Masseti – Odds and Ends
Masseti – Odds and Ends
Self-Released
Release Date: 14/06/2025
Review by Beth Morait
10/10
Question! What do you need to soothe your sleep-deprived and work-addled brain? Surprisingly for me it seems the answer is a bit of Cinematic Progressive Metal, with a hint of Devin, and lashings of drama. Luckily, Brazilian Progressive Metal visionary Tiago Masseti appeared in the inbox with his debut solo project album, “Odds and Ends”, which is being released under the project name, Matessi.
With themes of war and destruction, this concept album swings straight into action, with ‘Serpents and Whores’, a battlecry complete with a massively complex bassline, sweeping strings, and choirs. It’s dark and foreboding, full of panic, but with peaceful, mournful verses, like the calm before the storm. The moment of realisation, and acceptance of what is to come. The choral lines are almost chant-like, like a futile religious message, come too late.
If that wasn’t enough to get your juices flowing, then track 2, ‘Against Our Fire’ is like a rip-roaring, Thrash/ Heavy/ Power Metal inspired monster that steamrollers you, and everything around you, taking no prisoners. With growling that’s surely the soundtrack to dystopian nightmares, and a thundering pace that never lets up for the full 5 and a half minutes, you can now be sure that this is an album that really means business.
It’s more of the same in ‘The Pool Of Liquid Dreams’ (which is a spurious name for a track, or maybe that’s just my unclean mind. I’ve been pending too much time with the Serpents and Whores, clearly!) which takes us into a near-future dystopia of virtual reality and psychoactive tech blurring lines between reality and simulation. Someone should really play this track to good old Elon. Maybe then he’d understand what he’s taking us all crashing unwillingly into. Unlikely, but worth a shot.
‘Gone’ brings the midpoint of the album, in terms of number of tracks, not play-time. And it’s the opposite end of the spectrum to what we’ve had so far, like an interlude among the insanity. Gone are the thundering drums, sweeping, vast orchestrations, and demonic cadences. And in their place a stripped-back melancholy ballad, which reminds me of Opeth in a lot of ways, and has some sumptuous guitar work as its main hook. At only 3 minutes and 14 seconds, it’s a song that doesn’t have time to outstay its welcome, before we’re launched back into the abyss in, but in a rather gentler way, with the 7-minute opus ‘The Singer In The Arms Of Winter’, which is straight up an Iron Maiden style banger with more lush guitar solos, and beautifully annunciation, all set to a slow-march beat. This needs a lot of air grabs if it’s ever performed live! It’s got a really floaty section at the end, like a final meditation as the dust settles on a battlefield. Vocally, it’s in these sections that I most appreciate the tone in Tiago’s vocals. It’s tender, but commanding in equal measures.
‘Never Be Like You’ is a spikey affair, looking at the battle within, exploring identity and expectation, and struggles with self-alienation and silent rebellion in one’s own mind. Basically, a mid-life crisis in song form. It’s another epic too, clocking in at just shy of 8 minutes. This is one that makes me think of Devin Townsend, both in its unhinged arrangement, and musical genius.
‘Hinderance’ again challenges our emotional resolve, with another melancholy, but beautifully minimalist ballad centring around the metaphor of internal resistance. This leads into the closing, 8-minute-plus ‘Heir of the Survivor’ around the idea that surviving is an inheritance – a legacy that both bears scars and pride. I can totally get onboard with that idea. Anyone who has endured and ‘made it through’ will feel the same. The track grows and swells, exploring various rhythms, cadences, and dynamics, but never losing the cinematic edge that is abundant throughout the album. There’s a lot of Dream Theater in here. Another class band to be able to emulate.
This is a cracker of an album, for those who love dramatic, grandiose Prog Rock with plenty of frills. It takes some digesting, but once your head’s in the right space, it is, without question, a masterpiece!
TRACKLISTING:
01. Serpents and Whores
02. Against Our Fire
03. The Pool Of Liquid Dreams
04. Gone
05. The Singer In The Arms Of Winter
06. Never Be Like You
07. Hindrance
08. Heir Of The Survivor
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