Boy oh boy, after reading the blurb on these guys I got seriously confused. 'The Elephant Truth' was apparently recorded over two years with each band member living in a different city in Brazil, partially conceived and created over the internet, experimenting with thrash, traditional heavy metal and (the new beige) progressive metal - what am I letting myself in for? Then to top it off the entire album is a concept album divided into 23 tracks about a man in a coma inspired by an American poem by John Godfrey Saxe that was written in the late eighteen hundreds!

To me Brazilian thrash metal means Sepultura, or more latterly Soulfly. The thrash genre itself to me is all about power, technique and aggression, and memories of Dave Lombardo drumming out 'Reign In Blood' at Hammersmith Odeon, or getting battered by Ninja security at Death Angel (remember them?) at Newport Centre, plus various other 'Big Four' gigs around the country and more recently seeing Hatebreed for the first time.

This album, while having some heavy guitar work isn't thrash metal to me, or am I too old school? The traditional heavy metal angle I can relate to and bits of this album are very Iron Maiden, the singer has Bruce Dickinson's voice to a tee. But unlike Iron Maiden the songs to me are too disjointed, perhaps the band should have got together a bit more so then someone could have said, "it doesn't flow". 

On the progressive metal front, I can't see it, as these guys are no Dream Theater, so what we are left with is a concept album where granted each of the parts works singularly, but as a whole the album it just doesn't quite cut it for me. Cracking vocals, and hints of what could have been, but just like a certain mega band's album that took too long in the making, maybe it should have been canned and what's relevant now taken into consideration, with too many ideas and no one saying when to stop. 

The closest thing I can liken 'The Elephant Truth' to is Queensryche's 'Operation Mindcrime', but without the story and conceptual skill. Don't get me wrong it has a place, for a certain type of heavy metal fan. It's on iTunes now so go and buy a copy and make up your own mind.

http://www.myspace.com/greensleevesbrazil