ASCENÇÃO E QUEDA

Having bought "Mestre" by PETRUS CASTRUS a few days ago, decided to go back my old vinyl collection in search for "Ascenção e Queda" (Rise and Fall), but the poor LP was scratched that made it unable to be listened, so made a visit to my rarities store and found a copy of the CD with some extra bonus tracks,.

The problem is that when the owner noticed I was searching for the specific CD, he asked me 30 bucks (the same guy sold me "Mestre" for US$ 2.99 a few days ago), after some negotiations I got it in 15 bucks, a good price for a very good album.

"Ascenção e Queda" is a Symphonic conceptual album, very close to the Rock Opera format, that tells a story about the hopes of the people in a fictional new politician of an obscure nation that after some times becomes a new dictator, from his arrival to his decline.

The album starts with "A Chegada" (The arrival), which begins with the noise of wind, as announcing the storm that is going to come, a soft piano works as background for the vocals in form of narration, which describes the arrival of the dictator, full of promises and hopes,. The piano is the constant from start to end, around the middle the music starts to grow in intensity as announcing a explosion, but it softens again, leading to a second narration. It's only about the fifth minute when the rest of the band joins in an extremely beautiful passage where the keyboards and drums take the lead and simply delightful vocal contra punt completes the scene.

"A Revolta" (A Revolution) stats a lighter and mainstream oriented track which describes the moment in which the new politician receives the support of some sectors of te people and hw the face the old regime, fast and confusing at the beginning, but suddenly a piano section puts order to the chaos, the vocals are outstanding, full of emotion and sensibility, then the track enters to a very Prog section where José Castro starts to play with the possibilities of his keyboard, very interesting track, full of contrasts and variations.

"Ascenção" (Rise) is darker and melancholic, a beautiful female chorus adds a haunting sound. The new politician takes the power and people believe in h9is promises. The track is again full of changes and keyboard effects, but always keeping the pompous and martial atmosphere. Again excellent keyboard work by José Castro.

"Declinio e Ruptura" (Decline and rupture) is an acoustic track that describes the moment when the new President starts to behave as a dictator and begins to loose the support of the people. Again in form of narration, with interesting dramatic sections that suddenly explode in frantic passages and melodic sections, great work.

"Indecisão e Demência" (Indecision and Madness) is one of the strongest tracks, starts very influenced by PINK FLOYD, but suddenly changes into a beautiful and melodic 100% Symphonic song, where as usual the vocal work is outstanding, two male voices that collision with the softer and haunting range of Helena Águas.

But what impressed me more is the number of radical changes that this band can offer on each track, it would be amazing for any band to keep the coherence, but they seem to have no problem, everything has a place and a reason.

"Queda" (Fall) starts with a repetition of words "He's mad, his mad, he was always mad", mixed with rants and complains against the tyrant, while a frantic drum keeps the tense atmosphere alive. Suddenly a Greek influenced Harp marks a radical change, but again the frantic section re-starts over and over, as if the Governor regains control and looses it again, but each time the calmed sections are shorter, a perfect musical description of the situation.

Again without warning a strong explosion is heard and the song turns into melodic and nostalgic, as if announcing the end of the tyranny and a new start, just to begin the cycle again.

As usual I won't talk about the bonus tracks "Bananeira" and "Seis e Meia da Tarde" which are good, but have no place in a conceptual album that was released to tell a story, not to find a place for forgoten songs, which are pretty good but not wrote by the author to be part of this album.

Excellent album that deserves far more popularity, good for any listener who doesn't care for lyrics in foreign language.

Four stars.