The Southern Extremities album introduces the music of three talented Brazilian bands, described as evangelistic Christian heavy metal by Steve Rowe. The president of Rowe Productions seems to be enthusiastic about the three bands as I may believe the booklet. The first band to appear is Völlig Heilig. Their music is basically melodic metal with good singing from Helio D'Tarso and some nice lead guitar playing. The production of their four songs is fair but lacks the power to convince. Stauros, the second band, is much more convincing with their production. Their instrument playing is excellent and is a contributing factor to the quality of these progressive metal songs. A song like Vital Blood really shines. The last band on the disc is Light Hammer. They are the only band that hasn't had an album out. So, these songs are the first on a CD ever. The first thing that I notice is the length of each individual song. The shortest is almost seven minutes. Imagine songs with a lot of melody, acoustic playing as well as electrified guitar picking, and keyboards to create some atmosphere. And there are solos. Southern Extremities is a cool project and the overall quality is good. It's a pity though that other talented Brazilian bands are not part of this as Brazil has much more to offer.
