FOOLED EYES

This is the debut album from this Brazilian band that were formed in 2003, when they decided that they wanted to produce progressive metal that was influenced by styles as diverse as Fusion, blues, Brazilian rhythms and classical music. The line-up is The band is comprised of Marcelo Quina (vocals), Nando Costa (guitar), Raphael Lamim (guitar), Marcelo Mattos (bass), Rodolfo Amaro (keyboards) and Fernando Cerutti (drums) and it is of very little surprise to me to see that they have already performed with Angra ? a band which they definitely have some similarities. Of course, if you are a prog band you may as well go the whole hog and the debut album is a concept telling the story of young artist Andrew Hesser and what happens to him before and after his engagement party.

It certainly doesn't sound like a debut, and comes across with the power and passion of Fates Warning with the keyboards cutting across the guitars and the dramatic drums always driving the band on to greater heights. It isn't the sort of music that I would have imagined coming out of South America as they keep their Brazilian roots in check a lot of the time and produce music that is very hard hitting and very North American/German in flavour. This is going to take a lot of the prog metal community by storm ? debuts aren't supposed to sound as strong and polished as this. It isn't perfect, there is still room for improvement, but for a starting place it is a damn good place to be. If you enjoy prog metal then you need to go to the site and listen to some of this, at least. www.thessera.com or www.progrockrecords.com