by Amit Peled
“You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train” – Howard Zinn
Brazilian prog metal band ‘Maestrick’ delivers us with an album packed with a intertwined ambitious musical journey – “Espresso Della Vita: Lunare”. The title, which translates from Portuguese as “Live express: Lunar” is a musical experience that goes between the spheres of a big rock opera and Danny Elfman’s ghoulish score to ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. The band harnesses this haunted thematic universe as it takes the listener on a wild train ride in which our protagonist is fighting their inner demons from track to track with an array of characters that exist within its musical world.
‘Maestrick’ constructed their album’s sounds with a few layers. Firstly, their sound as a four piece band:
Fábio Caldeira (Lead Vocals, Piano and Keyboards), Renato Montanha (Bass and Gutturals), Heitor Matos (Drums, Percussion and Backing Vocals) & Guilherme Henrique (Guitars).
In addition, the album is scored with a massive orchestral environment for the tunes. Strings, winds, brass, and orchestral percussion are supporting the metal riffs and themes throughout the album.
The third sonic element is within the electronic and cinematic aspect where electronic synths, glitches, impactful hits and other sounds that are giving the music a more modern treatment as well as a substantial use of sound design from ambience sounds that further adds to the details of the story. Sonically, we’re guided through the story with everything from samples of people screaming their lungs out on rollercoaster rides and all the way to the more grim moments with German dialogue depicting moments from WW2.
One of the luxuries of progressive music is having the ability to compose a vast musical universe which can support a grand thematic and conceptual story. The members of Maestrick take this assumption and push it to its fullest with an album that is as just as detailed as a film, novel, comic book, or a script. Not only that, but this album, which would otherwise be perceived by itself as a standalone musical piece, is a part of a greater musical universe and connects to the band’s earlier 2018 album: “Espresso Della Vita: Solare”. This is a testimony to the bands greater vision of their music and their ability to be not only musical performers but as storytellers.
The themes and motives which are shown in the opening tracks quickly begin to take a deeper meaning as the traumas and hallmarks the album is passing through are getting darker and darker. There are encounters of personal traumas and accidents as well as historical traumas connecting to the 2nd world war era, with holocaust survival testimonials in the form of ‘Dance Of Hadassah’ which uses Eastern European Klezmer quotes in it’s closing moments
There’s a fantastic display of musicianship by the members of Maestrick as they continuously shift between the massive epic slower tempos of their bigger choruses and hooks and the fast tight prog metal riffs that give the album its edge.
The guitar solos are definitely not in shortage either. There’s a great showmanship of guitar playing and tone. Henrique shared some interesting notes about his guitar parts in tunes such as “Upside Down” in which he plays more outside the box with a reference to none other than the spooky guitar master ‘Buckethead’. He explained how some riffs and lines were reversed in “Upside Down” to translate the title into a literal sense of vertigo.
The group shows terrific cooperation and musicality as they support the lyrics and give the rest of the arrangement its place whenever needed, they also know when is their time to jump to the front and hit the metal parts of the music in full force.
The band also explores visual themes and concepts which correspond with their music as in the case of their video ‘Ethereal’ which parallels an astronaut’s trippy experience on earth with an fetus’ umbilical cord and its connection to planet earth. There’s a challenge of keeping the focus when working on a huge theme while not missing the fine details and vice versa and it is very interesting to see how the band tries to balance the two throughout the album.
Sonically, I believe I can hear the band’s umbilical cord and their musical influences which connect to albums such as Dream Theater’s ‘Images and Words’ in their core musical aesthetic, not only on the instrumental front but vocally as well, there’s a great resemblance to James LaBrie’s vocal cadence and vocal delivery. There are some very interesting musical guests which appear on the album in roles of various characters such as Tom S. Englund from the Swedish progressive group Everygrey, who appears on the tune ‘Boo!’ as well as Jim Grey of the Australian progressive metal band Caligula’s Horse who takes part in “Agbara” (Capacity).
Maestrick definitely had an ambitious goal in mind with this album and it seems like they achieved it triumphantly. I’d recommend this album to any prog rock lover as well as to anyone who would like to dive into a musical universe filled with different plot lines and characters on the journey of their musical locomotive.
Releases on May 2, 2025 on Frontiers Music
1. A Very Weird Beginning
2. Upside Down
3. Boo!
4. Ghost Casino
5. Mad Witches
6. Sunflower Eyes
7. The Root
8. Dance of Hadassah
9. Agbara
10. Lunar Vortex
11. Ethereal
12. The Last Station (I a.m. Leaving)
Line-up / Musicians
Fábio Caldeira / lead vocal, piano, synths, orchestrations
Guilherme Carvalho / guitars, vocal
Renato “Montanha” Somera / bass, vocal
Heitor Matos / drums, percussion, vocal
