Brazilian prog metal trio Pentral released their debut album What Lies Ahead Of Us today and you can listen to the whole album in full below.
Hailing from Belem in the north of Brazil, the band feature vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Victor Lima, drummer Vagner Lima and bassist Joe Ferri. Pentral, which means spirit in Latin, worked with legendary producer Tim Palmer on What Lies Ahead Of Us, who has also worked with Robert Plant, Tears For Fears and David Bowie.
"This album is like a "declaration", conceived well before COVID-19 emerged," says Vagner Lima. "But it kind of fits the current reality we're experiencing. This pandemic is the outcome of the unfriendly way we've been treating our environment and ourselves as well, and it served to expose our insensitivity, our lack of empathy. We are hopeful that this music reaches the ears and minds of folks all over the world, inspiring them to listen, think and act."
Here the band talk us through their debut, track by track.
1. Silent Trees
This song starts with a "peace mantra" from Hinduism called “Om Shanti”, like if “the trees” would be crying for help and peace... The silent trees are the main witnesses of destruction caused by human greed. They try to "help" and protect the people who live in the forest, but they cannot withstand the fire's power. The "beast" is the human being who kills and destroy everything to get richness without thinking about the future and its consequences.
2. All My Wounds
The Woman who is pregnant ran away from the forest and try to keep herself sane, and to heal her deep physical and spiritual wounds. This song talks about the wounds caused by greed and the desperate need to find "a medicine" to deal with that.
3. Disconnected
It talks about what we have in our daily lives - "look after oneself and leave others to their fate". The woman and her kid notice how tough is their lives in the middle of a competitive and aggressive environment controlled by the owner's power.
4. Letters From Nowhere
Like If the man has bequeathed some writings just before He got killed, asking the youth to pay attention to the need to get together and push for their right to have a "worthy life".
5. The Shell I'm Living In
They have no perspective. Everything is toughness and deprivation. Woman and kid are living like "zombies", Living in a Shell...
6. No Real Colour In Souls
It talks about racism, of all sorts, the feeling they have (woman and kid) that nobody wants to be even close just because of the colour of their skin. It's a strong declaration against racism, the lives were lost fighting against it and the message that the soul we all have has no colour at all.
7. A Gift From God
It talks about the true love - the love a mother has for her kid. Unconditional love.
8. Aiming For The Sun
It's the most aggressive one. The Woman and kid try to protect themselves from the danger of the hostile society they have to face to stay alive.
9. Are You Satisfied
It talks about eugenics, as if some "category of people" deserve to live without dignity and under constant oppression, violence, and indifference. The chosen ones should receive the greater benefits just because they are entitled to...
10. The Law
It's the end of the journey (or the beginning of the next one...). It talks about bigotry, all forms of domination - politics, religion, the cult of personality, like if the woman and the kid have faced all sort of false prophets... The evil and manipulated representation of God.
