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Reviews

Apocalypse — Perto do Amanhecer
(Musea FGBG 4136.AR, 1995, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 1995-11-01

Perto do Amanhecer Cover art

This is the second outing for this four-piece from Brazil, their first self-titled album from the late 80s still being a vinyl-only release. Their neo-progressive sound and dramatic styling have rightly earned them the reputation as the Brazilian Marillion (a cover version of "Lavender" on their first album may have something to do with it too). Within the confines of the neo-progressive realm they have produced an album's worth of compositions with fresh originality and renewed fire. Musicianship is of a high caliber, as a band they are tight and don't fall into many of the usual traps — for the first half of the album at least. While this overall style has been worked to death in the last ten years, one wonders if there is any territory within it that hasn't already been covered. Apocalypse proves that there is still plenty of room left to explore. But the problems begin at around the forty minute mark, when all that was good about this album starts to rapidly deteriorate. Parts of "Corta" are nothing more than a blatant ripoff of "He Knows You Know" with some minor variances. The boom-bash neo-drumming becomes unbearable in "Limites de Vento" — a slower, Bowie-like ballad, and some of the ideas on "Lagrimas" are straight rips from Misplaced Childhood. If the last thirty minutes offered as much promise as the first thirty, this might have been a fairly decent album. Unfortunately the band had to go and pad it all out with a bunch of substandard hokum. Makes a convincing argument for keeping CDs short and to the point.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 8, 1995 releases

Related artist(s): Apocalypse, Eloy Fritsch

 

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