Kev Rowland This is the second album from this Brazilian band who are obviously influenced by country mates Angra, as well as Helloween, Iced Earth and Iron Maiden. As with may press releases, the one that came with this album is at pains to point out bands that they are similar to in an attempt to help the reviewer to push the reader down the right track. But nowhere does it mention Disturbed and I defy anyone to play “Night and Day” without thinking of them. Let’s hope these guys are more interesting in concert as I walked out of a Disturbed gig as I was so bored (mind you, the support was the mighty Trivium so the headliners were always onto a loser from my perspective). Based around singer Mario Pastore what we have here is a traditional metal/power metal act of some note.

Mario is a great singer who reminds me quite a lot of Bruce Dickenson in that he uses a range of vocals, not just going for the high notes all the time even though he can reach them easily enough. The band are extremely tight, and the best way to really enjoy this is by turning up just that little bit louder as it is only fair to share it with the neighbours (or in my case, with the sheep).

Released worldwide by Inner Wound Recordings in October 2012, this album is definitely worthy of further investigation by anyone who enjoys good old fashioned Dio/Maiden style metal.

Warthur Pastore from Brazil offer up a winning brand of traditional heavy metal based on the band's knack for sounding like a harder-edged Iron Maiden and lead singer Mario Pastore's uncanny vocal resemblance to a mix of Ronnie James Dio and (especially) Bruce Dickinson. In other words, what they offer the traditional heavy metal fan is business as usual, but they show a flair for said business which puts them ahead of the curve and makes them a joy to listen to. Don't expect this Brazilian outfit to reinvent the wheel any time soon, but the wheel they're using sounds perfectly fine to me, though equally they end up being enough of a Maiden soundalike that they'll always slightly suffer compared to the original.

adg211288 The End of Our Flames is the second full-length album by Brazilian heavy metal act Pastore. The album was released in 2012. Pastore takes their name from the surname of their vocalist Mario Pastore, who quickly proves to be the star of the release, which is a faithful form of traditional heavy metal with a sprinkling of thrash metal elements.

The End of Our Flames is one of those albums that in no way even attempts to reinvent the wheel, but rather presents itself as intending to be the crème de la crème of the heavy metal genre by refining its essential elements into an addictive sound. It’s heavy, with solid musicianship and song writing. It’s catchy, but without being overtly commercial in direction. And best of all it has Mario Pastore. And Mario Pastore has an absolutely killer heavy metal voice, on par easily with those of the greats such as Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio or Jorn Lande, and with an impassioned performance from start to finish he lifts the record up well into the heights of greatness.

Not all the songs stand out as highlights, but The End of Our Flames is a solid and consistent effort from Pastore in all aspects. Early tracks such as the opening title track and its follow-up Night and Day quickly set a high standard for the album to follow. For the most part it manages it, with Brutal Storm, Liar, Envy, and Bring to Me Peace all having that same infectious sound that Pastore make their own, while the other tracks are all solid songs and therefore never dissatisfying. Nothing here is quite on the sort of masterpiece level that will keep me playing the highlights over and over again, but there’s just about enough of really exceptional heavy metal tracks here that an exceptional grade rating is deserved overall. This one is especially recommended for those who dig a top quality vocal performance above all else!

85/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org/pastore-the-end-of-our-flames-t2860.html))

dtguitarfan The End Of Our Flames is the sophomore release of Brazilian band Pastore, formed in 2007 by Mario Pastore (Acid Storm, Delpht, Soulspell) and Raphael Gazal, and is set to be released on October 12th of 2012. Now, I'd like to start things off by telling you what this album is not. It is not a musical enigma of an album that bends genres and cannot be compared to anything that came before it. There are definite classic heavy metal musical influences here which the typical metal connoisseur will have no trouble pointing to. That being said…what this album does, it does extremely well. This is hard-edged, gritty, classic sounding metal with timeless-sounding melodies and a testosterone infused sound that can be traced back to some of the classics such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. As soon as Pastore's vocals came in, I immediately thought to myself that he sounded like a cross between Ronny James Dio and Bruce Dickenson, and it felt comfortable and familiar, fitting oh so well with the music. And throughout the album, I felt the tunes had this catchy, memorable quality to them that made them feel timeless. This is not to say that the tunes are simplistic – they may be more simple than some of the modern metal in other sub-genres, but they have an ageless quality to them that immediately made me think that if I had heard them without knowing this was a 2012 release, I most likely would not have been able to correctly guess what year the album was released. Is this "Metal reinvented"? No, but what is wrong with that? I would highly recommend this to fans of classic heavy metal such as any of the names I have previously mentioned in this review, as well as fans of some of the more current "Classic Metal" names, such as Jorn.

Originally written for www.seaoftranquility.org