Last Saturday, June 8th 2019, former lead singer of Angra, Andre Matos (born September 14th 1971), passed away due to a heart attack at his home, in São Paulo, Brazil. Matos was known for being a classic music graduate, composer and a multi-octave vocalist who became a legend in the Brazilian heavy metal scene, next only to Sepultura’s Max Cavalera. In a rough comparison, while the former Sepultura frontman is our Ozzy, Matos was our Dio.
For people outside of Brazil, maybe it’s hard to point which would be the most important Brazilian band other than Sepultura. Krisiun has been a death metal solid force for more than two decades; Sarcófago and Mystifier have become cult objects for trve metal elitists around the world. None of them could ever touch Angra’s popularity in their heyday.
Even though his career started in the 80s, Matos filled a void in the Brazilian heavy metal scene in the mid-90’s. When Sepultura had become a worldwide powerhouse during the Arise days early in that decade and would hardly play in the country, the underground scene was somehow headless. As Metallica mainstream hits appealed to a younger generation, Iron Maiden’s Fear of the Dark became a massive hit and turned curious kids listening to grunge’s heavy rock in the radio or MTV to headbangers. But then Bruce Dickinson left the band.
For people that can’t remember, Iron Maiden officially ran a contest to choose their new singer. In Brazil, magazines and fanzines were adamant the choice would fall between Helloween’s Michael Kiske and former Viper’s lead vocalist, Andre Matos. Yes, naive metalheads truly believed there was a chance a Brazilian guy would fill Bruce’s shoes in a legendary band and this is still to this day much debated — Matos once claimed he reached the final three, although there was never any word from the Maiden camp on that matter.
Anyway, the new metalheads, including yours truly, had only known Viper for its minor hit Rebel Maniac, included in their then most recent album, Evolution, when the band was treading the 90s heavy and dirty sound that had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Iron Maiden.
What does a headbanger do in situations like that? Dig deeper — remember that this took place before internet was a thing. We had to tape-trade to death or save every penny before we could get a chance to touch albums that we could not find in a proper retail store where we could ask a relative to buy for us as gift. Basically, the first steps of a generation into the traditional underground heavy metal culture.
Matos stint with Viper had two releases: the first album, Soldiers of Sunrise (1987), was nothing more than teenagers having fun mimicking Iron Maiden with touches of the german teutonic power metal here and then; their second album went full melodic Keeper of the Seven Keys mode: Theatre of Fate (1989), though, had some ambitious songwriting and vocal arrangements, even though no one in the band had then enough chops to realize their ideas full potential. Mind, Andre Matos was only 16 when the first album hit the shelves and still before his 20s when he left the band while pursuing a music degree at college.
As Maiden left us wondering who that Blaze Bayley guy was (Wolfsbane was completely unknown in Brazil), Matos had already established a new band with his college mates. Angra had then just released a demo tape, Reaching Horizons (1992), to glowing reviews, especially from Brazilian then biggest metal media outlet, the Rock Brigade magazine. Little did kids like me knew back then that its publisher was the band’s manager — had been Viper’s as well. We just had an idea that the magazine had a label, and that was it. This fact would be pivotal to Matos career in the future.
Matos recorded three albums with Angra: Angels Cry (1993), Holy Land (1996) and Fireworks (1998). The first one was tracked at former Helloween’s legend Kai Hansen’s studio in Hamburg, produced by soon-to-become household names for the 90s power metal scene Charlie Bauerfeind assisted by Heavens Gate guitarist Sascha Paeth, who became great friends with the singer.
The Angra debut was a proper sequence to Viper’s Theatre of Fate, but the leap forward was unbelievable in both composition and musicianship; Matos histrionic vocals got even higher and more idiosyncratic — hear his version for the odd choice of cover that is Kate Bush’s hit “Wuthering Heights” -, figuring as the band’s main composer along guitarist Rafael Bittencourt. Kiko Loureiro shredded enough to become a guitar hero for the scene — he’s now in Megadeth.
Angels Cry cemented Angra as biggest band in the local underground and the “next-big-thing” for us; France and Japan had already been converted, and, for our cultivated underdog culture, that was enough of a warrant for us to know they were definitely on the verge for something great. Meanwhile, we could barely relate to the bigness of Sepultura as fellow countrymen anymore when Brazilian’s music tinted Chaos AD hit the shelves.
Not that Angra’s music didn’t portray any Brazilian references: both the demo and the first album had the country’s regional music influences mixed to their power metal. But that would be maximized in their next album, Holy Land, released in 1996 with mere two months difference to Sepultura’s groundbreaking Roots album, a fact that would stir a little competition in the country of who was copying whom and which band done it better.
Holy Land, a concept album on the navigation's arrival and the “discovery” of Brazil, is possibly Matos most valuable moment in his entire career. Angra mixed their unique melodic power metal take with Brazilian references far more wide and erudite than displayed on Sepultura’s Roots, much due to the singer and the guitarists previous music education.
The album was also responsible, along with Finland’s Stratovarius ascending discography, to take power metal out of his comfort zone, not only geographically out of Germany, but to include more varied references — soon swedish Hammerfall, north-american Kamelot, finnish Nightwish and italian Rhapsody would keep pushing it even further.
All of those bands were properly backed in Brazil by the Rock Brigade magazine, who propelled a strong power metal local scene releasing the albums on its label and promoting the bands on its pages. As a result, tons of power metal bands popped up in the country from north to south, while Angra, managed by its publisher, was kept in the center of that universe and became the parameter to which bands would be measured.
In 1998, Fireworks came amidst turmoil, as internally some fractures between band and management had started. The album brought Angra back to a more traditional approach, although showcasing less speed and more mature songs with progressive leanings yet still holding some of the Brazilian music references in the mix. It managed to keep the band’s ascension and culminated in a concert almost selling out Paris’ 9,000-cap venue Le Zenith in January of the following year having Stratovarius as support band. For the encore, one Bruce Dickinson joined the band to a couple of Iron Maiden covers. Weeks later, the legendary singer would be announced back in the classic band.
Months later, though, as the Fireworks tour was over, Matos quit Angra over management issues. Bassist Luis Mariutti and drummer Ricardo Bittencourt would join him in the split, leaving guitarists Rafael Bittencourt and Kiko Loureiro alone with the manager, who owned the rights to the band’s name and therefore would be almost impossible to fire. Soon afterwards, the three musicians would announce their new band, Shaman, named after a song from Holy Land, along with the bassist’s brother Hugo Mariutti on the six-strings and former Angra’s tour-keyboard player Fabio Ribeiro.
Although no one confirms, there was a bit of competition going on: could Angra move forward without its posterboy singer? How far would Shaman go with Matos and a new management, allegedly more professional than a mere magazine publisher? Somehow, both proved their points.
Angra reformed its lineup to some degree of success and not only hadn’t lost much of their fanbase as still kept their ascending path with two subsequent releases, before imploding again with the new lineup almost coming to blows as the band’s management (as well as the magazine and the label) faced bankruptcy after a third album with heavier sound that wasn’t well received among the fans.
After releasing a one-off collaboration with Sascha Paeth called Virgo, Andre Matos seemed destined for even greater things with Shaman. The band signed to a major label in Brazil (Universal Music) and had a song, “Fairy Tale”, included in the country’s traditional primetime soap opera.
Their first album, Ritual (2002), produced by Sascha Paeth, was somehow a middle ground between Fireworks progressive leanings and Holy Land’s experimental approach to world music. It was received to great acclaim from media and fans alike, selling out big venues around the country and renewing the fanbase, as a few people like yours truly were expanding their musical horizons while somehow feeling a bit too old or self-important to keep up with the power metal imagery by then.
Andre Matos stint with Shaman would not last long, though. Just one other album was released, Reason (2005) with a simpler approach although not getting too far away from the first album sound, but failing to make a bigger impact, especially abroad. The band would then split over management issues again, leaving drummer Ricardo Confessori alone to reform the band with other musicians — in complete discredit, they released two more albums before disbanding in 2009. (In pretty confusing moves, Cofessori went back to Angra, while his first replacement in said band, Aquilles Priester, joined the members that replaced the Angra alumni in Shaman, forming a band called Noturnall, who seems to be active until today with an unknown lineup.)
Andre Matos, finally, decided to go solo, keeping both Mariutti brothers at his side in and showcasing young drummer Eloy Casagrande, that would later join Sepultura. Three albums with revolving lineups were released: Time to be Free (2007), Mentalize (2009) and The Turn of the Lights (2012). None of them gained much attention, though, as the power metal scene in Brazil seemed stagnant and decadent, unable to gather the younger fans as none of the newer bands like Powerwolf and Sabaton repercuted enough — possibly an effect of not having a magazine pumping its own label power metal bands up like in the heyday, but I digress.
Meanwhile, the singer, that had already taken part in Edguy’s Tobias Sammet metal opera’s project Avantasia first two albums (the creatively titled 2001’s Metal Opera pt. 1 and 2002’s Metal Opera pt. 2), was convinced by Paeth to join the star cast of singers on its first tour in 2008, as well as returning for a brief part in project’s fourth album The Wicked Symphony (2009).
While dividing his life between Brazil and Sweden, where he had a wife and a son, Andre Matos was part of the short-lived Symfonia “superband” with former Stratovarius’ guitarist and bassist Timo Tolkki and Jari Kainulainen, as well as Helloween’s drummer Uli Kusch, that just released one album, In Paradisum (2011) and called it quits soon after a tour as the Tolkki announced his retirement from the music business.
In the recent years, Matos had been doing nothing but nostalgic tours. In 2012, he joined again Viper, who had split in the late 90s for brief and failed comebacks attempts in the coming decades, for a tour playing their first two albums in its entirety (the last time this writer saw him perform live). Both Angra and himself would do each his own Angels Cry 20-year celebration tour in 2013, and the singer would later play a few 30-year-career anniversary concerts with songs of all his projects selected by the fans via online survey.
When Angra, still soldiering on with only Bittencourt from the classic lineup after Confessori had left again in 2013 and Kiko Loureiro joined Megadeth in 2015, decided to go on tour celebrating Holy Land’s 20 year anniversary and announced special guests for a few concerts, only drummer Ricardo Confessori and bassist Luis Mariutti took part; meanwhile Andre Matos made his own celebratory tour of that album with his solo band.
In 2018, Shaman surprisingly announced its return with the original lineup playing their first two albums in their entirety on a few selected dates, selling out two dates at a 3,000 capacity venue in São Paulo in a matter of minutes. The returned band would still play on a few more dates and Matos had a small piano-and-vocal tour scheduled as the death of the singer was announced this last saturday.
As many former bandmates were mourning his death and honoring his legacy, the singer’s manager Paulo Baron revealed that Andre Matos had finally changed his mind about singing with Angra again and allowed him to start talks for a possible 30-year anniversary reunion that could take place in the coming years. Unfortunately, that long-awaited reunion was never to be.
We hope it serves as a wake up call for the Cavalera brothers and Sepultura, but I guess that ship has sailed long ago…
