Down The Ages

Review

When I mention that I come from Brazil people usually think about a poor country, football and samba. That might be true to some people living there since the total population consists of around 213 million people. Since I moved to Sweden years ago I can clearly see that things have improved a lot lately. The 80's when I was born things were very different though. It felt that the whole country was economically leveled. The 90's came and depending on how you see (the glass as either half full or half empty) things started changing for better or worse.

Access to music was still hard. I'm sure that in places like Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro things were a little bit better. In my city we had only a couple of specialized record stores. If you were lucky you had a dial up connection and limited access to stuff that not everyone had. I remember those days fondly though. Mainly because it was a time of endless and relentless search with joyful discoveries. Today there is so much of everything and so easy access that you (at least I) can't appreciate things the way I did before.

The available records were usually imported and very expensive but then one day in 1998 things changed. I was still in high school when a friend told me that he had seen in a newsstand one magazine that came with a CD and judging by the cover I would like it. The name of the magazine was Planet Metal and every month they would release a new issue with a compilation where most bands and songs were completely unknown to most in Recife. I already had a lot to thank Planet Metal but the 5th issue had a hidden gem as the 9th track: a brazilian band called Tears Of Joker and the title's track was Sea Of Illusion. Love at first sight or first "audition". Getting a copy of the album wasn't as simple though but after a few months I was able to get it sent to me from Sao Paulo.

The Album

Down The Ages was released in 1998. The artwork cover I believe is supposed to represent cave paintings or hieroglyphs. Can't really say that I was impressed with it but at that time I already knew I shouldn't judge a book by its cover. 10 tracks and a total of 46 minutes and 50 seconds of very well crafted music filled with guitar solos of refined taste.

Track Highlights

The opening track is called Images and followed exactly the same style as the only song I had listened to previously. It's very hard to place any of the songs in the album in a category. The compositions are very melodic (mainly thanks to Filocomo's voice) but they are all more complex than the average Power/ Heavy Metal we hear these days.

Besides the already mentioned vocalist who also plays the guitar, the trio (which sounds very tight from the first chords) consists of Leandro Estevao on the Bass and Rafael Amaral on the Drums. If I recall it right, the last mentioned almost joined Angra before the release of Rebirth.

I believe back then it was mandatory to have a ballad and here it comes in the form of For Believing. I wouldn’t miss it if it were absent from the album. I mean, it's not a bad song but it feels out of place compared to the remaining songs.

The album keeps spinning bringing us to Endless Battles which is the "proggiest" song in the album with a very interesting approach to the style flirting with POP in some parts.

24 minutes in and the track that introduced them to me starts. Sea of Illusion is another proof that Luciano Filocomo is (or used to be) a riff writing machine. Here I want to highlight the whole track but the guitar solo is just phenomenal. This is not a track-by-track review cause there are many of those so we move to the final piece of the puzzle: Victims Of Pleasure! One of the strongest moments on the album, and proof that even in a crowded scene, Tears Of Joker still managed to sound original in all possible ways. Being powerful without sounding like Power Metal, being progressive in the right moments without sounding self-indulgent and melodic just in the right proportion.

One noticeable thing if you read the lyrics is that English wasn't their mother tongue with some parts sounding wacky. Me as a fellow Brazilian can understand how the sentences were thought and translated. That is mainly due to English not being present in the curriculum in the schools at that time.

The mixing/production could also have had more attention but being and sounding the way it does that's what makes this album so strong. A super trio that could overcome difficulties and put out a record that stuck with me through most of my life.

Songwriting

When I browse through the lyrics I get the feeling that they all have a Christianity theme. As mentioned previously there are bits that seem confusing and/or make no sense. This is probably due to direct translation from Portuguese to English. No big deal though.

Production

Here I don't really know if it was intentional but the drums sound a little off. Could also be a matter of taste. Overall the sound quality is way above the average.

Final Verdict

Down The Ages is still as relevant today as it was in the late 90's and deserves a place in your collection too.