Glasya – Fear | Progressive Rock Central.com

Glasya, will be releasing their latest album, Fear, through Scarlet Records, on October 24^th, of this year.

Glasya is a symphonic metal band from Lisbon, Portugal, formed in 2017; who have taken on the name of one of the princesses of darkness in the famous “Dungeons and Dragons,” role playing game. Fear is another “empowering symphonic metal tale,” from the band and it is full of great music and guest appearances. Glasya has a special talent of being able to produce great music and combine it with powerful storytelling. It is what sets them apart from other bands in the genre.

Glasya is made up of members: Eduarda Soeiro, on lead vocals; Davon Van Dave, on keyboards; Hugo Esteves and Bruno Prates, on guitars; Ivan Santos, on bass; and Pedro Correia, on drums. Frontwoman Eduarda Soeiro is also officially part of the current Moonspell live band.

Their press release reads: “Lead by the magnificent voice and imposing presence of Eduarda Soeiro, Glasya keeps marrying cinematic heavy metal and a bright storytelling vein. Three years after the excellent Attarghan concept album, Fear, brings forward a more modern symphonic metal sound with strong grooves, catchy chorus and several honorable special guests. Three years after the excellent Attarghan, concept album, Fear, displays a more modern symphonic metal sound with strong grooves, catchy chorus and several honorable special guests including: (Moonspell’s Fernando Ribeiro, Vision Of Atlantis’ Michele Guaitoli, Dark Oath’s Sarah Leitão, Catarina Póvoa on violin, on “In Your Haven,” and Portuguese tenor, Filipe de Moura).

So, let’s go face our fears!

Glasya’s latest album opens with the album’s title song, “Fear.” As they describe it, “It tells the quest of a woman who finds herself confronted with her own fears and gains the courage to overcome them. The listener will be walking in the shoes of the protagonist and feel her trepidation, her convictions, her achievements, and the confidence that she develops in herself to help a close one. During the course of the compelling story, she will fully reveal her weaknesses and how they can finally become her strengths – a real triumph over adversity.” Who doesn’t like a story like that? I’m in!

The track opens with sound effects including: thunder, falling rain, and a woman breathing hard from running away from someone, in fear. The electric symphonic soundscape blasts open the curtains of the stage, with full scale drums, electric guitars, bass, choirs, and keyboards. A full-on fearsome and threatening, metal symphonic attack, calls to be reconned with! Eduarda Soeiro sings, “I slowly awaken, unsure and dazed. I can’t remember even my own name. Where I am standing, what is this place? I can’t even recall a single face. I’m trying to rise up… not strong enough. I’m trying to see but it seems so tough. A whisper starts echoing. Inside.” Moonspell’s Fernando Ribeiro is that other forceful voice she hears. He sings, in a tough, but not a growling voice, “You can’t turn your back on me. There’s no exit, no retreat. No safe place to hide. Now, You’re mine!” Yeah, he is threatening without needing to jump on the growling bandwagon of fads. Thank you for that decision. Sounds so authentic. Authentic fear, not fake growls.

Eduarda Soeiro returns to sing, “Another voice, it speaks, invades my mind. From one to more, they seem to bind. Leave me alone, leave me alone now!” Eduarda Soeiro sings, “We are your fears of yesterday. We live in dreams you can’t contain. You kept us lost and far away. But we came along, we are here again!” A powerful song of warning, for the rest of the stories that are about to unfold on the album. A great show-igniting song that I’m sure will open many shows and festivals for Glasya.

And so the pursuit is on! “Hunt of the Haunted,” continues the story from the last song. Hammering drums, orchestration, bass, and electric guitars flood the soundscape. Eduarda Soeiro sings, “I’ll never understand how lost a mind can be A deeper kind of sense invades my eyes… makes me linger There is someone behind, her pain can long exist. It’s me who wants to find a silent voice. Inside it screams…. higher and higher and higher…. Run! It’s night of the hunter. Run! They feed from all my fears. Run! They are much stronger. Than faith or my belief.”

Eduarda Soeiro, has a magnificent voice. Full of vocal fluctuations in pitch and volume. A quality that is not always prevalent in female metal singers. She is not stuck on one chord or pitch here. She is experienced and sings with power. She reminds me of Marina La Torraca, back on Titanium, before she decided to join the growlers. This song has a very “Diamonds and Dark,” feel to it. When Eduarda Soeiro sings, “They are me and I am them. They came for me but I will stand!” It reminds me of Manuela Kraller singing, “I was given the seal and the key. And I will keep it until I die!” from “Prophecy of Worlds to Fall.” This is what we have been missing from female lead singers. Yes, bring it back, because it was great! But like Eduarda Soeiro, make it yours.

“In Debris,” returns to the scene of the beginning of the album, with rain water falling and flowing, and symphonic metal thunder reigning everywhere. The soundscape ignites with more power! Eduarda Soeiro sings, “I see a tower on my way. A point of no return. Trying to find where I am. Lost voices can be heard. I’m here alone. In this dark place full of demons in my head. A hall of death. I have to face. I have to stand and rise and pass.” Fernando Ribeiro’s fire breathing voice returns, “Welcome to my reign of despair. Welcome to your own nightmare. Prepare to face here all your fears. The fears you cannot bear!” Eduarda Soeiro then sings, in a higher soprano-like voice, “To In Debris I need the courage to stand up. In debris I must leave. This is the way I have to go. No one can say no to me!” Almost, like a wonderful return to Manuela Kraller level singing. What a song! What an album!

Eduarda Soeiro wanders into a room full of spiders on “Stuck in a Cobweb.” She sings, after a powerful symphonic metal soundscape fills the air, and sets the stage. “Breaking the strings that control me and rule all my thoughts. I can’t cool down my head from the things I forgot. I keep going and going. I keep striding ground from the past, that keeps coming and tears me out. Someone to hold me back. Someone to pull me out a prison made of web that I once feared.” She continues, “Another place. Another time. Another life that wasn’t mine. Another host. Inside my head. Another me was there instead. Stuck in this Cobweb.” This song really gets interesting with the cool evil choirs and piano that enters the soundscape, later.

Michele Guaitoli, gets another cameo guest appearance on another band’s album. He sings on, “Glimpse of Memory.” Eduarda Soeirois, begins to remember things. She calls for James, and sings, “I could see for a while seemed so real… your sweet smile. Found a way and a purpose why I’m here. I just realized I felt a little of your touch. I am missing you so much. I won’t stop until I find you. No matter how it hurts.” Michele sings with her, “I will be here for you. Keep searching through. I’ll seek here, there and everywhere. You live in my dreams. I’m free in your arms. It feels forever after this glimpse in my heart. You live in my dreams. I’m free in your arms.” Then, Michele sings, “Want to heal myself. From this wounded life. I won’t be pursued. By a griming knife. I don’t want to keep bleeding and believing in denial. It feels like I’m falling even deeper more and vile.” The duet continues, “I will be here for you, keep searching through. I’ll seek here, there and everywhere.” A great love song duet, set to cool keyboards, guitars, and drums.

Sara Leitão sings guests vocals on “Rising Wildfire.” A wildfire surrounds Eduarda Soeirois. The symphonic soundscape rebuilds its own fire, as Sara Leitão sings in full growl, “Do you dare to repair your mistakes. All the pain you caused returns for you to take. Each tear. you made people cry, is a new fire burning every side. Eduarda Soeirois sings, “As far as I regret every flaw. I can’t forget every sin and misbehave will be my grave.” Sara Leitão returns to rebuff, “Like sparks in the night. The ones you hurt will ignite each flame. That you see it’s a flame to be feared.” The lesson learned: Be careful who you hurt during your life. Karma is unforgiving. Eduarda returns, “A lonely pyre burst my past. It feels accursed as fire invades the light. I feel it’s might, you…. you are the one the one that will burn my rising wildfire you!” Sara Leitão returns to give her final growl, “As ashes spread ablaze all is consumed by a raging haze. There’s nowhere you can be safe. I’ll burn down all this place!” Hope returns as Eduarda Soeirois sings, “It’s not the end of days. I believe in my own way. Dealing with this wicked loathe as fire turns to grey.”

Eduarda Soeirois moves away from the fire into a room full of rising water. The thunder of the soundscape builds as “In a Flooding Room,” begins to unfold its mysteries. Eduarda Soeirois sings, “As I leave and hide inside. The fire burns way behind. Smoke has cleared. Breathe at last. Lay my knees, laid to rest. The floor it sinks. Makes me slide a kind of stream. Starts to rise there’s no ground everywhere. Only water draining air…. You and me we have to go. The way is up, pulled down below. Diving fast from side to side. Swim against this rising tide. Must believe in a way out. We’ll be ok, safe and sound in these walls must be a door hold your breath.” What a journey!

Eduarda Soeirois hears her childhood music box and enters, “The Cold of Dark.” Eduarda Soeirois sings, “I never felt so cold. With all my thoughts untold. As I have reached and tried to grab the light that fades away. Is darkness in my mind. As if my soul was blind. So lost and only guided by my own perception. Cannot escape this place. I feel it’s dark embrace. What is this I hear. It pulls me closer. A memory out of time. A distant sound of mine. I’m afraid to lose myself in darkness. Please find me, I’m so cold. There’s no light. Free my soul. I hear it. In darkness. This music will guide me.” All of these lyrics, set to a powerful symphonic soundscape of cinematic sound.

Eduarda Soeirois screams out for James. A blast of metal guitars and the full soundscape enters to perform, “Rescue.” Filipe de Moura, (a famous Portuguese tenor), sings, “All these memories in my mind. And your face I hope to find.” Eduarda Soeirois responds, “Through this darkness. I have to face. In your arms, I want embrace. Now I remember where. You are in chains!” A warm love song.

On “The Confrontation,” Eduarda Soeirois, calls out again for James. After some worrisome choirs and pounding drums, the symphonic power returns. Eduarda sings, “Now it is the time. To confront the supreme. Every time I get near. He’s no longer “here”. Try to realize. What face that I would see. I’m just awaking from a dream. You will see. Come back to me. Finally free I yes, I have to be!” A powerful song of discovery.

Eduarda Soeirois comes to the realization that James is no longer “The Supreme.” On “In Your Haven,” Catarina Póvoa plays violin with Eduarda Soeirois’s singing, “In the night. I feel so safe. I’m the one who hides away as the light denies my deepest hunger. As the rain that falls inside. As the air I cannot breathe. Are the words. I need to hear you wonder. Free me from this place forever. I don’t want to feel this way. A strength that rises and lives from this place forever.” A hopeful song, as we begin to reach for the album’s conclusion.” A soft, feminine love song of beauty.

“The Ultimate Challenge,” begins with what sounds like a collapsing building. Eduarda Soeirois sings, to surrounding choirs, thundering drums, electric guitar, bass, and keyboards. She speaks and then sings, “I know what I feel inside. The silent voice is always on my mind. All this evil has blown me wild. We are so close from the end. Will not be stopped now. After all we won. Our way will not be done. This is the night ’till last I will fight. The truth will always be what my eyes can see. This is my choice. My own only voice. This is the ultimate challenge!” The “Scrooge” – like nightmare dream is ending and Eduarda Soeirois, (playing the character Sarah), has learned from the experience and is ready for the ultimate challenge!

“Overcoming,” opens with narration. Sarah wakes up and finds herself in a hospital bed with her husband James. They were hit in their car by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel. Sarah and James are ok, but Angelo, the other driver is dead. This is a powerful string and heavy drum led instrumental break that comes just at the right moment. The mysterious piano and strings that fill the air are so cinematic and wonderful.

The only mention I could find on the Internet for the closing track, “No Teu Abrigo,” or “In Your Shelter,” was, that it was originally a forró song recorded by Brazilian artist Flávio Leandro and released in 2010 on the album Cheiro de Nós. Eduarda Soeirois sings the song in Portuguese, to soft piano and strings, before the power metal drums and guitars join in, later. Nothing at all like the breezy, beach song by Flávio Leandro.

Glasya’s Fear, is a Charles Dickens-like Christmas Carol, story, were Eduarda Soeirois, plays Sarah, to several different guest singers, who play her husband James. Sarah goes through several “awakenings,” to her past behavior which hold new consequences within a dream; similar to the trials that Scrooge encountered. It is also like a walk through a dream, where the lead character confronts many different and unnerving scenes and predicaments; reminding me of one of my favorites, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. And finally, there is the Arjen Lucassen, Ayreon comparison. The car crash from Arjen’s Human Equation, and the events, that catastrophe, set in motion; along with the multitude of guest singers he always includes on all of his Ayreon albums. So, the ideas are not so new, but the music on the other hand is. If you like all of the movies and albums I just mentioned above, then you will probably enjoy the trip that Glasya’s Fear takes you on. I for one did enjoy the journey as well as all the new singers and musicians I met along the way. You will be entertained by the duration of this album, just as hopefully, you may already have enjoyed all of the other comparisons I made above. We all want more innovation and more concept albums from our symphonic metal bands. So please help celebrate every attempt to create these stories filled with action. Especially when they pull out all the stops, and bring in some talented collaborators, as Glasya did on this album. Will Glasya’s Fear, help you overcome fear? Not sure about that. But you will definitely have fun trying.

Glasya’s Fear, was produced by Fernando Matias at The Pentagon Audio Manufacturers (Sinistro). It was mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano at Orgone Studios (Ghost, Behemoth, Paradise Lost). The album features: Fernando Ribeiro (Moonspell) on vocals on the songs “Fear” and “In Debris.” Michele Guaitoli (Vision Of Atlantis) sings vocals on the song “Glimpse Of Memory.” Sara Leitão (Dark Oath) sings vocals on the song “Rising Wildfire.” Filipe de Moura sings vocals on the song “Rescue.” Artwork produced by Phobos Anomaly Design.

Album Track List: