Brazil has established themselves as a well-respected land of heavy metal over the recent years, yet, the steel-scaled music isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Brazil even though they’re glimmering with bands such as Angra, Sepultura, Krisiun and Hibria. This is yet another band from the South-American rain forests and the solo-project of ex- Thotener Renato Tribuzy. To call this star-struck is almost an understatement, as this contains highly profiled musicians such as Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, long-time producer and guitar wizard Roy Z, Kiko from Angra and Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween) among others. Seems pretty ambitious doesn’t it? The song Dickinson performs on was let alone the reason I bought this, as it more or less blew me away upon the first listen. The rest of the album did however fail to impress me in the same way.

What strikes me first is the inconsistency here. This varies from boring to awesome all the way which is downright annoying. When you’ve heard one awesome track, you want more and instead you’re getting crap like Divine Disgrace. Some of the songs lack the excitement, creativity and the catchiness, while the other songs are overflowing with it. The vocal work is mostly good, but the annoying overly piercing backing vocals tend to ruin every good impression and melody. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen all that often, and Tribuzy does for the most part manage to keep a certain quality on his vocal chords and melodies. His voice sounds familiarly like Dickinson’s or Kiske’s and could be described as a weaker mixture between the two, which isn’t bad at all. The two ancients do however outshine Tribuzy in every possible way on the songs they’re performing which makes for a relatively high pitfall. Kiske does a great job on Absolution and makes the main character sound like a school-girl in comparison. Take that from someone who finds Kiske pretty damn overrated (shoot me). Regardless of how good of a job both of the aforementioned does, Bruce Dickinson splits them both in half. He adds a whole new dimension to Beast in the Light, and lifts it several notches. If you ever had trouble on hearing the difference between the two, then fear no more. Dickinson will crush you my friend.

As for the guitar-work, everyone knows that both Kiko and Roy Z are more than capable to handle their guitars, and the ripping leads and catchy riffs they produce are the highpoint here. With their great skill and technique they drive this band forward, and the solo Roy Z does on Beast in the Light is astonishing. Even though none of them is in the original line-up, at least Kiko is involved in nearly every song. However, when the vocal melodies don’t cooperate and the drums are as uncreative as DragonForce, the minor issues builds up to a rather annoying one which makes your mind go skip-button. Inconsistency is the key word here as well, since they altogether can go from generating the hooks of a lifetime to boring and lifeless straightforward riffs that gives you nothing at all.

We all know the feeling of being disappointed by something we should love, and we all know the feeling of an emotional rollercoaster that switches between great, good and boring with an annoying unpredictability. Some wise men once told me that this wasn’t as good as I might expect it to be. I hate to admit that they were absolutely right. This sounds extremely promising on paper, put into practice however, they miss a little. Not by miles, as this definitely have its moments. There are some tracks here that I can assure you’ll be humming on way after you’ve stopped spinning this, and to be completely honest the majority of songs are worth a listen. Songs like Execution, Absolution, Web of Lies and Beast in the Light are songs everyone will appreciate. You may as well be just as curious as I was on what some of my metal heroes were doing with this lucky Brazilian bum. Check it out if it sounds interesting. Opinions vary on this one, and you might love it.