Khallice has launched its official Twitter

Marcelo Barbosa's band Khallice has launched its official Twitter: www.twitter.com/khallice

"Now the band Khallice also has its official Twitter. The design is done by my great partner Carlos Fides, from Artside. Don't miss the opportunity to follow, in this way you will always receive all the news and updates. See you there!"

Marcelo Barbosa

A few photos of KHALLICE's show in Goiânia, Brazil on 17th of June

ALMAH resumes Fragile Equality Tour

In June 2010 ALMAH is again on the road with Fragile Equality Tour program. The new leg of the tour will include a few dates in Brazil. According to the bass player Felipe Andreoli, the band is booking as many dates as possible while Angra is finishing the production of the new CD. The band is very happy to come back on stage with Fragile Equality Tour program. One of the shows will take place in Marcelo's home city - Brasília. Marcelo's band KHALLICE is to play with Almah this time in Goiânia!!!

Almah - Varginha/MG - 12/06/2010
Roça N’ Roll Festival

Almah - Belo Horizonte/MG - 13/06/2010
Hard Rock Café

Almah & Khallice - Goiânia/GO - 17/06/2010
Bolshoi Pub

Almah - Brasília/DF - 19/06/2010
Local: Marreco's Fest

More info: www.almah.com.br

Several pictures from Khallice show

Last week Marcelo played with his band Khallice at the 50-years-anniversary of Brasília. Here you can see a few pictures from the event made by Guilherme Negrão:

Khallice opens Guns N'Roses: one more video

Marcelo about opening Guns N'Roses show in Brasília with Khallice on March, 7 (click here or Read more button to get the complete report)

Two years after the legendary trip to Rio de Janeiro to open Dream Theater show, Marcelo Barbosa's Khallice played with another legend - Guns N'Roses, this time in the home city of the band, Brasília. Check out Marcelo's story about this challenge, some video and photo stuff!
The report in PORTUGUESE IS HERE.



Well, unfortunately for my blog, I’m not that kind of person who makes a lot of videos or photo stuff. Even at moments like this… and it’s a real mistake. But normally I’m so deep in my thoughts, so I forget to make shots. But this time I succeeded to do a few!

As it was mentioned before, the confirmation that we are the opening act of the show of the Guns came only on Friday evening. It's been two weeks since we got in touch with the promoter for the first time, I didn’t hear anything more about the show since then, so I became pretty sure that it wouldn’t happen. To be honest, I didn’t even tell anything to my band-mates about it, because it was only one chance and I didn’t intend to give them a vain hope. That’s why when I called the guys to let them know about the show, they didn’t want to believe. They thought that I was kidding, also due to my way to inform them about it. It was like this:
- Hi Michel. Are you going to the show of Guns on Sunday?
- Fuck... I think, no.
- But now you have to go, because we open it! :)

As a short preamble, I’d been already acquainted with the present guitarist of the Guns Ron Thal, we first met at Namm Show in Los Angeles a few years ago. We had a short conversation there, and he wasn’t in the band yet at that time. When I got to know that the Guns should come here I sent him an e-mail trying to schedule a workshop or something like that in GTR. As I expected I didn’t get his answer until the last Sunday. He replied that it could hardly be possible to coordinate any event with the Guns’ schedule, which was really crazy, with everything done in a rush and changes all the way through. I sent him my thanks in return and proposed to organize something when the Guns are not on tour. On Friday, after getting our show confirmation, I sent him one more e-mail with this news and the time frame of our soundcheck. And we arranged our meeting there.


(At Namm 2006)

Since Khallice doesn’t maintain any constant show schedule, the first difficulty that we faced with was the necessity to rehearse at least twice before the show. We fixed Saturday and Sunday to rehearse in my studio, and thus, I had a “mega punk” week-end again: shows with Zero 10 till early morning on Friday and Saturday and rehearsals with Khallice on Saturday and Sunday at noon!

We arrived to the venue on 3 p.m. and after checking the technical team and getting the instructions from the producers we were looking at the soundcheck of Sebastian’s band until 4 p.m. or something when the installation of our backline began. I adore playing on stage of big shows in Brasília, because it gives me a great opportunity to take along all the equipment I want and I need. The one who really doesn’t like this, is my roadie Bruno, because he has to carry two cases and a head of Orange amplifier, which are really not light in weight.



Everything passed perfectly. Our soundcheck was calm and tranquil and the band sounded very good on stage. It’s clear, we had a fixed sound limit - quite common thing for opening acts of great bands: 104 dbs of loudness. They do it mainly in order to provide some sound impact when the main band enters the stage. I’ve always found it an idiocy, but in the end…

Ah! Here’s some very interesting detail: EXACTLY on the 7th of March but two years ago we were in Rio de Janeiro, opening Dream Theater show. How big was the chance to hit the same day? One from 365... :)

Ok, after the soundcheck I had a chat with Ron. I presented him Neto and we were talking for a few hours. He showed me his equipment and the famous double neck guitar with one fretless finger-board and another normal one of Vigier. A very cool thing. I talked a little to the guitarists of Sebastian, they were very cool.



Our show was scheduled for 20:00, but it was changed to 20:30. We played 30 min for more than 20.000 people and, as usually, we were really welcomed by the public. When our show was finished, Ron was waiting for me on the right side of stage. He made compliments to me and then invited me to assist at the show of Sebasthian right from the stage. Great... why not? Fuckin’ great show!


(Photo by Guilherme Negrão)

Concerning the shows of Guns, despite the routine delay it was simply one of the best performances I’ve ever attended. It was a grand spectacle including everything – the sound, the light, the pyrotechnics and video. Very impressive.


(Photo by Guilherme Negrão)

Since our backstage room was next to the one of Sebastian, at the end of the event we spent some time together talking and drinking. This man is one of the main figures I know, very funny… very cool guy.


(Photo by Guilherme Negrão)


I came home almost on 4 a.m., very tired but also fulfilled. It was a very special Sunday. Thanks to all (from here and there) who sent us their positive thoughts and energy. See you soon!

MARCELO BARBOSA

Khallice backstage (photos by Guilherme Negrão)

Khallice in the air of MetalCast show

There are several bands out there offering their first material (EP, demo, album, …) for free. Hence the choice to finally add some of those freebies to the list. But they are just a tip of the iceberg. And they come from everywhere, be it France, Brazil, USA, or elsewhere. Again you’ll be surprised to hear and see which bands made it to the list. On top of that, we even went to Mexico and South Korea to look for bands worthy of your attention. At least, we hope they’re worthy. Enjoy the show and don’t hesitate to further check out the featured bands.

Host: Polina
Tracklist: Tim, Marcus, Polina, Judith

01. Heaven’s Basement – Executioner’s Day
02. Cryogen – This Nightmare
03. Legend – Dawn of Empire
04. Claustrofobia – Minefield
05. Khallice – Share a Little Something
06. Archenterum – Hamon Baal
07. Khrophus – Symbols Or Not
08. Etánisis – El Último Guerrero
09. Oranssi Pazuzu – Danjon Nolla
10. Tiamat – Cain

CHECK THE EPISODE HERE

If you are in Brasília, don't miss this special show of KHALLICE!

Interview for Hard Blast webzine

Maila: What are the 5 main and necessary steps for those who intend to be guitarists like you?
Marcelo: I´ve never thought about it this way but let´s see what I can do. Well, first you´ve gotta know about music, learn how to listen to music and research the references. Second: study to learn. It can be done through a teacher, a good school or even by yourself if you think it´s better. Everyone must choose what´s the best way. Third: play with other people. It means nothing if you play very well but only to you bedroom´s wall. The relationship with other musicians in different musical environments is essential to anybody´s development. Fourth: be professional. It isn´t because you decided to work with arts that you are not a regular professional. You must see your career as a real job and make it as important as one. Last thing, never stop researching and studying. A professional who doesn´t go for constant improvement loses the chance of creating something new and innovative. Nobody is too good to stop learning.
Maila: A message to the readers, please.
Marcelo: Never give up on your goals even when they look impossible to achieve. Dreaming is part of living and it´s fuel to the soul. Who spends all the time with both feet on the ground loses the magnitude of flying. Don´t dream too much, though, work hard to achieve your dreams. Only dreaming won´t bring you anything and nobody will work for you.

The complete text of the interview interview by Maila-Kaarina in English
The complete text of the interview in Portuguese

KHALLICE Story (click "read more" button to see the complete history of Marcelo Barbosa's band Khallice)

KHALLICE, an important progressive metal act in Brazil started its international career in 2006 when the debut album The Journey was released worldwide through Magna Carta, a renowned progressive label from North America.

Although the band exists since 1994, the recognition didn't come too early as far as KHALLICE have had some line-up changes and several breaks during its career: the band's musicians normally are in great demand in different bands, projects and other musical activities. On the other hand the big musical experience in different fields and in various styles of music is a real assurance of the highest quality of KHALLICE recordings. Every live show of the band is noted by great musicianship and tremendous live energy. No wonder, all KHALLICE members are professional musicians and musical teachers, and the band's founder Marcelo Barbosa (guitars) is the owner of GTR Institute, one of the most respected musical schools in Latin America, and currently is a member of ANGRA's Edu Falaschi's band ALMAH.




KHALLICE started in 1994 as a cover band (playing Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple classics), but very soon the musicians began to create their own stuff. The band released two important demos with good feedback. The first demo of the band was done in their native Portuguese. Then they recorded the song "Madman Lullaby", an English version of "Balada do Louco" (a hit of the world-famous Brazilian band Os Mutantes from 1970?s) for a Tribute CD to former Mutantes member, Arnaldo Baptista.

The second demo "Prophecy" was received very well by the local fans and magazines from all over Brazil. In June 1999 Alírio Netto, who played the part of Jesus in the Brazilian and Mexican casts of "Jesus Christ Superstar" joined the band as a lead vocalist. He replaced Mario Línhares who had left the band. But due to his occupation in the rock opera he could really start his work with KHALLICE only at the end of 2001. Finally KHALLICE established stable line-up and finished writing the stuff for their first album, "The Journey".

The band's line-up at that time consisted of Marcelo Barbosa (guitars), Alírio Netto (vocals), Michel Marciano (bass), Cesar Zolhof (drums), Bruno Wambier (keyboards). The Journey was recorded in November 2001 - August 2002 in Zen Studio, Brasília and included new tunes and rebuilt versions of songs written since the beginning of the band. All the songs were created by Marcelo Barbosa and Bruno Wambier. There were some sophisticated prog metal songs like Spiritual Jewel with some links and allusions to Dream Theater and classical progressive bands of 1970's like Yes and metal hit songs like Vampire, Wrong Words, Thunderstorm... and for sure the title track The Journey! Good instrumental parts, great melodies and excellent, very diverse vocals of Netto are the highlights of the album. The Journey received very good reaction from national media. ccording to Thiago Sarkis, Whiplash.net observer, "The Journey play the same part in Brazil like Images and Words of Dream Theater is for prog metal worldwide". According to the review in Poppycorn.com Webzine: "The album includes 9 compositions with much virtuosity, a lot of guitar and keyboards solos and everything that the prog metal style offers".

To the national release of The Journey KHALLICE played a very special concert with one of the most important rock bands in Brazil DR. SIN. With The Journey set-list KHALLICE played at very big musical festivals like Porao do Rock (50,000) and Brasília Music Festival (BMF), sharing the stage such with artists as Alanis Morissete and Simply Red.

The first press of The Journey as a self-release 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.

Marcelo Barbosa for PerfectProg Webzine (2006): "It happened in the beggining of this year. I went to the USA to play at NAMM and I met Greg Howe for the second time in my life. He gave some classes in 2005 and now I would like to take this opportunity again. I really like his playing, he's one of my favorites players in the world. So, I showed to him two songs of our new CD that were done at this time. He really enjoyed it and helped me with some contacts. Magna Carta was our best option".

After some line-up changes, in the summer of 2007 KHALLICE started recording of the second full-length album with the following line-up: Alírio Netto (vocals), Marcelo Barbosa (guitars), Michel Marciano (bass), Pedro Assunçao (drums) and Renato Gomes (keyboards).

At the end of January 2008 the band won a contest announced by DREAM THEATER to support one of their shows during Brazilian part of the tour supporting Systematic Chaos album. 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 to win the recognition of the headliner of the genre.

Specially for this show KHALLICE prepared a promotional EP Inside Your Head with 5 new songs from the upcoming 2nd album. The new stuff made it clear that during these years KHALLICE reached a new level of composing, playing and production. EP included 3 typical prog metal tracks Inside Your Head, In The Fire and Share A Little Something (with great orchestral arrangements) and two fantastic semi metal ballads Letting Go and Reasons. The cover artwork was created by Gustavo Sazes (Abstrata).

From the Metal Madman Webzine review (rating 9/10): "The production is now crisp, clear, heavy, and with a solid bottom end to it. Vocals are blended perfectly in the mix, and sound incredible. The harmonies alone make this EP worth checking out! What I like about Khallice is even though they are a progressive metal band its not overly done, and the songs flow very well with great catchy melodies, and rhythms."

At this highest point in the middle of 2007 frequent activities of KHALLICE were stopped for a while. The release of the 2d album was postponed due to Marcelo Barbosa's membership in ALMAH band formed by some members of ANGRA and recorded Fragile Equality studio album (2008) with the guitarist of KHALLICE. The second full-length album of KHALLICE is to be released in 2009.

Discography
* Prophecy (1996, demo)
* The Journey (2003, Hellion Records)
* The Journey (2006, Magna Carta) - re-release + bonus Stuck
* Inside Your Head (2008)




Current Members
* Alirío Netto (vocals)
* Marcelo Barbosa (guitars)
* Michel Marciano (bass)
* Pedro Assunçao (drums)
* Renato Gomes (keyboards)
Former members
* Bruno Wambier (keyboards)
* Pedro Mamede (drums)
* Cesar Zolhof (drums)
* Mauricio Barbosa (drums)
* Mario Línhares (vocals)

KHALLICE in Synergia program (Brazil)

In the recent 17th issue of Synergia program (Brazil) you can see the great documentary of KHALLICE tribute performance to Dream Theater (Images and Words) in Brasília (Brazil) on 21th of November 2008.
The video is available (click) here, it includes short interviews (in Portuguese) and the parts of classical songs like Take The Time, Wait For Sleep and others played by KHALLICE.

Highlights 2008 - KHALLICE and DREAM THEATER in Rio! (you can use "read more" link to see the complete post)

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!

KHALLICE - Live (own songs and Dream Theater classics)