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Rating: Shaman - "Ritual" 2002
Outdoors in the garden at home. It's seven-thirty in the evening, there's a wonderful temperature: those heavenly 25 degrees, but the sun is setting behind the mountains. Watching it disappear, I realize that summer is leaving along with all the good intentions regularly gone to waste. September is a wonderful month for the usually stable weather, it's a riot of colors, the days are still quite long, it's not cold, and you don't sweat by standing still. But at the same time, it's very sad because you're aware it's the final chapter, and the next summer vacation is 330 days away. It's a bit like Sunday evening: no matter how lovely it is, it's spoiled by the mere thought of Monday morning. September is a beautiful girl, treacherous and deceitful. You can't fully enjoy it because in our human folly we think of sweaters, snow, the lack of light, the full return to work/school. It's the beginning of the end of a relationship: due to female issues, it will be procrastinated for months and seems relatively distant, but it will come. It's certain. Yes, now that the mountains have completely swallowed and digested the sun and the sky belches fire, while I write and watch the scenery with the wind in my face I feel officially sad, I enter the stube and slowly take a CD from my shelf. Letter S, and let's begin…
It feels like being at the theater when the instrumental “Ancient Winds” makes its entrance in a crescendo that launches the single after 3 minutes of well-executed anticipation. No, don't worry, a track by track analysis is not my style. What I need to emphasize is that the debut CD by the Brazilians Shaman ("Ritual") manages to stand out from the metal/rock/prog crowd that is predominant. At certain points, I won't deny, the album flexes its muscles with plenty of up-tempo and fast solos by the Mariutti/Confessori duo (Here I Am and the concluding Pride above all) but those are just summer storms. "Ritual" is, all things considered, a gray CD, intriguing, reflective and bitter: just like the beautiful end of summer. A sunset thinking of the coming night. Maybe it's the result of the painful separation from Angra, anything but peaceful, after 10 years of success, maybe it nostalgically deals with the emblematic, fascinating, and elusive figure of the old shamans, retracing a time when popular wisdom mattered. What matters is that often it proceeds on tiptoe with intricate crescendos to slowly reach the chorus; there are numerous breaks and rhythm changes that dot the work. But even when the main melody of the piece, the backbone, becomes clear, Shaman often play the waiting game, shuffle the deck with melancholic piano inserts, abrasive riffs full of regret and anger. Orchestrations and ethnic references that harken back to Angra's beginnings. This is the story of long and complex songs, capable of satisfying a well-trained auditory system, such as "Distant Thunder" or "For Tomorrow". A slow but continuous dripping is skillfully broken by the riffing in the gallop “Time Will Come” with folkloric references. Shamanic magic in the controversial and original "Over Your Head", while in the ecclesiastical, deliberately repetitive and sad “Fairy Tale” Matos showcases his voice under a massive spotlight. An impressive vocal control, which raises the hairs on my arms every time I listen to it.
Enough, I don't even feel like continuing to listen further. This was the peak of the album for me. No point in going on. A sufficient lump has risen in my throat; I think with regret about the mistakes made in recent times. I take the laptop in my arms, and as the air becomes crisp and fresh, I climb the stairs to get to my room. The sunlight is already gone. Summer is truly over.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Distant Thunder (06:22)
Dark signs of evil
Float in the skyline
Feels like a storm
Is getting closer
Two grey smoky clouds arise
Inside your black eyes
Day after day and still
You wonder
How to overcome it all
And never lose the hope...
Master of darkness
Brewed up a potion
Over eternal flame
That's burning high
You taste of the beverage
And dance all the night long
But like everyday,
There comes a sunrise...
How to overcome it all
And never lose the hope
Heading for tomorrow
A break along the walk
To raise your head and go on...
Hear the call of
A distant thunder
There's a voice in the sky
Evening falls weighing
On your shoulders
Like your feelings inside...
05 Time Will Come (05:32)
Times are coming back
When nights are getting longer
And I can read the promise
In your mind
To yourself again, that you will
Play the strong one
But you burn inside, bleed inside -
And you remain the same!
Someday you'll be gone
Where to, you'll never know...
See you there!
Should you fall apart,
Should you remain entire
Now that I can breathe
Inside your dreams
Laugh into your face,
Set yourself on fire,
Burn inside, bleed inside -
Tell me how it feels...
The time will come
When I'll be there forever
To take your soul
And make you part of me
So, take care...
(You'll never be the same...)
The time will come
When I'll be there forever
To take your soul
And make you part of me
So, take care...
06 Over Your Head (06:37)
The sands of gold are falling
From the sky tonight
The sound, a million voices screaming out
The prophecy has moved on with the stars
And now I know that I could be the chosen one
Oh, the desert breeze had turned to such
A storm that night
And in my dream I nearly saw his face again
Waving me up to come closer to his tent
Can't control myself, I'm needing his embrace
Looking up over your head
Put on my suit, like any other morning time
I washed my face in purest water
Got brand new shoes - it's good to feel
That you're alive
But life will get along to something
Larger than me!
Looking up over your head
-I wanna tear thorugh the sky
Looking up over your head
-And be the very first to die
Looking up over your head
-One thousand miles and I'll be there
Looking up over your head
-Just when you look over your head
Over your head, inside your mind
Visions you've had keep passing by
Don't be afraid, face it instead.
Looking up over your head!
07 Fairy Tale (06:56)
Fairy lady, who stands on the walls
Life is short and wait is long
The stars, away, dim with the dawn...
Fairy lady, who stands on the walls
Your tale has only begun
It comes from far, the Nowhereland
The wind is blowing a sound well known...
Fairy lady, your love is long gone
Oh darling, hear my soul and heed my cry
Cause all my crying may flood
A river in my heart
Oh, life is good,
Oh, life is good,
Oh, life is good...
As good as you wish!
Pretty lady, the horses are back
Bringing joy and happiness
But all of a sudden the horses are gone
It was only the sound
Of your heartbeat alone!
Oh darling, hear my soul and heed my cry
Cause all my crying may flood
A river in my heart
Oh, life is good,
Oh, life is good,
Oh, life is good...
As good as a kiss!
Oh my darling, now I cannot
Halt my cries
My tears have drowned me
And I refuse to realise
What's left around me,
It's all so strange,
It's all so dark
I'm all alone here
To mend the pieces of my heart
Little lady, your tale has an end
For your love to the skies was sent
He's turned into sparks
That shine with the stars...
...And by night he will always be there
For his lady to stare
And thus he's never died.
08 Blind Spell (04:34)
From the day you took me home
I knew I was not alone
And all the pain I had seemed to be gone
Running backwards to the edge,
Things I don't dare to confess
You've locked my secrets in a blind spell...
Oh, never leave me
Never walk away
There's a spell on me that, for me, could spell the end
If your feelings fall apart
And you can't sustain your heart
It's time to realise what you really are
Oh, please believe me
I've been so ashamed
Take your spell from me, it could drive me to the end
Sometimes we run,
Sometimes we hide inside a hole and fade away
We turn to stone
And let the weather carve its traces
To open our eyes one day...
Should I throw myself in the oceans of time?
Without you will I ever dare to survive?
Sometimes we run,
Sometimes we hide inside a hole and fade away
We turn to stone
And let the weather carve its traces
To open our eyes one day...
Help me, help me to open my eyes someday...
09 Ritual (06:37)
Holy fire burns again
The Magic Circle is all around it
Burning like the innocence of love
Let the mist surround it
Spinning like the Fortune Wheel
Hand into hand, we pray together
Visions of a future world appear
As the holy fire burns
And a face is there
From the smoke a face is rising
Ancient, like the reason of life
Get your body close to mine
There is a Ritual longing for us
Such a thing you await
For all your life
Let yourself surrender now
And a face is there
From the fire a face is rising
Mystic, like the reason of life
Holy Flame,
The Ritual yearns without you
Understand,
The Mystery lies about you
Once again the fate has
Crossed our ways
As the fire burns away...
Hold on
Cause I need you
And I want to know
What took so long...
And your Fortune,
You just need to understand!
Holy Fire burning on
Closing the Circle back together
Once around and coming evr more
Just to start all over
And a face is there
From the fire a face is rising
Magic, like the reason of life
Holy Flame,
The Ritual yearns without you
Understand,
The Mystery lies about you
Once again the fate has
Crossed our ways
As the fire burns and once again
The fate has crossed our ways
As the fire burns away...!
10 Pride (04:11)
Somedays I wish to run away
Fall in the world and stray,
My life is turning, turning
But when there's nowhwere else to go
Pray to the Lord, my soul,
My heart is burning, burning
You betray yourself
When you think that you're someone else
Someday I'll understand my dreams so deep inside
And then I'm free again to leave the pain behind
Right here in my hand - feelings I can't hide
Someday I'm gone away with nothing but my pride
Somedays I wish to run away
Fall in the world and stray,
My life is turning, turning
But when there's nowhwere else to go
Pray to the Lord, my soul,
My heart is burning, it's burning
You forgive yourself
When you know that you're someone else...
Someday I'll understand my dreams so deep inside
And then I'm free again to leave the pain behind
Right here in my hand - feelings I can't hide
Someday I'm gone away with nothing but my pride
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