André Matos
Time To Be Free

THE REVIEW

Oh my God, a squirrel has escaped from the zoo... oh no, it's just the genius André Matos who is back to offer us some of his fantastic music, with this "Time To Be Free", because, after breaking up Angra, he also caused the "great" (but who are we kidding) Shaaman to divide, with whom he had released two decidedly ugly albums that paled next to Angra's discography after Matos and the original bassist and drummer had left.
So here he is back on the market, after a good 3 years since his last work, with an album that is a bit hit or miss, because yes, we all know, even the walls of my house know, that Matos has a nice voice (maybe a tad annoying when he still tries to hit those super high notes that he can't hit as he used to), that it's wide-ranging and all the rest, but where is the high-quality music he promised to let us hear?

Where are the melodies reminiscent of "Holy Land", whose presence I've read about in some reviews? Where have those inserts of folk and progressive music gone that made Angra's proposal, if not unique, at least original? The answer is simple, they have disappeared in favor of typically power-style melodies, clearly indebted to the beautiful "Temple Of Shadows", developed in a rather banal way, for that matter. Nothing unlistenable, to be clear, but everything is too predictable, simple, linear, nothing surprising, nothing, just a handful of good little songs to hum now and then, but nothing that stays in your head for more than five minutes.
The only pieces that perhaps stand out and differ from the others are "Letting Go" and "Remember Why", both absolutely out of place in terms of beauty and vocal performance of our Brazilian, the first an energetic power track, powerful, that brought to mind the early Angra (the only track that manages to recall the first mother band of the Brazilian), the second a touching song that contains elements typical of Irish folk music, and yet power and progressive metal.

The rest, starting from "Rio" up to the last "Endeavour", is more or less the usual stuff, distorted guitars but not too much (lest the good thinkers get scandalized), lots of helicopter-style double pedal, very high voice, catchy and disarmingly easy melodies, that follow each other for over an hour of music.
What else to say? Well, we could, for example, say a few words about the album's hyper plastic production by Roy Z, which would make even the last Jennifer Lopez album look fake, but those are other discussions, after all, there will be thousands of people out there with blinders as big as Matos's throat who will accuse me of writing a silly review and that in truth, this album is a masterpiece, so I won't go on and say goodbye, leaving you with a little question... Why is it that wherever Matos sings, it always ends up with bitter departures among the various band members?