CARAVELLUS
CARAVELLUS “Inter Mundos”
By Dr. Abner Mality
If you’re after progressive metal firmly in the mode of DREAM THEATER and SYMPHONY X, CARAVELLUS from Brazil should hit the spot. While crazed thrash metal seems to dominate the metal discussion when it comes to Brazil, there’s actually quite the burgeoning prog scene there and these guys look to dominate it.
The DREAM THEATER resemblance is so pronounced that there’s no way it can be avoided. Long songs with tons of melody, shredding neoclassical guitar solos, key and piano wizardry and high pitched crooning AOR vocals make up the majority of this concept album. There are some touches of world music and traditional Brazillian instruments that give CARAVELLUS just a touch of their own identity. But this is like a missing DREAM THEATER album performed by different musicians.
Guest stars pop up frequently throughout “Inter Mundos”. John Macaluso handles most of the drumming, Derek Sherinian tosses in a keyboard solo or two and vocalists from fellow Brazillians ANGRA and SHAMAN put in appearances. The album is an over the top prog metal opera, with all the good and bad that entails. The sound is perfectly shiny and smooth, but that fits the genre. The chief strengths for me are the wonderful guitar solos from Glauber Oliveira, who takes a back seat to no one when it comes to guitar wizardry. Vocalist Leandro Cocoilo has a high sweet voice that is technically perfect, but gets too sugary for my ears on ballads like “So Near, So Far”.
The cut and dried analysis of CARAVELLUS is that this is pure DREAM THEATER worship done at a a high level. I’d like to see the band delve more into an original sound, which I think they have the capability to do.