Friday, November 28, 2008

ALMAH - Tour Dates 2008 - Brazil
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Nov 19 2008 Manifesto Rock Bar ( Almah + Bittencourt Project), São Paulo, São Paulo
Nov 22 2008 L´officina bar, São Bernardo Campo, São Paulo
Nov 28 2008 Banda Show, Santa Barbara do Oeste, São Paulo
Nov 29 2008 Malagueta, Salvador, Bahia
Nov 30 2008 Live, Aracaju, Sergipe

Dec 2 2008 Teatro de Arena, Maceió, Alagoas
Dec 5 2008 Hey Ho, Fortaleza, Ceará
Dec 6 2008 Dosol Rock Bar, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte
Dec 12 2008 Concha Acústica da Lagoa da Jansen, São Luis, Maranhão
Dec 13 2008 Espaço 3D, Teresina, Piauí
Dec 14 2008 Aplausus, Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará
Dec 19 2008 Brasília, DF NEW




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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

ALMAH TOUR 2008: the first shows
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ALMAH has begun Fragile Equality world tour 2008-2009 with two shows in São-Paolo, Brazil
Almah Manifesto Rock Bar 19/11/08: Birds of Prey (Almah, Fragile Equality), Take back your spell (Almah, Almah), Children of lies (Almah, Almah), Bleeding Heart (Angra, Hunters And Prey), Beyond Tomorrow (Almah, Fragile Equality), Scary Zone (Almah, Almah), Breathe (Almah, Almah), You'll understand (Almah, Fragile Equality), Nova Era (Angra, Rebirth), King (Almah, Almah)

SBC Metal Fest 22.11.08: Birds of Prey (Almah, Fragile Equality), Bleeding Heart (Angra, Hunters and Prey), Scary Zone (Almah, Almah), Children of Lies (Almah, Almah), Breathe (Almah, Almah), Run to the hills (Iron Maiden, The Number Of the Beast), Beyond Tomorrow (Almah, Fragile Equality), Nova Era (Angra, Rebirth), Take Back your Spell (Almah, Almah), King (Almah, Almah), You'll Understand(Almah, Fragile Equality)

MORE PICTURES:


Thanks Mayara Linhares for the picture
See more Almah pictures: http://www.myspace.com/mayangel_dark


Thanks Mayara Linhares for the picture
See more Almah pictures: http://www.myspace.com/mayangel_dark


Thanks Mayara Linhares for the picture
See more Almah pictures: http://www.myspace.com/mayangel_dark


















The pictures are provided by Marcelo Moreira (Almah)

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Sunday, November 16, 2008

ALMAH - International press about Marcelo's work at Fragile Equality

…“The guitar duo of Barbosa and Schrober proves its worth with fast riffs and Malmsteen influenced breaks proving the high performing potentials making this lineup solid as hell. Just listen to the insane riffs in the homonymous track that has also the title of the heaviest song with a neck-snapping rhythm. I think that ALMAH with this album can stand by their own if only the metalheads will not fall in the trap of considering them as ANGRA part two because they are not. The music follows the Power Metal with the confidence of two most experienced musicians (Falaschi and Andreoli) supported by three talented newcomers”.
Metal Temple (Greece), rating 4/5 (excellent)

…“Especially guitarist Marcelo Barbosa shows he controls his instrument perfectly, both in his solos as in his riffs”.
Lords Of Metal (Holland), rating 80/100

…“You have the volatile vocals of Falaschi which are reminiscent of Michael Kiske (HELLOWEEN) with the driving guitars of Marcelo Barbosa and Paulo Schroeber nothing can be better but hark-hooked filled tunes with riveting keyboards and a truly amazing timekeeper in drummer Marcelo Moreira is the binding element to it all”.
Rock Eyez, rating 4,5/5

…”If it’s not enough, we have also a sign of progressive technique which is pretty strong, thanks to “guitar heroes” Marcelo Barbosa and Paulo Schroeber”.
Novo Metal (Brazil), rating 9/10

…“Actually, Fragile Equality presents the work of inspired and technically perfect musicians. The solos of Marcelo are going one after another, pasted together like on a scotch-tape, and if his guitar mate Paulo is not so impressive on his solos parts, he gains revenge as a rhythmic guitarist on the other hand!”
Pavillon 666 (France) 9/10

..."This album sees Edu team up with Felipe Andreoli once more, this time they bring in the guitar duo of Marcelo Barbosa and Paulo Schroeber and drummer Marcelo Moreira to complete an outstanding line-up that simply put ROCK! This fantastic album gets underway with rip snorting metal anthem ‘Birds Of Prey’, with the guitar duo getting things underway in fine style,(...) The last track was a great display of power and melody this time with ‘Magic Flame’, the mix of speed and melody are equally impressive especially Edu’s towering vocals along with the double kick mastery of Moreira and the splendid licks and riffs of Barbosa and Schroeber, as the pair battle in out with only one winner the listener."
The Mayfair Mall Zine

...”Concerning “You’ll Understand”, the first song presented at Myspace, there are sound effects and a lot of drive in vocals; a short bass solo of Felipe Andreoli in the middle of the song making a kind of “bridge” to extensive double guitar solos of Paulo Schroeber and Marcelo Barbosa.
Whiplash (Brazil), rating 9/10

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Highlights 2008 - ALMAH Fragile Equality album recording



Marcelo Barbosa playing some solos and parts (promotional video)

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Highlights 2008 - KHALLICE and DREAM THEATER in Rio!
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KHALLICE AND DREAM THEATER in Rio de Janeiro, March 2008
Originally written by MARCELO BARBOSA for Russian ROCKCOR magazine



It was January 31st... We couldn’t believe the message Mike Portnoy had just posted. Khallice was one of the bands selected to open for Dream Theater in Rio de Janeiro! The flow of emotion was just overwhelming. I called the band members, feeling like I was in heaven.
The guys went crazy. It was funny, for some of us it was difficult to beleive the information that we were actually opening for Dream Theater!
Every one of us entered in a state of uncontrollable joy. The deal was to go for a bar, or a pub, and celebrate our asses off! At the bar, we thought “Man, how are we gonna go to the show, without spending too much? Because we gotta take all of our equipment, amplifiers, drums, keyboards. That will be expensive, because of the weight excess in an airplane”.
Then we all came to the idea: “Let’s prepare an excursion! It will be awesome. We can reserve 10 places in the bus for the band and the crew, and the rest we can open for fans of Khallice and Dream Theater. I bet it’s gonna be a hell of a great trip”.
The rehearsals for the show were great! We were happy and anxious at the same time. We had rehearsed for 2 weeks, every day, from 9pm to 12am. We all played with big smiles on our faces, knowing that we were about to have a real great time.
And it was that. We were able to rent a very good bus, double decker, very comfortable. It was 750 miles, or 1200 km journey from Brasilia, our city and the capital of Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro is a city on the South East area of our country. It’s a coaster city with beautiful beaches and a hell of a hot weather.
The trip took 18 hours long. Everyone was extremely happy, listening to DT in the bus, singing along. It was fantastic mood!
We arrived to Rio de Janeiro a couple of hours past noon. It was very hot, and the city had a different felling in the air, like something big was going to happen. Every one of us could feel that. It was really good, a great atmosphere.
We entered to set our things up and saw the whole place empty, with just some guys from the venue’s staff wondering around. It’s very intriguing how a place can be dead and then alive, from a matter of minutes.
Soon later we hit the stage for the soundcheck . While we were at it, TJ, Dream Theater’s tour manager said “Ok guys, at 20:15 DT will go to your dressing room, to meet you guys”. Excellent! We were gonna meet them!
We went back to our dressing room and stayed there, everyone were doing his stuff, warming, talking, in a very relaxed mood. Then…. “Knock knock knock. Hellooo”... It was Mike Portnoy. He began to enter the dressing room, then Petrucci, Rudess, Labrie and Myung. There they were, Dream Theater, in front of us... Khallice went full circle.
It was funny, the band freezed in front of them. Silence, DT staring at us, and Khallice staring at them. Mike broke the silence asking if I was Michel’s brother. And then the ice melt, and we began to chat. We stayed there, talking for a few minutes until they had to leave.
Mike said to us “Ok guys, have a great show, don’t be nervous, and have fun, because that’s the reason we are all here for”. We’ll never forget those words.
We went to the show ready to rock the house. We hit the stage, and the crowd was insane! We played for 4500 or 5000 people. They were all singing our songs, jumping, asking for songs, shouting our names. What a freaking great audience! What a rock and peace mood! We had never felt so great on the stage like that day. We played 6 songs mixing hits from “The Journey” and new songs from our new EP entitled “Inside Your Head”.
The making of our new EP was very interesting. We had recorded the drum, the bass, the guitar tracks for the upcoming full length album in mid August of 2007. When we knew that we were selected to open for Dream Theater, we rushed to finish 5 of those tracks, to release this EP. We thought it could be the perfect opportunity to promote our work, and give a little taste of what’s to come. We had extremely little time to record the guitar and vocal parts, and even more, we still had to mix and master the EP. Everything in 2 weeks! Even so, the result turned out very satisfying to us.
We made 1000 copies of this EP and gave away, for free, to the first 1000 headbangers waiting to enter the venue.
The reception of the new songs was incredible for us. The crowd knew a lot of the lyrics, and really seemed to enjoy the entire show. We were done after 30 or 40 minutes.
Dream Theater show was a more atmospheric show, with more mid/slow tempo songs. It was a very prog show, in the sense of the word, very hypnotic. They conducted very well the mood of the songs, and the set list contributed a lot to it. For the hardcore fan the show might have been a little slow but for us, musicians, it was a perfect demonstration of technique, felling and musicianship.
Comparing to the show DT made here in Brazil in 2005, this 2008 show was less varied and heavily based on their new album "Systematic Chaos". They played almost the entire album, with the exception of Prophets of War and The Ministry of Lost Souls. We missed some songs from Awake and Scenes from a Memory. The presence of Lines in the Sand was fantastic, along with the new version of Surrounded, entitled "Surrounded 2007".
Dream Theater in this tour seemed to be even more relaxed but it was with great stage presence. Those who say that DT is a very static band , just based in technique without feelings, would have really changed their minds watching this show. It was a very moody show, not based in heaviness, much more based in mid/slow tempos songs and feeling. We could see all of this when they played Lines in the Sand, Surrounded 2007 and Misunderstood.
Jordan Rudess used a mobile keyboard, which was a great welcoming addition to the show, because that way he could go very close to the audience, rocking like never before!
Very funny thing happened when Mike Portnoy's drum tech changed a cymbal in the middle of one song, and Mike wouldn't let him replace the cymbal correctly, because he began to use just that crash, making fun of him!
We went back home fully realized, everything worked out perfectly, there were no slow downs, no worries, no argues, nothing. Khallice was treated with enormous respect, coming from DT and their staff. That day we were all musicians, with no restrictions.
The whole experience was wonderful, and we really hope that this will open doors to great new opportunities for Khallice. We can’t wait to make people have more access to our music, that is made with extreme passion and sincerity!

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KHALLICE - Live (own songs and Dream Theater classics)




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Friday, November 7, 2008

Marcelo Barbosa, press release
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Without any doubt, Brazilian brilliant guitar player Marcelo Barbosa (b. 1975) has already established his significant place in the guitar and musical world. He is respected as an outstanding musical professor and a musician - a founder or participant of some very important Brazilian bands like prog metal act KHALLICE or ANGRA’s members new act ALMAH. One of the most respected musical schools in Latin America GTR founded and run by Marcelo Barbosa is based on his own teaching approach which was proved by many years of work and thousands of graduates. He is famous as an author writing for the biggest national professional guitar magazines and as a participant of many high-level side projects. Marcelo Barbosa is an incredible player in many styles of music from country to metal, talented composer, great team worker and last, but not least: a fully professionally dedicated person.

Biography

Marcelo Barbosa began playing electric guitar when he was 11. He studied with several teachers, mainly with Allan Marshall (the principles of harmony and improvisation). Since the very beginning Marcelo had been much dedicated to his line and the results of such attitude came very early. At 17 he already was a professional musician and a musical teacher in two the most important musical institutes in his home city Brasília. And it didn’t take much time for him to decide to establish his own one. Due to his passion and the fact that such educational institutions didn’t exist in Brasília at that time, he decided to focus on electric guitar. Besides organizing work and managing other teachers Barbosa established his own entire approach instead of copying or adapting any already existed one and he wrote all the didactic material. Years and thousands of graduates have proved effectiveness of his way. But at that time when everything was just beginning, in 1996, Marcelo was only 21!

Nowadays his institute called GTR is one of the most respected guitar schools in Latin America. GTR have already graduated over 4.000 students. More than 600 people are studying in three units of GTR at once. Besides electric guitar, there are the courses of vocals, acoustic guitar, production, musical business and many others. A lot of special events are frequently organized by GTR like festivals and workshops with masters like Sidney Carvalho, Kiko Loureiro, Edu Ardanuy among others. To its 10th anniversary GTR released a special 14 tracks CD recorded by some of the most prominent teachers.

Many specialists and music-lovers from other parts of Brazil and even from other countries pay their attention to Marcelo Barbosa’s teaching and playing skills. He is frequently invited to various guitar clinics, festivals, important exhibitions in Brazil like Expomusic and abroad like NAMM (USA).

At the same time Marcelo doesn’t stop studying himself, he attended classes and workshops of such masters like Greg Howe, Lula Galvão, Helio Delmiro, Toninho Horta, Guinga, Ian Guest among others. In 2002 he finished summer courses in the famous Berklee College of Music. As a result he was chosen with other 11 students to receive a scholarship for the college’s regular course (of 400 musicians from over the world!). Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to continue due to GTR and his other responsibilities.


Some time before Marcelo became a member of quite famous in Brasília pop rock band Zero10. They released an EP and a full-length album “Novo Dia” and they plays almost every week at different venues of the capital of Brazil. But actually the main musical passion of Marcelo is progressive rock and metal. Such bands like RUSH, PINK FLOYD, GENTLE GIANT and of course DREAM THEATER have permanently been among his favorites. No wonder that Barbosa's own band called KHALLICE plays prog metal!

The story of KHALLICE – one of the most important prog metal names in Brazil - has never been easy. It is not easy for any Brazilian band which is not from São Paolo. Also, Marcelo and other members have many other responsibilities in their careers. KHALLICE started in 1994 as a cover band, began to create its own stuff soon and released two important demos with a good feedback in specialized media. After various problems and holdbacks, Marcelo was able to put KHALLICE back on track, and the band recorded “The Journey” (2003). The first press of this independent album was sold out in less than six months. In the beginning of 2004 it was re-released by Hellion Records and in 2006 an important progressive rock label from North America Magna Carta managed a worldwide release of THE JOURNEY.

After some line-up changes, in the summer of 2007 KHALLICE started recording of the second full-length album. At the end of January 2008 the band won a contest announced by DREAM THEATER to support one of their shows during Brazilian tour. And in March 2008 KHALLICE played amazing gig with DT in Rio de Janeiro. It was not only another opportunity to gather new experience or to conquer some new audience but really making dreams come true! Obviously, it was a great goal for KHALLICE and Marcelo to win the recognition of the headliner of the genre. Specially for this show KHALLICE prepared a promotional EP Inside Your Head with 5 songs from the upcoming 2nd album. The new stuff made it clear that during these years Marcelo Barbosa and his KHALLICE team reached a new level of composing, playing and production.

At this highest point, the story of KHALLICE was stopped for some time. The release of the 2d album was postponed because Marcelo had become a member of another important brazilian act. In September 2007 Barbosa was invited to join the band ALMAH formed by some members of ANGRA and he went into a huge national tour with ALMAH. Since ANGRA had taken a break, ALMAH was becoming more and more important being the only legitimate successor of ANGRA. By spring 2008 the line-up of ALMAH was finally established. First, drummer Marcelo Moreira joined Edu Falaschi, Felipe Andreoli and Marcelo Barbosa. And then, another guitarist Paulo Schroeber joined ALMAH. Actually, Marcelo and Paulo nowadays represent one of the best guitar duos not only on national metal stage but all over the world.

At the end of April 2008 the recording of new ALMAH album “FRAGILE EQUALITY” started at Norcal studios (São Paolo) and finished in July 2008. Actually, all the band members brought their contribution into this record. And of course Marcelo composed a few parts. Among other highlights of the new record one can emphasize fantastic guitar work, a lot of brilliant, fast, aggressive and technically perfect solos of Marcelo and Paulo. No doubts, that nowadays ALMAH is one of the strongest heavy metal acts from Brazil and Marcelo Barbosa is an important part of it. At the moment, Marcelo together with his bandmates is working at the third studio album of ALMAH. The new CD is planned to be released in September 2011.


Among other participations of Barbosa we could mark V/A compilations “Guitarras do Cerrado” (2003) with two instrumental tracks by Marcelo and “Metal do Cerrado” with 2 Khallice and 1 Zero10 songs. Marcelo Barbosa took a place of Frank Solari in the important guitar trio TRITONE with Eduardo Ardanuy (Dr. Sin) and Sergio Buss.

Marcelo Barbosa shares his guitar experience writing articles for important guitar magazines in Brazil. Guitar Class, Cover Guitarra and Guitar Player are in his journalist’s background. Some time ago Marcelo wrote a book about technique to the “Toque de Mestre” series, published by HMP.

Marcelo Barbosa is endorsed by Tagima, Elixir strings, Nig pedals and Ibox. On Expomusic 2006 (a big musical exhibition in São Paolo) one of the most important guitar brands in Brazilian market TAGIMA released new MB-1, the guitar designed with Marcelo’s specifications, which belongs to the select team of "Signature Series" of the company.

“The pleasure and dedication of doing what I love always surpasses the obstacles, and that’s the fuel that pumps in me!” – tells Marcelo Barbosa and the most probably this fantastic career has only just begun!



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