Release date: May 12, 2021
Label: MS Metal Records
Production: Edu Falaschi, Roberto Barros & Thiago Bianchi
Album length: 59.46 min
Genre: Power Metal / Progressive Metal
Rating: 8.5/10
Edu Falaschi is a Brazilian vocalist who got well and truly known among power metal and progressive metal fans, especially back when he was fronting Brazilian prog metal greats Angra. But those were the days when power metal and melodic progressive metal still enjoyed more attention and love from the metal masses. The guy joined Angra in 2000, then left twelve years later. Mainly because of health problems, but also because of the infighting that was eating away at the band at the time.
Well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and Edu has more or less carried the musical doctrine and vision of his old Brazilian buddies, with whom he spent a solid decade, over into his solo studio ventures. That goes for his third studio album, “Vera Cruz”, too, a fresh and fascinating blend of neo-classical touches laced with bombastic orchestrations, riding the thin line between power metal and (classic-style) progressive metal, with traditional Brazilian rhythms and melodies slyly worked in as well. If you know the classic Angra and they got under your skin, you’ll find plenty of musical joys on “Vera Cruz”.
“Vera Cruz” is a concept album, and partly a historical one. The story reaches back to the year 1492 and the Portuguese town of Tomar, where a man named Jorge lives, stigmatized because his ancestors were part of the crusader order Nero’s Cross. When Jorge grows up, he sails to Brazil, where he marries a woman from the indigenous population. Jorge joins them and fights alongside them in their resistance against the Portuguese colonizers. Although the story is fictional, Falaschi studied the history of the crusaders in detail while shaping the concept, and it’s actually documented that some of them later fled to Brazil when they were persecuted.
The music follows the concept and is richly varied in both arrangement and composition. It doesn’t bring anything you haven’t heard before. But in the musical recipe he keeps going for just under an hour, Falaschi and his crew of technically extremely polished musicians deliver flawless, perfectly honed songwriting. There are moments that sound a bit generic and déjà vu, which is hardly surprising, since we’re in power metal territory, where the loyal pursuit of ultra-musical catchiness sometimes goes way overboard. Still, Falaschi tips the scales in his favor first and foremost thanks to another fantastic vocal performance, plus an outstanding delivery of material played at a technically high and complex level. The opener The Ancestry makes that clear right away, a hellishly fast track modeled on classics like Carry On by his idols Angra, and the whole thing repeats itself nicely around the middle with Crosses and in the second half of the album with Mirror of Dellusion. At times the guitars sound like the classic Angra guitar tandem of Loureiro/Bittencourt was playing on the record. That remark alone is enough to make “Vera Cruz” worth your full attention. Here you get melodies combined with a serious dose of neo-classical flavor (above all a pile of orchestrations filling out the space in the compositions), while on the other side there are Latin undercurrents with extra percussion, plus flamenco woven in. In short, an album that oozes theatricality and that proverbially hot Latin temperament. The track Land Ahoy is the most complex composition on the whole album and one of its peaks, a brilliant progressive metal tightrope walk. On top of all that you get plenty of chants and choir harmonies, even madrigals, woven into the arrangements, and the result reaches a level of bombast and pomp close to flawless perfection. In the finale of the storm of all storms, with the story taking an utterly dramatic turn, none other than the great Max Cavalera joins Falaschi on vocals in Face of the Storm.
Like I said. If Falaschi didn’t have Angra behind him, along with the likes of classic Rhapsody on one side and Symphony X on the other, “Vera Cruz” would have a stronger, more internalized stylistic identity of its own. As it stands, we’re talking about an otherwise excellent, highly musical power and progressive metal album that appeals to the listener, and challenges them, mainly in a retro-nostalgic way. But with an undeniably high-quality character of refined songwriting that doesn’t let up over the hour-long runtime.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Burden
2. The Ancestry
3. Sea Of Uncertainties
4. Skies In Your Eyes
5. Frol De La Mar
6. Crosses
7. Land Ahoy
8. Fire With Fire
9. Mirror Of Delusion
10. Bonfire Of The Vanities – feat. Tito Falaschi
11. Face Of The Storm – feat. Max Cavalera
12. Rainha do Luar – feat. Elba Ramalho
Lineup:
Edu Falaschi – vocals
Studio musicians:
Diego Mafra – guitar
Roberto Barros – guitar
Raphael Dafras – bass guitar
Fábio Laguna – keyboards
Aquiles Priester – drums
Pablo Greg – orchestrations
Guests:
Max Cavalera – vocals on “Face of the Storm”
Elba Ramalho – vocals on “Rainha do Luar”
Tito Falaschi – guitar solo on “Bonfire of the Vanities”
Federico Puppi – cello on “Bonfire of Vanities” and “Rainha do Luar”
Tiago Mineiro – piano on “Land Ahoy” and “Rainha do Luar”
Adriano Machado – string arrangements and conducting
Rafael Meninão – accordion on “Rainha do Luar”
