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Scelerata: The Sniper

Melodic/Progressive/Power Metal

4.0/5.0

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Nightmare Records
by Craig Hartranft,  11.01.2012

With four years to work on it, Brazil's Scelerata takes a strong step forward with their third album, The Sniper. Where Skeletons Domination sounded like an early Edguy clone, from vocals to arrangements, this album, generally, breaks Scelerata out of that mold. Additionally, the band introduces a strong new vocalist in Fabio Juan, mostly not a Sammet clone.

Scelerata: why so happy, boys?

The Sniper pursues, more assertively, the progressive side of power metal without abandoning the underlying melodic heavy metal foundation. You can hear this at the start of the album in latter halves of both Rising Sun and Road to Death. Then Breaking the Chains and Unmasking Lies returns to the melodic power metal, the former with a more melodic groove, the latter with some aggressive heaviness. After this, Must Be Dreaming finds Fabio Juan's vocals getting a soaring work out over an arrangement of equally soaring melodic power metal. This song is definitely one of the highlights of The Sniper.

The latter half of the album tends more to the heavy power metal side, with less progressive nuances. They're all good songs, but considering past experience, some might find them more typical, than advancements, for Scelerata. By example, Til the Day We Die may remind once more of the Edguy influence. But, again, it's a good power metal song. The exception is the closer, the title track, and it's prelude Money Painted Red. The song is certainly ambitious power metal, but offers diverse movements of tempo and instrumentation to make it more intriguing, without abandoning the metal assertiveness.

As said at the start, The Sniper finds Scelerata advancing their melodic power metal, becoming stronger and often times more intriguing thanks to the addition of more progressive metal nuances. Recommended.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

The Sniper finds Scelerata advancing their melodic power metal, becoming stronger and often times more intriguing thanks to the addition of more progressive metal nuances. Recommended.

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Three years have passed since Sweden's Cruzh dropped their second long-player, Tropical Thunder, also introducing their new singer, Alex Waghorn. Now the band returns with The Jungle Revolution ... [ Read More ]