Edu Falaschi’s 2021 album ‘Vera Cruz‘ was a comeback of sorts. It was a ridiculously ambitious undertaking, from its concept seeped in Brazilian history right down to its massive arrangements, but somehow it worked really well. ‘Vera Cruz’ contained everything a contemporary power metal album should need: memorable uptempo riffs and melodic themes, huge choruses that actually stick and just enough deviations from the genre’s norms to stay interesting throughout. As a result, I eagerly awaited its follow-up ‘Eldorado’ and fortunately, it is nearly as good.

Despite not being quite as ambitious in scope, ‘Eldorado’ largely follows the same stylistic route as ‘Vera Cruz’. Lyrically, the album is still riddled with romanticized pieces of Latin American history, though Falaschi seems to not limit himself to his native Brazil on ‘Eldorado’. The music is spiced up with traditional Brazilian elements here and there, which I would encourage Falaschi to go even further with next time around. Generally, ‘Vera Cruz’ and ‘Eldorado’ are the perfect albums for anyone who thinks Angra went too progressive after Falaschi’s departure. Most of ‘Eldorado’ is speedy power metal – remarkably speedy at times – with massive, triumphant hooks.

That doesn’t mean ‘Eldorado’ can’t get progressive. Guitarist Roberto Barros is much more involved with the songwriting this time around and his modern power metal riffing with unpredictable progressive touches is all over the album. The long and varied title track even goes into Dream Theater-esque territory at times. ‘Reign of Bones’ flirts with power/prog and would not have been out of place on ‘Temple of Shadows’. But the main attractions of ‘Eldorado’ are its blazing power metal tracks, such as ‘Sacrifice’, the dynamic opener ‘Señores del Mar (Wield the Sword)’ and the hyperspeed ‘Tenochtitlán’, which has drummer Aquiles Priester firing on all cylinders.

One reason why ‘Eldorado’ isn’t quite as good as ‘Vera Cruz’, however, is because the ballads are absolutely dreadful. Falaschi appears to aim for big emotional climaxes, but doesn’t seem to understand that you need more for that than just adding guitars, drums and strings and repeat the chorus for about a minute and a half. Closing track ‘In Sorrow’ is easily the best of the three ballads, as it is notably darker and more dynamic, but even that one outstays its welcome by about a minute. Admittedly, the ballads Falaschi wrote for Angra suffered from similar issues, but I don’t remember the ballads on ‘Vera Cruz’ being this bad.

Anything else on ‘Eldorado’ ranges from good to excellent though. Falaschi has found the perfect complementary songwriting partner in Barros, who is all over the album with his guitar colleague Diogo Mafra. Despite the album carrying Falaschi’s name, it’s the spectacular guitar arrangements and the excellent drumming by Aquiles Priester – who remains as creative as one can possibly be within the tightly defined parameters of uptempo power metal drumming – that make ‘Eldorado’ as good as it is. If you simply ignore the terrible ballads, what you are left with is about 45 minutes of fantastic proggy power metal.

Recommended tracks: ‘Tenochtitlán’, ‘Eldorado’, ‘Reign of Bones’, ‘Sacrifice’

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Eldorado

Edu Falaschi