Ashtar - Urantia (2002)

Artista: Ashtar
Álbum: Urantia
Año: 2002
Género: Prog Folk / Metal Celta
Duración: 58:27
Nacionalidad: Brasil

Lista de Temas:
1. An Oiohche Dhorcha
2. Urantia
3. Arriving At Skye
4. Druid Dream
5. Amazing Grace
6. Children Of The Mist
7. The Misty Dawn
8. Oblivious Scars
9. The First Star
10. Nemesis
11. Madainn Trath

Alineación:
- Fernanda G. Mesquita / vocals and percussion
- Luis Garcia / guitars, whistles, synthesizer and vocals
- Pedro Salles / bass and synthesizer
- Daniel Dobbin / drums and percussion
- Thiago Gumaraes / guitars
- Brend Adula / keyboards
Guest musicians:
Clota De Oliveira / fiddles
Anderson Muniz / bagpipes

Más rock brasilero en inglés que nos trae Sandy, resubiendo discos masivamente como hace desde hace un tiempo. Pero ahora lo que trae tiene condimentos de metal y aderezos de música celta, para un álbum un tanto distinto a lo que tenemos generalmente en este blog cabezón.

Y la semana pasada estuvimos mucho en Brasil. Me parece que esta también, tengo bastantes, muchas cosas brasileras, y para todos los gustos. En este caso, Ashtar es una buena banda, fundada en 1997, la banda comenzó como un "doom metal progresivo" y el sentimiento celta fue introducido más tarde junto con mucha influencia del mundo espiritual pagano, la banda vendría a ser lo que algunos llaman "Spiritual Metal World". Luego de un montón de cambios de formación (obvio, habían cambiado mucho su estilo original), llegó el lanzamiento del primer disco, 3 giras europeas, la aparición en el festival Prog Baja de México, importantes conciertos en Brasil y un próximo lanzamiento del DVD oficial. En su carrera, han sido comparados repetidas veces con bandas como bandas populares como Gathering, Karnataka o Gjallarhorn. Yo añadiría a esta lista a Ayreon o Stream of Passion también, los tipos terminan haciendo un metal progresivo bastante suave e íntimo con tintes celtas, la banda ha desarrollado una habilidad para combinar la guitarra metálica con violín y sintetizadores espaciales que da un agradable sonido en general.
Este es el primer disco de la banda pero creo que no el único, si alguien sabe de otros trabajos de la banda, me avisa please.

Lástima que todo en inglés, ¡que manía tienen los brasileros en ocultar su idioma!. Las letras hablan sobre preguntas existenciales y sus respuestas, los sentimientos, las emociones, las vidas pasadas, antiguas civilizaciones y todo tipo de experiencias y delirios devenidos de espíritus afiebrados. En sí, el álbum es bastante extraño, con lo que la banda se refiere como "metal del mundo espiritual" y que va desde el típico sonido folk celta al metal progresivo pasando por varios puntos intermedios, con muchos sonidos de violines, pitos, gaitas y otros instrumentos no convencionales en el rock.

A principios de 1979, Livgren se creyó en la religión Urantia, la cuál está basada en El Libro de Urantia, una serie de artículos que giraban en torno a la vida de Jesús, y que pretendían ser una revelación escrita por seres sobrenaturales. Su influencia se dejó sentir en las letras del album Monolith de Kansas, de 1979. No obstante, Kerry era escéptico hacia el cristianismo y no quería hacerse cristiano puesto que no le gustaba lo que había visto de los telepredicadores.

Wikipedia

El Libro de "Urantia" es el tomo espiritual que Kerry Livgren, uno de los miembros fundadores de Kansas, estaba estudiando antes de que se convierta al cristianismo, en los años setenta. El tema es que la banda incluye en el álbum una versión instrumental del himno protestante tradicional "Amazing Grace" en la forma de un solo de gaita.
"Ashtar" sería un supuesto ser astral que se está preparando la iniciativa de una flota de naves extraterrestres a la Tierra para llevar a cabo la "limpieza planetaria", y el álbum lleva el nombre de un libro de orígenes misteriosos y dudoso, cuya finalidad es ampliar la conciencia cósmica y mejorar la percepción espiritual (sea lo que sea eso signifique).

Los dos seres brillaban bajo los rayos de la luna llena. Sus ojos eran grandes y la piel del rostro era muy clara, casi transparente, con cabellos cayendo sobre sus hombros. Uno era rubio y el otro moreno, llevaban muñequeras y tobilleras brillantes que parecían de oro. Tenían un cinturón luminoso en la cintura y unas placas extrañas en el pecho. Sus nombres eran Ashtar Sheran e Itacar, eran seres solares, es decir, que habitaban en los astros y eran aquellos que lo habían preparado en estos diez largos años para confiarle una misión. Le revelaron además de ser aquellos que hacía dos mil años habían acompañado a Jesús Cristo en su venida a la Tierra. Siragusa fue uno de los primeros en describir a Ashtar Sheran.
Posteriormente contó que le dieron un mensaje para revelar a las autoridades, Siragusa asegura que envió por telegrama dicho mensaje a todos los Jefes de Estado y científicos que investigaban la energía nuclear. El texto del mensaje, en sus párrafos fundamentales, decía lo siguiente: "Con desagrado debemos advertiros necesariamente sobre el peligro de vuestros experimentos nucleares. Nos duele afirmar que nada se podrá hacer para evitar que vuestro mundo sufra un duro golpe de naturaleza desastrosa y mortal. Si queréis que vuestro planeta no se convierta en el cuerpo doliente de un lejano tiempo, debéis abandonar de un modo definitivo y para siempre vuestros deletéreos experimentos nucleares. Hemos sido encargados para vigilar vuestro destino, porque tenemos confianza en vuestro porvenir. Estad completamente seguros de que si tenéis la fuerza y el coraje para realizar una sólida unión entre todos los habitantes de la Tierra y lleváis a cabo la completa destrucción de los armamentos nucleares, que ahora más que nunca os hacen orgullosamente dañinos y morbosamente agresivos, todo será posible"

Wikipedia

Algo así como un últimatum al mundo por el uso de armas de destrucción masiva. Después llegó Bush y retomó la idea pero en Afganistán, Irak, y ahora Siria e Irán.
Aparte de esta rareza, la mayor parte del álbum está lleno de canciones decentes con frecuentes referencias a los temas de otros mundos y mística, cuasi-religiosas, aunque no habla ni de Bush ni de Obama.

Y vamos con los comentarios de otros:

Hey sigo con mis cambios de genero musicales repentinos pues esta ves se trata de una banda de folk metal progresivo de Brazil con el nombre de Ashtar la cual fue formada en el año de 1997 y lanzando su primer album de larga duracion en el año 2002 con el nombre de Urantia la cual nos deja ver un buenisimo trabajo con lo que es el folk metal progresivo pues la verda es un disquito que me a encantado le e escuchado varias veses y si pasa la prueva esta de 10 mas con la voz esta chica Fernanda G. Mesquita que le da un t0ke bueno alos temas lastima la banda asufrido varios cambios de alinacion y pues esta chica ya no esta pero bueno hay ke temas que me encantan en especial 05-Amazing Grace/06-Children Of The Mist/10-Nemesis
y pues si esos temas son bastantes buenos la verdad todo el disquito me encanta asi que amigos se los dejo totalmente Recomendado. y recuerden si te gusto compra el cd original apoya a tus artistas preferidos.

Soldier Of Metal

Folk music, progressive rock and some extreme metal here and there
Ashtar's Urantia is one of those albums you would never pick up and give it a chance if you were to buy it in a regular CD store. In the first place, the cover is just so bad, cheesy and generic that it would not be able to incite the curiosity of anybody to find out what's behind it. In the second place, the band's pictures on the CD tray and inside the booklet don't help with their visual appeal at all. In the third place, if you put together the cover, the band's pictures and the tracklist on the back, the first thing that may come to your mind is that they are one of those generic metal bands out there and then put their album back on the store's CD shelf.
Luckly, in my case, that was not the case. I bought over the internet and, although I was pretty skeptical when I unboxed it, listening to Ashtar's first and only album, Urantia, made me leave behind any doubt I had about the quality of their music. What the band present here is a quite original mix of folk music, progressive rock and extreme metal. The folky progressive rock dominates much of the album environment, but whenever the metal part kicks in it really takes the spotlight right away. That usually when Luís Garcia puts out a stronger vocal part or when some heavy riffs appear, in contrast to the usual acustic guitar or normal electric gitars.
One important thing to point out here is that the folk part of this band's music does not reflect the place were they come from at all. Hailing from the state of Rio de Janeiro, Ashtar had the possibility to go explore the vast array of the country's diverse musical culture and deliver an album that is differs themselvesfrom the vast array folk rock artists who choose to use English or Irish folk music as the source of their inspiration in the USA and other countries. Instead, they chose to do like the latter and be just another person in the crowd. Not that Urantia is a bad album, it's core is simply not different enough, though the metal parts do cover most of that lacking originality concerning the folk parts.
The vocals here are, for the most part, pretty decent. Fernanda has a very good and fitting voice for the genre and uses it the way she should: her clear, calm and somewhat ethereal vocals dominate most of the album's songs, since some are instrumental. Speaking of which, the instrumental section isn't bad at all. Exceptiong one part in the middle of the song Oblivion Scars, where both guitarrists clearly overestimated their playing fast / shredding abilities, most of the instrumental playing is top notch.
Grade and Final Thoughts
Ashtar's Urantia was (again) quite a surprise for me. Their interesting mix of folkish progressive rock and heavy metal really impressed me. Almost everything fits perfectly in their places and despite some flaws (like the guitars in Oblivious Scars and the complete lack of any Brazilian reference in their music), the album is a very interesting journey, which is helped by the description of what inspired each song or what said song trying to portrait right below its name in the booklet.
For all that, I think that 4 stars is more than a fitting grade.

Caio "Dot" César

The members of Ashtar have dedicated their debut album "Urantia" to "God, (the one and only) Ashtar (Goddess Ashtar, I imagine), and all spiritual beings and entities" of all seen and unseen worlds of the universe (as I imagine again).
Here we have an album performed by quite a large number of musicians, which, regarding the richness of sound, is always a very promising sign. Indeed, each of the eleven tracks that are presented on "Unrantia" has a very saturated sound, even though all six of the instrumental pieces on the album are short. Performed with synthesizers, a string ensemble, piano, fiddles, and varied woodwinds and without the rhythm section, all of them look like little, yet, very beautiful musical frescos. Stylistically, they're certainly different from any of the five songs on the album and, in addition, are slightly different among themselves, too. The album's opening track, An Oidhche Dhorcha, as well as The First Star (9), are the pieces of Classic Symphonic Art-Rock. The Misty Down and Madainn Trath (7 & 11) are about a real Classical Music. Finally, both of Arriving At Sky and Amazing Grace (3 & 5) sound original, though at the same time, they very much remind me of British Prog-Folk (English, Scottish, and, perhaps, Irish too: i.e. British in a general sense). In fact, the elements of Folk Rock can be found almost everywhere on this album. The music on the songs: Druid Dream and Children of the Mist (4 & 6), represents a truly unique blend of Symphonic Art-Rock and progressive Folk Rock (which is still of a British nature) with elements of Prog-Metal. Most of the themes and arrangements on each of these songs were performed with acoustic instruments. However, the parts of these instruments, including just brilliant solos of an acoustic guitar, play a role, which is hardly less prominent than that of electric instruments, on all three of the remaining songs as well. These are Urantia, Oblivious Scars, and Nemesis (2, 8, & 10) and, musically, each of them represents a triple alliance of Classic Symphonic Art-Rock, Prog-Metal, and Folk Rock with elements of Gothic Rock, and Black Metal. The latter of them, though, is evident only in Luis Garcia's vocal parts, and there are little of them on the album. The lead singer on "Urantia" is Fernanda Mesquita, whose vocal qualities, as well as the pronunciation of English, are excellent. However, purely instrumental arrangements cover more than a half of each song on the album and always remain highly original, complex, diverse, tasteful, and interesting (i.e. regardless of whether there is the vocal part at the moment or not).
Please don't be doubtful about the complete originality of this brilliant album. Although I have twice mentioned that the elements of Folk Rock in the music of Ashtar are of a British nature, this doesn't mean at all that I was then implying some direct influences. I am just glad that overall, the music of these distant (by all means) relatives of the UK's The Morrigan and Skyclad is certainly more complex and diverse than that of the said bands, both of which, in their turn, are the leaders of a real Progressive Folk Rock / Metal. I heartily recommend "Urantia" to everyone from Progressive Rock's 'classic' camp but those who can't tolerate roars even in small doses.

Progresor

A brazilian band that plays a mix of power metal, ambient/new age and celtic folk? That seems to be a bit odd, although another highly successful band from Brazil, Tuatha De Danann, also draws their inspiration from the same sources (bar the ambient parts). Ashtar has the advantage of having a truly outstanding (female) singer in the voice of Fernanda Mesquita. The group started as a doom metal outfit, but you won´t find any of this style here. They seem to come directly from Ireland and save for the the vocalist´s accent, you could hardly tell they were south americans. That´s not to say their music is not worthy, much on the contrary. They are quite good.
I really liked their knack for writing fine melodic tunes and the the longer tracks are quite varied and very well performed and arranged. In fact they are superior to a lot of much more hyped metal bands of that year. It is only a shame they did not release a follow up so far. Certainly they have the chops to go much further. Songs like Children Of The Mist, Urantia and Nemesis are excellent exemples of their good craft. If they are not too original, at least they know how to handle the style with rare competence, specially if you have in mind this is only their first CD.
Although there is not much prog in here, Urantia is a very fine debut that certainly will please anyone who likes melodic tunes done with passion and conviction. Very good production and strong musicanship. If this was a HM site this would be a four star affair, no doubt. As it is I can´t give it more than 3,5 stars. Not essential in a prog collection, but still very good.

Tarcisio Moura

Ashtar are led by talented guitarist and main songwriter Luiz Garcia (below, right) with fabulous lead signer Fernanda Gollo (left). Oswaldo Zelasso plays violin and Rob Gould, who stood in on keyboards on their last UK tour, has now become a permanent member. Their rhythm section comprises Fabio Guilherme on bass and Daniel Dobbin at the drumkit. Daniel is also a fine artist and designs most of their logos and backdrops.
Their CD Urantia is one of the best debuts I have ever heard. The depth and quality of feeling in these songs reaches right to my heart in a way few others do. They embrace as wide a range of moods and feelings as I can recall from a single band, and are sung and played with rare passion by fine musicians. Here in Britain, Urantia can easily be obtained from classic rock specialists GFT. The CD is released on Musea Records so should be easily available from them in continental Europe.
It was a real treat to see them and take photos in Rotherham on 15/5/2004, supporting Karnataka at the CRS (Fernanda Gollo, left; Luiz Garcia, below right). I have included captions that introduce all the band members and highlight their musical versatility. I have also taken photos on Ashtar's 2005 tour at Rotherham Rocks and Malvern, and at Bilston Robin 2 and Malvern Youth Centre in 2006.

roscalen.com

Urantia is a very unique, very pleasant album that has the crafting to bring the listener to a wide range of good-looking settings. the guitarist introduced me to the album and I was quite suprised as I was expecting to be honest quite less. They use a wide variety of instruments with some added affects which further contributes to the folk mood. The female vocalist has a gracious warm voice, but some may be put off with her accent (note that this is mostly only in the slower parts). Concerning the male vocalist, he's quite unprofessional as far as growling ability goes, but still his growls is deffinitely a necessity to the Unrantia album's scene. I recommend this fine album to anyone who is open-minded to music, if you are nit-picky I suggest you don't purchase as you may rip its pleasantness apart.

bonsiachamp

Ashtar is a band with great instrumentation and great Celtic Music passages. The surprise about this band is that they are from South America, from a small region of Brazil. Their style is similar to bands like Karnataka or Mostly Autumn, but there are some musical landscapes a la Haggard or The Provenance. In terms of Songwriting, pieces like "Children of The Mist" and "Urantia" have it all! Loud-soft-loud instrumental transitions with great female, male and demon vocals. "Oblivious Scars" is a heavier song with lots of electric guitar distortions and angry chords. Their lyrics are very...let's say...Esotheric. Themes are old Celtic beliefs and Elvish tales. If there's a piece i'm in love with, that must the mythological interlude "Druid Dream". In short: A very recommendable piece for Progressive Rock fans and Folk lovers.

Jose Manzanares

En definitiva, un buen álbum, con características un tanto peculiares, muy buenas interpretaciones vocales, canciones fáciles de digerir, buen gusto y alguna que otra cosita interesante. Escúchenlo, el álbum no es una maravilla pero vale la pena darle una escuchada.

www.myspace.com/ashtarband
www.soundclick.com