Brother Against Brother – Brother Against Brother
Brother Against Brother – Brother Against Brother
Frontiers Music srl
Release Date: 11/06/2021
Running Time: 48:33
Review by Simon Black
7/10
Brother Against Brother is another of Frontier’s potpourri projects, centering around two Brazilian vocalists you may not have heard of – Renan Zonta (Electric Mob) and Nando Fernandes (Sinistra) with a backing band. This is a fairly quality consistent slab of Melodic Metal, very much in the same spirit as the Allen/Lande releases. I would go one stage further and say it is almost a complete clone of that approach, with songs of a style that could have been used interchangeably on one of those projects.
The key difference between, say Allen/Lande and Brother Against Brother though, is that with the former you have two very clear and distinct singing voices. Although Russell Allen’s broad range means he can cover pretty much any style, he stays clean for A/L releases in order to complement Jørn Lande’s gutsy and gruff screamer delivery – meaning the contrast between the two is clear and distinct. Fernandes and Zonta, whilst both really great singers, have a very similar range and tone, so there is unfortunately very little to differentiate between them, stripping the record of any variety or balance. If you are going to do multi-singer songs that variety is absolutely key and most projects in this vein, get that. The reborn Helloween for example, understands that completely – using the three very distinct voices from its history together intermittently and only sometimes all together to create the shades of tonal light and dark where needed. Even Avantasia, the undisputed master of this operatic ensemble approach, knows that when you have two singers who sound very tonally similar, then putting one against the other means a loss of structure and direction.
Although both lungsmen here can actually provide that range, on most tracks they instead choose to mirror each other’s style. If one had taken a gruff role and the other a high clean tone, even if they alternated that approach on different songs, then this would have sounded much more interesting and diverse. The songs themselves are actually incredibly well-crafted, if a little by the numbers and the record does achieve what it set out to do, which is to showcase two quite exceptionally good singers to a potentially wider audience. The two front men are loud and clear in the front of the mix, perhaps at the expense of the instruments. Overall ‘frustration’ is the key word with this album. The song-writing, production and playing are all absolutely fine, but that lack of variation vocally places a limit on the point of this sort of project. Perhaps ‘Twin Against Twin’ would perhaps have been a more appropriate title…That said I cannot, and will not fault the actual performances delivered by Fernandes and Zonta. These boys really have fantastic voices, great delivery and completely hold your attention. I hope this project does move them forward, as with the confidence to play about with the style a little more, this could be a double act of potentially epic proportions.
‘Deadly Sins’ (Official Video)
TRACKLISTING:
01. Two Brothers
02. What If
03. City Of Gold
04. Heaven Sent
05. Haunted Heart
06. Deadly Sins
07. In The Name Of Life
08. Demons In My Head
09. Whispers In Darkness
10. Valley Of The Kings
11. Lost Son
LINE-UP:
Renan Zonta – Vocals
Nando Fernandes – Vocals
Alessandro Del Vecchio – Bass, Keyboards & Backing Vocals
Jonas Hornqvist – Guitars
Michele Sanna – Drums
LINKS:
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