| CD REVIEW Adiastasia |
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Band : Adiastasia Indeed, a remixed and re-mastered version of this Sympho Power Metal band's 2006 debut album (also released on the Bombworkslabel, by the way), and you can immediately see it as the epitaph of Adiastasia its original line-up. Hum...some historical facts first, eh? First the name, which comes from Greek, literally meaning “absence of separation” or “non-seperable”, but it's also seen as being representative for the communion between the father, the Son, and the Presence Of God! The band was founded in 2003 by singer Jeff Winner, whom added guitarist Janinho Di'Nizz and keyboardist Ryvson Lacerda to his former Angellia bandmates Joabe Marynne (bass) and Dinho Caetano (drums, also formerly of Refúgio). In 2004 the band participates in the Festival Rock band contest, leading to Winner receiving the prize of best vocalist in August of that year. This resulted directly in the band forging a solid and loyal fanbase throughout Brazil, and to the writing of the debut full-length during the year 2005. Immediately picked up by Bombworks, the album (which featured a guest appearance by guitarist Leandro Farias) made a positive impression by selling out its first pressing in only a few months. In the years to come, the line-up would come to a couple of changes, starting with the addition of guitarist Jefferson Brito for live work, then with the departure of Marynne in 2007 (and inexplicably he was apparently never replaced?), the replacement of Caetano for drummer Juninho Muci in 2008, and eventually the separation from both Di'Nizz and Lacerda, only a couple of months ago! I ain't sure of what happened, because I was unable to read the full text Winner posted on the band's MySpace page! At any rate, I guess he'll carry the bandname on into the future...so at least vocally Adiastasia would remain the same. Making my job easier, the label's put some stuff in the info sheet to describe the band's music, and I'm therefore giving it to you literally: “AngelicWarlord.com compares Adiastasia, with its double bass driven brand of Power Metal, to Strativarius, Helloween, and Gamma Ray, but it is certain to appeal to fans of Seventh Avenue and DivineFire as well. Soaring vocals and vicious, progressive guitars abound throughout this Power Metal extravaganza, combining elements of speed and aggression with occasional symphonic touches that create quite a powerful full-length debut. Adiastasia's magic and charm is based around the classic tenor vocal style of Jeff Winner, who occasionally cuts loose in Operatic high pitched falseto fashion. Winner is a world-class vocalist, bringing to mind Timo Kotipelto (Strativarius) or even Rob Rock Impelliteri)”. This far the label's opinion, now for mine, and first an admitting to the fact that the singer dominates the album's material! But where the info sheet talks about Winner occasionally goin' into “Operatic high-pitched style”, I can only say that those are the moments that the otherwize great high-pitched singer goes over the top, and comes close to giving me a headache! Luckily, there's enough songs on the album with an overall calmer mood, occasionally allowing Winner to refrain from loosing it (the overall calm “By Dreams” being the perfect example of where the singer actually succeeds in giving me that otherwize somewhat elusive ache in the head!). In all honesty, it's most probably the fact that I most songs he has to sing in a language he's not native to (check the spoken word album closer “Consummantum Est” for the most awful accent displayed on the album), which frequently puts him to using too much power on his vocal strings. You see, in the song “A Terra”, which is the only one on the album sung in...well, it would be in Portuguese, right?...his higher pitches actually come out perfectly acceptable! Oh well, you know, if you're into one of the above mentioned bands, I'm sure you'll like what's posted at myspace.com/adiastasia. Then, it's up to you whether to add this album to your collection, or not. At any rate, the info sheet also tells that this re-issue (with its remix and re-mastering) is a powerful and remarkable improvement over the original 2006 release. Also, the CD comes in a 4-panel digipak with all new artwork by Robert Wilson (find previous work of his on albums by Tourniquet, Bride, King James, and Deliverance...hey, aren't they all bands from the Retroactive label?). In spite of this album being excellent instrumentally, and being okay a lot of the time as far as the vocals go, I cannot dismiss those couple of times when Winner is suddenly a loser in my personal book! Thence the “moderate” rating. 80/100 Tony. |