André Coelho Matos (born September 14, 1971) is a Brazilian vocalist, pianist and composer. He was involved in the heavy metal bands Viper, Angra and Shaaman. Since October 2006 André Matos has been dedicating his time to his solo band.
Within a short while, Viper had become a phenomenon in the Brazilian heavy metal scene. They are considered to be the second band to blend classical music with heavy metal. Though Matos continued on vocals, he had no pretention of remaining a vocalist, a role he assumed only because his singing was the "least poor vocals of all of them", and because he physically resembled Iron Maiden's vocalist, Bruce Dickinson. His instruments of choice were always the piano and keyboard instruments. Matos left Viper when the band began to change its musical style. He had become interested in classical music, and felt that his musical vision had begun to diverge from that of the other band members, who wanted to focus on heavier, "crude" music.
After leaving Viper, Andre went back to school and finished his education in music, specializing in orchestral conducting and music composition.
In 1991 Angra was formed, and with the first album, Angels Cry, released in 1993, the band became famous in Japan and Europe. Later Holy Land and Fireworks were released. Angra's style evolved from a Helloween-inspired melodic speed metal to a unique blend of heavy-metal, classical music and traditional Brazilian influences which brought them worldwide critical praise.
Andre took part in a worldwide contest for replacing Bruce Dickinson in Iron Maiden and was in the Top 3 finalists alongside James LaBrie and eventual winner, Blaze Bayley.
In 2001, he left the band Angra alongside the rhythm section composed of Luis Mariutti (bass) and Ricardo Confessori (drums) because of a disagreement with guitar players Rafael Bittencourt and Kiko Loureiro concerning the band's management.
Andre stayed with Angra's former rhythm section and recruited Luis' brother Hugo Mariutti on the guitar : together they formed the band Shaman, who had to change names to Shaaman before the release of their second album for legal reasons.
The Band was a sudden success due to the song Fairy Tale that was in a Brazilian Soap Opera Beijo do Vampiro (Vampire Kiss) and this fame reached worldwide in a little while... The first album, called Ritual, sold over 200.000 copies worldwide in the first year of its release and resulted in a tour with 150 concerts around the World and a DVD called Ritualive before an audience of more than 7.000 Brazilians in São Paulo.
Their second release, Reason, kept the fame and culminated in a concert in front of 10.000 people in Rio de Janeiro. After this, the band owner and former Angra Drummer Confessori fired Matos and Mariutti brothers from the band.
Besides all success heading the release of the album and the expectation over the album Matos decided not to record any worldwide video clip; he only recorded and released an exclusive video clip for the Japanese audience which features a cover.
Time To Be Free was followed by a tour with more than 50 concerts all over the world, Matos was invited to be touring with Scorpion and Edguy (This one is an old friend, and this friendship began when Matos was in Angra and Edguy was invited to be the front act for Angra's Fireworks tour) taking place in Europe, Brazil and Japan and in great festivals like Loud Park, Live and Louder and, for the first time in Finland, Finnish Metal Expo, Matos was also called to be headliner in ProgPower USA, but due to problems with their passport they canceled the concert, being replaced by another Brazilian band called MindFlow. At the very end of the tour, Matos joined Hangar (A Brazilian raising band in metal scenery which counts with Aquiles Priester, former Drummer from Angra) to a Metal Christmas Project, this was an exclusive Brazilian tour that had concerts in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the whole country, then Andre Matos went back to the studio to record his new album.
Mentalize was produced by Corciolli, and mixed by Sascha Paeth.
Matos is featured on the live album/DVD The Flying Opera.
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