Review By Tony Cannella

Sao Paulo, Brazil’s Amazon plays high caliber melodic metal. Amazon’s new album is titled "Nature’s Last Ride" and it comes six years after the release of their full-length debut "Victoria Regia".

First off, you can’t help but be impressed by the diverse vocals of Sabrina Todt. She utilizes a mid-range style in combination with a great operatic tone that she puts to good use throughout "Nature’s Last Ride". Musically, Amazon is also very proficient and talented, with enough bombast and symphonic elements that Nightwish comes to mind. The scope of the material has a huge, epic feel to it, even though the songs are all in the 4-6 minutes range. The opener "Black Star" features a crunchy guitar riff, a great vocal performance and tons of melody – which is pretty much the norm throughout the CD. The excellent "Conceived" is next and the band takes the tempo down a bit but the track has plenty of melodic appeal, this is an undeniably great track with a prog rock/metal feel to it. The third track "Come" has a Tarja era Nightwish feel to it, thanks to a big arrangement and Sabrina’s operatic vocal delivery. After two excellent up-tempo tracks "Nature’s Last Ride" and "Lake of Dreams", the band follow that up with one of the best songs "Falling" which has several different tempos. There are so many great songs on display here that it would be difficult to go through song-by-song but suffice it to say Amazon demonstrates great consistency throughout "Nature’s Last Ride". The Brazilian metal scene has produced some excellent bands over the years. With "Nature's Last Ride", Amazon has definitely added to Brazil’s metal pedigree. "Nature’s Last Ride" is an impressive album and Amazon is an impressive band.

Rating – 95/100

Tracklist

Black Star
Conceived
Come
Nature’s Last Ride
Lake of Dreams
Falling
Heretic
Prisoner (The Phantom in the Mirror – Part II)
Whoever You Are
Gathering High
Moon High Glow
The Poem & The Eden