REASON

Reason is the second release by Shaman and sadly also the last with Andre Matos as vocalist. Along with Mariutti brothers, Andre left the band and starts his own new band, Andre Matos. Reason is my favorite between the two Shaman's albums that I have, it's far from easy listening at the beginning and need your patience to grow on you. Don't expect to click with you at the first spin because it's more inaccessible and somewhat darker than its predecessor Ritual. Though this album has less Brazilian traditional music influence than Ritual, but for me, this album stirs my emotions deeper than its predecessor and musically it flows beautifully from one track to another.

Reason has no interlude or instrumentals composition to start the album but it has Turn Away, the powerful and energetic track. I really like the part when bass guitar playing dynamically after the first guitar solo to start the instrumentals section in the middle of the track. The second track is a beautiful ballad, Reason. A nice and tender piano starts this track and then gradually becomes faster. The spoken part by a female vocalist of this track is depressing and beautiful. The guitar solo and piano touch of Reason is beautiful. More is a cover track of the original one written by Sister Mary and musically it blends perfectly with other tracks of the album. I never heard the original one but this cover track by Shaman is beautiful with catchy keyboard work. Innocence is another beautiful ballad. I like so much the Indian Dioruba playing and the guitar solo in this track, beautiful! Scarred Forever is the next, it has great guitar and drums works at the beginning and highlighted by a solid orchestration. In the Night is one of my favorite tracks in this album with beautiful instrumentals section at the middle of the track and also beautiful guitar solo afterward. I really like the pounding drumming at the second verse of this track and the beautiful percussions by Ricardo near the end of the track. Rough Stone has a beautiful opening part. It started by bass line and drums then highlighted by beautiful sitar and violin before change into acoustic guitar and vocal part. The next track is Iron Soul, an energetic track with beautiful orchestration in the beginning and a nice piano touch in the instrumental section in the middle of the track. The piano touch is short, simple but beautiful and makes a great impact for me. It's just beautiful and I like it so much. Trail of Tears is another energetic track. It's a fast tempo song and has great guitar playing. Born to be is another my favorite tracks and one of the most emotional tracks by Shaman. It opened by beautiful yet depressing piano touch followed by heavy guitar riff, bass lines and drumming before it calm down again to let the vocal in. It also has a beautiful Indian Dioruba playing during the second vocal part after the first bridge. It ends with the same opening piano touch but a bit longer and backed up by whispering vocal and haunting sounds. Dark yet beautiful!

Once again, a solid album composed by Shaman. The only complain from me is the vocal parts by Andre Matos, he rare to use his high register note in this album unlike what he did with his vocal in Angra's albums or previous Shaman's album. maXmuri - Yogyakarta Indonesia