Got a double bill from Brazil (hey, that rhymes!) for ya today, as we move closer to the end of the first week of Metal Month II.
So we've done death, we've done thrash and we've done progressive metal bands from Brazil. Why not throw in some Folk Metal? I don't know too much about Lothloryen, and unfortunately their official website does not have an English option, which is I think a mistake. They're not on Wiki either so all I can assume is that their name comes from a respelling of the mystical enchanted wood in “Lord of the Rings”. Other than that?
Well they've been together, it seems, since 2002 and have released four albums in that time, their latest coming out this year. It's the one prior to that which I'm going to review here. Why? I don't know: I just like the title. You know what I'm like. Also, their current one seems to refer back to their second, with the titles very similar, and I don't want to get into the second half of a story or anything, or suddenly realise you really need to hear the previous album before you can review this one. So as far as I can see, this is a standalone (though I could be wrong there) and so it's here we begin.
Raving souls society --- Lothloryen --- 2012 (Shinigawa Records)
An eerie, almost horror-film beginning with piano and dark synth sets the scene in “First raving steps”, with what sounds like cello joining the mix, then electric guitar and marching drums erupt across the melody, and as it's quite short --- less than three minutes --- I assume it's an instru --- no it's not. Here comes the vocal, and very clear it is too, though here you can certainly detect the Brazilian accent of singer Daniel Felipe. He's one of those vocalists who doesn't play an instrument, concentrating only on his singing, so there are five other bandmembers to pick up any slack, with the usual quartet of guitar, bass, drums and keys, as well as a second guitarist, and you can hear the effect even in the opening. Very epic.
With the title it has, you'd not be surprised to find this album has insanity as its theme, and indeed the next track is called “Face your insanity”. Later we'll hear “A tale of lunacy” as well as “Sun of delerious”, but as the second track ends, with some native language lines thrown in which I of course can't translate, we're into “When madness calls”, with a big racing guitar line and galloping percussion. Meh, but so far I'm finding it all pretty much the same. At least the next track opens with some weird glockenspiel or something before bursting into more guitar. The title is certainly odd: “Hypnerotomachia” (nearly said Hypnotoad there --- Futurama in-joke); not a clue what it means. Let's check the lyric and see if there's any clue. Nope.
Well there's a female vocal joining, but I see no credit for such. Wonder if it's anyone I know? Nice voice anyway. The story seems to follow a semi-mythic tale of the pursuit of a nymph --- perhaps it's our old mate Orpheus, perhaps not. Maybe Pan, who knows? --- and I guess that's where the female voice comes in. Blinding guitar solo as the song suddenly ramps up. “Temples of sand” seems to concern, maybe, the Crusades, with lines like
”Fighting a mad war/ By the god's name” and
”Where's the Pope now/ To say the truth?” and that female vocal is taking part again, though it would seem just as a backup singer this time.
There's a very tellling line when the soldier in the song laments
”How could God's voice/ Be this slaughter and tears/ To free His land?/ Why does he need/ Gold and temples of fear?” with a darkly intoned answer, presumably from the Crusaders:
”Satisfy our greed!” And so it was. As I mentioned long ago in my review of Chris de Burgh's “Crusader” album, the “holy warriors” mostly fought for God's forgiveness --- for the sins they had yet to commit! --- and more often than not, for land and for riches. There was nothing really noble about them, and the soldier in this song is beginning to realise that now, when it's too late. Cool song.
Huge guitar and drum assault takes us to “A tale of lunacy” and it really is a frenetic song, hurtling along but always under control. Seems to be an anti-war song, with the classic line
”Make war so you'll have peace.” Indeed. There are a lot of hints in the lyric that this is actually about the rise of Nazism, but I'm not certain. It would appear that “To live forever” is the ballad, though it starts oddly, with what sounds like falling rain and an engine (motorcycle) moving away. It's a nice change of pace when it gets going, good keyboard work there from Leo Godde, though it really plays more like an AOR or melodic metal ballad. But it's nice, and as I say it's good to take a breath.
And continuing in that vein, “1314” is a clever little instrumental with a big electronic synth as its backbone, almost new wave in style, then we're off with “Burning Jacques”, a very dramatic introduction which I really like on synth then the guitar rocks it up. The lyric is pretty abstract and I have no idea what it's about, but there's a good instrumental intro up to about the second minute, and it features a somewhat softer vocal, although I think possibly there may be two singers on this. Great hook in this, and I'd list it as one of the standouts. Lovely piano solo with what sounds like cello joining it. Hard and heavy then for “Sun of delerious”, which references what I guess to be Egypt and I think may be about Moses ---
”From the star he was/ Born to become king/ He tried to lead people/ Out of the dark” --- and again utilises that double vocal.
A tale of leavetakings and farewells, bittersweet memories and regrets, “My old tavern” closes the album, sort of like a minstrel's lay with a very folky/medieval feel to it. Bit of a semi-celtic idea to it too, and it's a nice simple way to end what has turned out to be, after my initial reservations, a pretty complicated, well-written and versatile album.
TRACKLISTING
1. First raving steps
2. Face your insanity
3. When madness calls
4. Hypnerotomachia
5. Temples of sand
6. A tale of lunacy
7. To live forever
8. 1314
9. Burning Jacques
10. Sun of delerious
11. My old tavern
An interesting album from an interesting band. Not quite what I had expected, especially given the LOTR-inspired name of the band, and not the best of this subgenre I've ever listened to, but very pleasant, and an accomplished effort.
Pop quiz, hotshot! Who was the very first thrash metal band? Slayer you say? No, their first album didn’t hit till 1983. Metallica then? No, although general history does ascribe that honour to the band from LA, if you head down into Mexico, further south past Panama and down towards Belem in Brazil, you’ll definitely get a different answer from a band there called Stress. They’ve been together since 1974, a full seven years before Mustaine, Ulrich and Hetfield formed their band, and also Stress released their first album in 1982, a year before “Kill ‘em all” changed the way we think about metal. They also have the undisputed distinction of being the very first ever Heavy Metal band in Brazil.
So why aren’t they feted as the godfathers of thrash metal, instead of the honour going to Metallica? Well, two reasons: the first, and most obvious one, is that they’re from South, not North America, and the second is that they sing in their native Portuguese. Also, they’ve only had three albums in their career so far, with the third released all the way back in 1996, as Metallica churned out their sixth album of what would go on to be nine(ten if you include Lulu, which I don’t), and who already had one box set and a live album behind them. Hard to compete with that.
Stress began life as Pingu D’Agua (no I don’t know what it means) in 1974 but changed their name in 1977 to Stress, just as Motorhead released their second album and while Tom Araya was still a medical worker. Of course, I didn’t know of them either, until this week, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t close this section of “The International Language of Metal” without taking a look at at least one band who sang in a language other than English, and here we are.
Stress --- Stress --- 1982 (Independent)
There are only eight tracks on this album, and it runs for a total of a mere thirty-six minutes and change, but given how influential it should have been, and since it’s as mentioned the first album by a Brazilian Heavy Metal band, I guess we should not underestimate its importance, both to the Thrash Metal scene in general and to Brazilian Metal in particular.
You can hear the big, grindy, dark thrash sound immediately as “Sodoma e Gomorra” (anyone?)
opens, and it rockets along on fierce guitar and pounding drums before vocalist Roosevelt “Bala” Cavalcante screams in with the vocal. To me, he sounds a little like a much punchier Ian Gillan around the time of Deep Purple’s “In rock”, and he certainly has a powerful voice and likes to scream a lot but I feel sure if he was singing in English I’d be able to understand what he’s singing. Guitars are handled by Pedro Lobão, and he is an animal! “Fast” Eddie Clarke would love him! Oddly enough for a Thrash band, Stress employed a keyboard player, though I don’t hear him in this song at least.
It’s a real rip-roaring fretfest that flies along and opens the album well, then “A chachina” keeps the volume and the speed high. Honestly, at this point if there’s a band Stress remind me of it’s Motorhead, that same driving, pounding, speeding rhythm, a heads-down-go-for-it mentality that would surely serve them well, and made them household names in Brazil, though sadly not beyond their homeland. Another fine solo from Pedro, but again I can’t hear any keyboards. If he’s there, Leonardo Rendo is not making himself known. Hmm. I might be hearing him now in the intro to “2031” --- oh yeah, there he is now, making his mark with a big uptempo solo. Better late than never I guess.
This has a real boogie feel to it, kind of reminds me a little of “Starstruck” by Rainbow. A nice boppy solo there in the middle as Rendo makes up for lost time, then Pedro fires up for another smouldering rifftastic solo. I’d say this is my favourite track so far. The longest track, just under six minutes and apparently their most successful, “Oraculo do Judas” (doesn’t take too much to translate it, does it?) starts off hard and crunchy, with growling guitar and slower, almost jazzy at times percussion. Some nearly Plantish singing from Bala, not that surprising as they used to cover Led Zep songs before they began writing their own. A really evocative, as opposed to just shredding, solo from Lobão as the song pounds on with a real sense of purpose.
Then in the fourth minute it slows down almost to a crawl, evidencing influences of Doom Metal or maybe Sludge. Another superb solo takes us out and into “Stressencefalodrama”, which I’m reliably informed is a protest song against the policies of the Brazilian government, particularly torture and censorship. Stress were continually in trouble with the authorities over their lyrics, many of which had to be rewritten before they could be played live or on the air. The song is underpinned by what sounds like a hard brass line on Rendo’s synth and raises the tempo again, though I wouldn’t place it in the same speed group as Slayer or Metallica. I don’t know whether the fact that this song has their band name in the title is significant, but if not then it’s quite a coincidence. If anyone speaks Portuguese maybe you can drop me a line to let me know what, if anything, Stress means in English? Other than the obvious.
There’s almost a little sense of the celtic in the opening of “O viciado” (to victory?) and it cannons along nicely, not a massive amount of vocal which is always good when you’re listening to a foreign language, but what there is is certainly laced with anger and power. “Mate o rieu” keeps the tempo up nicely, some great guitar from Lobão, but again, other than those two flurries in “2031” and “Oraculo do Judas”, there’s been little or no discernible contribution from Leonard Rendo that I can hear. Sort of wonder why he’s there. It’s a real fretfest and rocks along with great energy, taking us to the closer (already?) “O lixo”, which literally carries through the very same closing guitar riff into the new song.
It slows down though, and it looks like we got a cruncher to bring the album to a close. Sort of blues feel to it, then it seems I’m wrong as it suddenly kicks up as we approach the final minute, um, then slows down again. Madre de dos dios! as they probably say over there.
Well, despite the (many) tempo changes it’s still a good closer.
TRACKLISTING
1. Sodoma e Gomorra
2. A Chacina
3. 2031
4. Oraculo do Judas
5. Stressencefalodrama
6. O viciado
7. Mate o rieu
8. O lixo
I’m not certain you could compare these guys to Metallica; not certain if that would be a fair comparison anyway, given the gulf in resources between the two. But there’s no doubt that Stress do appear to have sown the seeds of the thrash movement, even if they did so hidden away from the world down there in Brazil. It’s a constant bugbear with Balo that his band is not given the recognition he believes they deserve, but it’s easy to see why. Did you know of a band called Stress before I wrote this? Having read this (assuming you did) do you now care?
The fact is, to the victor goes the spoils and history is written by the winners. And in every facet of the genre, Metallica were and are the winners here. I suppose you could look at it as almost a David vs Goliath sort of thing, or mutter that North America gets the choicest cuts while poor old South America has to be content with the scraps that fall from the table. But any way you slice it (ouch!) the problem boils down to the fact that Stress could not break out past their borders, struggled to attain recognition thanks to a repressive government and in the end seem to have faded into the musical mist of Heavy Metal history.
But on the basis of this album at least, we should perhaps raise a glass, if not an iron-studded fist, to the men who were, in all probabilty, the real instigators of the thrash scene and not only the first Heavy Metal band in Brazil, but quite possibly the first ever Thrash Metal band in the world.
… And justice for all?