (Sagrado Coração da Terra) making their presence felt, and rightly so. The song is strong, well written, complex and intelligent. It is common to progressive metal bands being wrong in their arrangements and sounds. Definitely not the case here. In the second half of the track, after a stop, the keys from Luiz is present with the bass solo by Francisco Falcon, the heavy guitars in this song are for Ricardo Marins. Beautiful track, all the elements are well placed, united and well arranged. 14:24 minutes of pure musical delight.

02. Bring 'Em The band has as main component in this track the acoustic guitar by the bassist Francisco, along with the keyboards and the vocal from Giana that is how the verses unfold. The chorus is heavy and cohesive. At the end the rhythm changes, is fast and broken, a sort of spiral sound, the solos are from Fabio Montserrat.

03. Sleepwalker Sun The song that gives name to the disc and the band starts with the bass chords and keys building layers. When the guitar and drums enter the sound becomes dense for a time and back to calm when the singing begins. The chorus is 'crooked', lyrics and melody do not fall on purpose. The disc is full of guests, especially the guitars, the title track of the soil is responsible for Alex Martin, soon followed by a synthesizer solo and chorus again. The end has a series of vocal 'outsiders'.

04. Dead Flowers A ballad with voice and piano, only the 2nd verse there are changes, with several voices, a broken rhythm and a very interesting and quirky vocal effects. The chorus is very melodic but 'in the sound pattern' of the band. The guitar solos are from Leandro Leg Furtado. An interesting bass solo is also present just before the last chorus. Complete.

05. Russian Roulette This reminded me of early Dream Theater, which is not a problem because the Sleepwalker Sun have originality and Dream Theater is the largest, and in a a way the precursor from Prog Metal style. I just think that they open many concessions to the vocals, every time a verse is sung the song 'calm down', lose weight, only back in the choruses, just turning a formula and can tire the listener.

06. Jalen's Eyes The piano begins the song, it's the shortest song of the disc, and the excellent violin Marcus Viana appears for a brief moment, but back to the course of music. Giana gave a beautiful interpretation for the song, which is very beautiful by the way!

07. Nocturnal So here is one thing that I like and that could be used more often, excerpts from conversations of a number of different people, this idea has also been widely used by bands like Pain Of Salvation and Dream Theater, and the classic bands like Pink Floyd. Nocturnal has some differences such as the harpsichord (one of many types of keyboards available) and the eletric guitar played as a classical guitar. The solos of the band (this time the keyboard) was led by Andre Mello (Tempus Fugit).

A good record, well above the average in the style, I've heard many progressive metal bands here in Brazil, but they are always wrong in my opinion, especially with vocals and keyboards. In this case we have a great example of how to make a good hard progressive metal.

I'm new to the genre, and I'm not sure if this album is atypical, but I expected a progressive metal album to feature more... metal! A lot of the material here is truly symphonic with many acoustic passages and that surprised me. That should make Sleepwalker Sun's debut ideal for me, but I have a few issues with the album. Female singer Giana Araujo's voice has a rather nasal tone and all lyrics are in English. Her voice isn't that big a deal but I do prefer bands to sing in the vernacular (Portuguese in the case of this Brazilian band). There is the additional problem here that the English vocals are often unclear and the lyrics are at times incoherent, although the lyrics are reproduced in the booklet that comes with the cd.

As far as the music is concerned, the highlight is Marcus Viana's guest appearance on BLINDFOLD where his lyrical violin passages contrast with the aggressive metal guitar sections. The violin with Mellotron-choir backing around the 9-minute mark is sublime. The other songs are nicely structured, for example BRING 'EM is built around acoustic guitar arpeggios and synth/piano lines with heavy guitar riffs bursting through intermittently. This is all well and good but the melodies on some of the songs just aren't that memorable and for me there's too great a reliance placed on uninspired guitar riffs. One of the best of those riffs comes during the closing section of RUSSIAN ROULETTE, although NOCTURNAL delivers the goods as well and it also features a nifty Moog solo by Tempus Fugit's Andre Mello.

Overall, this isn't a bad album and Sleepwalker Sun are without doubt highly competent musicians. When I think about it, I guess that even the dodgy lyrics are just standard fare for a prog band.