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A lot of things have changed since the release of ALMAH´s debut album in March 2007. Once started as a project it has turned into a real band. And due to the break of singer Edu Falschi´s band ANGRA he is now able to concentrate 100 percent on ALMAH – the one and only legitimate successor!

Big words full of confidence, but it´s no wonder: the new ALMAH record “Fragile Equality” is a display of first class musicianship, compositions on the highest level and the voice of Edu Falaschi, who has never ever sounded better than here! In fact, “Fragile Equality” has the essence of the sound that ANGRA had evolved between 1992 and 2001.

But even more, in a stagnating genre this band is able to set new accents without losing grip to their traditional power metal. Diversity is the key. “Fragile Equality” starts with a pure power metal attack, named “Birds Of Prey”, then it continues with an action-packed symphonic anthem (“Beyond Tomorrow”) with a furious chorus, followed by “Magic Flame”, a melodic speed metal masterpiece. Songs like the progressive title track and “Torn” even include thrash metal-like elements, but all wrapped into velvet vocals melodies and fantastic harmonies. The (semi) ballad “Invisible Cage” also display the Brazilian folk roots that were a trademark of Angra, and a big part of the ALMAH debut from 2007.

But “Fragile Equality” ends just like it started, with a real metal song, reminiscent to a track like “Nova Era” (from Angra´s 2001 album “Rebirth”), but even richer and more powerful. That´s the big difference to the debut album: “Fragile Equality” is a fresh and immensely strong record that also has its silent moments, but overall it is much more a “metal album” than the debut was. It would be pure understatement not to say that it is even “a lesson in up-to-date power metal”.

After Edu Falaschi wrote the songs for the debut album all alone, he recorded “Almah” together with an all-star ensemble, consisting of Emppu Vuorinen (Nightwish), Lauri Porra (Stratovarius) and Casey Grillo from Kamelot. Guest appearances of Mike Stone (Queensrÿche), Edu Ardanuy (Dr. Sin) rounded off the album but underlined the project character that ALMAH had in the early stages. But this momentum directly changed when ALMAH planned their first live gigs.

Therefore Edu put together a new line-up. So the band successfully toured and played at big festivals, one of them (Sao Paulo) saw ALMAH headline in front of 40.000 people. This concert was even broadcasted on national TV! A fantastic start for their collaboration, ALMAH prepared for their second studio album then.

To introduce the new line-up: besides Edu, who is of course handling the vocals, there we have Felipe Andreoli (Angra) on bass, the Berklee-graduated guitar wizard Marcelo Barbosa and his guitar partner Paulo Schroeber, as well as drummer Marcelo Moreira. All members have contributed actively to the songwriting process of “Fragile Equality”, with Edu Falaschi and Felipe Andreoli being responsible for the production also. The album´s lyrical concept is about “the balance between all the elements of the universe “, based on a book that Edu was the cowriter for.

He plans to release the book (it is done in Manga style) sometime later, and firstly in Brazil only. The name of the book will be “Fragile Equality - Equinox-Book 1” and it will include a karaoke CD of the “Fragile Equality” album (without vocals), so the CD will be a “soundtrack” for the readers as well.

“Fragile Equality” will be released on September 24th in Asia/Brazil by JVC and LASER COMPANY RECORDS and October 17th in Europe/USA/Canada by AFM RECORDS .

Hearing is believing…

By Timo Hoffmann ( AFM RECORDS )

Almah Bass sessions - Felipe Andreoli