Rockportaal on Ymmij

Dutch site Rockportaal have reviewed the Still Living album, and acknowledge that is a grower! Find the original here, and next is what Google says it translates to:

Melodic hard rock from Brazil poured into a concept album.

This is already the third album of the band that was founded in 2004. In 2005 and 2007 two demos were released, after which it went through various personnel changes until 2012 before the first official album was released. The band consists of vocalist Renato Costa, guitarist Eduardo Holanda, bassist Wagner Souza, drummer Cleber Melo and keyboardist Thiago Nascimento. The band brings rock songs in the eighties style with a modern twist.

The protagonist is Jimmy who leads, in his eyes, hopeless existence. He has seen his heroes fall away and there are no ideals he lives for. If he looks at himself, he sees no reasons why this should continue. The album opens with Reign Of Pills in which Jimmy looks back on the night before. In the songs On The Edge and Call Of The Night we get a better picture of our protagonist. The songs lean on solid guitar work with spaces for longer solos. Costa knows how to determine the mood per song with his vocals, and does not even shy away from high shots.

King Of Nothing shows how Jimmy thinks about himself. The song starts with a nice dark guitar riff after which the drums are added. It is a solid rock song, just like Cult Of The Rough Awakening. Some quieter songs like Haunted are also well received.

Further in the story we meet the friend of Jimmy. Jane’s voice is done by Rosangela C. Taylor. After a confrontation with himself and a conversation with Jane, Jimmy walks out. The Dark shows the fatal end, or does not it? The story seems to have an open end. This is followed by the instrumental As Shallow As It Gets and the bonus number Redemption, especially added to the European market.

An album with a story. A story that clearly emerges and is well composed. The band puts a dozen good songs on this album, it takes some getting used to the style at the first listen, especially through the spoken dialogues here and there. As the number of listens increases, the album grows.

Thank you Edwin!