SCELERATA – Darkness And Light

SCELERATA - Darkness And Light
  • 8/10
    SCELERATA - Darkness And Light - 8/10
8/10

Summary

Nightmare Records
Release date: March 26, 2007

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Scelerata is a five-man Metal band from Brazil, and the 10-song Darkness And Light album is their debut disc. Scelerata’s line-up on this CD consists of Carl Casagrande, vocals; Magnus Wichmann and Bruno Sandri, guitars; Gustavo Strapazon, bass; and Francis Cassol, drums. Guest singers Eduardo Falaschi (ex-Angra), Thiago Bianchi (Shaman), and accordion hero Renato Borguetti cameo on some of the songs here, with the disc coming in at a little over 47 minutes of total playing time.

Scelerata plays a speedy, hard-hitting style of Heavy Metal, much like fellow countrymen Angra and European bands like Gamma Ray, so expect lots of soaring vocals, big riffs, finger-melting solos, and rapid-fire drum work that sounds like there’s an octopus sitting on the drum stool. Scelerata keeps the motor running pretty fast on Darkness And Light, only slowing down once in a while. You won’t find any power ballads on this album, although there are a couple of epic-style slower tracks.

And, just in case you were wondering, yes, there is an atmospheric intro tune: “Land Of The Sins” leads off the album. No Heavy Metal album is complete without one of these, after all …

With the filler out of the way, Scelerata gets down to business with the first actual song: “Holy Fire,” which blazes a trail for the rest of the album to follow. Big melodic vocals, loud guitars, furious drums, and a very fast pace; everything present and accounted. Toss in a catchy sing-a-long chorus and a shredding solo, and the album is off to a good start. Most of the songs on Darkness And Light hew to this pattern pretty closely, with some of them adding a bit of excess in the way of choral passages.

Scelerata might come across as a bit over-the-top with this release, but Heavy Metal is all about being excessive without being too cheesy (with the exception being Manowar), and the band certainly knows how to (head)bang out a quality Metal album, having written some good songs and then committing them to disc with a high degree of skill. These guys can certainly play; some of the solos -– like the one on “The Spell Of Time” — would tangle the fingers of even the very best Guitar Hero player.

Not content to let his bandmates have the spotlight all to themselves, Casagrande pulls his weight on vocals; he has a strong voice and good range. Casagrande has a fairly noticeable accent, but you get used to it quickly.

Overall, Darkness And Light is a strong Heavy Metal album and is a promising debut from Scelerata.

Author

  • Gary McLean

    Gary was a reviewer here at Metal Express Radio, based out of the small Ontario, Canada town of Sault Ste. Marie, right on the border of Michigan, USA. When it comes to Metal and Hard Rock, Gary likes quite a few different bands, from stalwarts like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, to newer, hard-hitting groups such as Primal Fear, Hammerfall, and Paragon. Other favorites include the likes of Nightwish, Running Wild, Therion, Accept, Stratovarius, Dream Evil, Helloween, Rammstein, Dirty Looks, Crimson Glory, Tristania, and Gamma Ray. He thinks AC/DC deserves a paragraph all their own though.

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