Progressive/power, symphonic metal band Allos returns after more than 10 years with their second album Strong Delusion, showing that good things do come to those who wait.
The Brazilian band Allos formed in 2003 in Minas Gerais, and now have two albums released, Spiritual Battle (2012) and Strong Delusion (2024). While backstory and history are hard to come by, the band has released a good bit of information about their current state and the recording of Strong Delusion. First off, the band has signed with Soundmass (Mortification, Saint, etal) for the physical distribution of the new album and a remastered re-release of the first album Spiritual Battle. For Strong Delusion, the band leveraged connections to power metal legends Narnia for a number of aspects. Viktor Stenquist (Sepultura, Narnia) who the band met while touring with Narnia, served as audio engineer and Thomas “Plec” Johansson (Soilwork, Narnia, Evergrey) handled the mastering. To add contributions to the symphonic side of the album the band recruited a professional choir from Belo Horizonte in Madrigal Renascentista, violinist Luka Milanovic of the Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra, Marco Amorim on piano, and Sandra Alves, flutist with the Symphony Orchestra of Minas Gerais. They also brought in the likes of Christian Liljegren (Narnia) and Rob Rock (Impellitteri) to contribute vocals on a couple tracks.
Symphonic metal always has a lot of moving parts and Allos vision here is no different. The John Bunyan-inspired opening track, “The Pilgrim’s Progress” is filled with atmospheric background sound, piano, choirs and is the first introduction to the incredibly strong vocals from Celso Alves, showcasing his amazing range. “Follow Me” is when the album really takes off with the metal backing a strong keyboard opening. The song showcases a driving rhythm section supporting Alves vocals and accented nicely by the keyboards and choir. Sprinkled in are some good guitar fills and overall the quality of the production and mastering show through if the metal side of the music is a bit too quiet in the mix for my liking. We also get introduced to some guest musician contributions from violin as well as piano. I also have nit-picky thing about the guitar solos sounding too clean and polished to where they almost sound like keyboards, but that’s just my personal preference showing through.
“All Your Days” is one of the early singles released by the band and serves as a good introduction to what is on the album. The Christian themes the band is known for come through clearly in this track and again, Alves’ vocals and the choir shine in this song as elsewhere on the album. In sharp contrast, the other single from the band immediately follows and opens up with a dark, groove riff that had me initially wondering if I was on the same album, but the choir coming in and then the verses, made it clear this was just a heavier track. Wallace Ryan brings in some great drum fills at various points in the song that complements the great work of the rhythm section on the rest of the song. The layers of sound in the tracks on the album add so much to the listening experience and that becomes more clear the longer one listens.
By the time you get to “Inferno” and “Letter from Heaven” you think you can predict to some extent where the songs are headed, but Allos venture into different areas on these tracks with “Inferno” starting off with some great violin work that blends into a complicated guitar riff only to have the song end up with an orchestral and choral ending that Alves comes in to lay vocals over the top until the choir retakes control. “Letter from Heaven” opens with just soft piano and Alves soaring vocals. Eventually the rest of the band comes in but remains subdued although there is an emotional guitar solo. As if that was a needed break to catch their breath, Allos takes off a breakneck power metal speed for “InHuman Mind” which carries through somewhat until the last track on the album, “For the Centuries” which stays within the realm of the orchestra and choir and provides a fitting close to the album.
Allos have put together a near masterpiece of orchestral and symphonic power metal. The arrangements are lush with multiple layers without becoming distracting, musical performances are strong, and the vocals are amazing,from Celso Alves, the choirs, and guests. One can imagine pulling all these elements together may literally explain why there was such a time gap between Allos first and second albums, but Strong Delusion makes it worth the wait.
Rating: 8/10
Written by John Jackson
Track Listing
- The Pilgrim’s Progress
- Follow Me (feat. Christian Liljegren, Narnia)
- All Your Days
- TeleVisione of Reality
- Suffering and Evil
- Inferno
- Letter from Heaven
- InHuman Mind
- Strong Delusion
- System Collapse
- Millenium Kingdom (feat. Rob Rock, Impellitteri)
- For the Centuries
Release Date: Oct. 4th. 2024
Record Label: EnHakkore Records
Band Members
Celso Alves – Vocals
Junior Oliveira – Guitars
Edley Winderson – Bass
Wallace Ryan – Drums
Guest Musicians
Cristian Cooke – Midi Programming
Marco Amorim – Piano
Gabriel Torres – Backing Vocals
Social Media:
Facebook: @allosofficial
Instagram: @allosofficial
Site: https://www.allosofficial.com/
X (Twitter): https://www.twitter.com/allosofficial
Video for “TeleVisione of Reality”
Lyric video for “All Your Days”