Tocado a Vento

I can imagine the members of this band deciding the way they would lead their music. Probably finding it awesome how Nordic, Celtic, Slavic, Anglo-Saxon, Native American, Hindu, etc. lyrics come out, the members started thinking someone should just make the same with the extensive and interesting Brazilian history.

This band describes themselves as symphonic black metal musicians with Brazilian southern music influences. At first, I found this a bit absurd, but at the same time interesting. I confess that, by the time I first listened to this album, I was a bit narrow-minded about extreme metal, so I went to it with a bit of distrust to its quality. As soon as the music started, I realised I was clearly misgiving.

By the time I listened to this album, it was one of the most melodic and beautiful extreme stuff I had ever taken knowledge of. It's still one of the most beautiful ones, keeping their music heavy and epic without losing their feel. Their beautiful melodies played by such skillful musicians are really very admirable.

Such melodious black metal is not a new thing, but these guys made their way greatly through this kind of music that's hard to compose, and even harder to composer well. Their compositions are very dark and strong, but still tender and gracious. Their music is centered in the keys, played with such a precision and flawlessness it just embodies the song as nothing, making it as powerful as anything.

Along with the melodies, I must also praise on the sound the fast and raucous drumming and the deep bass. The vocals are also very good, not letting the listener have peace. The duality between the vocalist and the back vocals makes a very good point, but I personally think it could've been a bit more explored. Also, I must point out the musicians were right when they insisted in investing as much as they may have in the album's production. The sound quality doesn't let anything played be lost.

The lyrics are also very good and I find it a bit weird they're sung in English while they speak solely of Southern Brazilian stories, but this means nothing to their quality. They can also make very epic and truly poetic metal lyrics off history, something that's not rare at all in metal, but very, very seldom in Brazilian history particularly. We can see great bands like Cangaço doing the same, but it's still a very original idea. The lyrics don't fail in being strong with an example being Secret Cave, which is about a very important element in Brazilian history called the "bandeirantes", or Ruinlands, about one of the Civil Wars that evokes the feeling of very epic war metal.

I can surely say Austhral is the kind of band that exemplifies the great creativity of the underground scene in this country.