Brazil is a fertile ground for Metal introducing to the world great bands and Metal musicians as well.But the local scene is also strong and despite the difficulties of living in an unfair country, bands are still being created and others are still persisting after decades in the Metal road. This is the case of the Brazilian band CAMOS created in the beginning of the 2000’s. The band is releasing their second full length album Hide From The Light after a hiatus of 15 years. The band is on the cover of the album and looks like a motorcycle gang without the bikes. Aesthetics aside, the first tune is “Hide From The Light” and is traditional Heavy Metal based on the NWOBHM and a little bit of KING DIAMOND influence I believe.  Good riff and production.

“Desert Devil” is next and in a slower and has amore somber mood, telling the tail of a journey to hell. The tune has an interesting mid section tempo change with the good bass from Ulysses Freire well present in the mix. We follow with the fast “Run To Kill” that reminds me of Fast As A Shark from ACCEPT This one also has a mid section in a different tempo with a good arrangement before the piercing guitar solo. The competent drummer CJ Dubiella is a solid foundation in all tracks and also can be groovy as you can see on “When Love Ends In Blood”. This track felt a little out of place in this album to my ears. Sounds like a ballad with a creepy vocal. We reach halfway with another nice bass introduction on “Lord Of Flies” followed by a killer guitar riff. The bands rely heavily in the macabre and satanic themes on their lyrics and in the vocal delivery. The same can be said on the song titles  in this album like in “The Devil's Concubine” that starts with an acoustic guitar to fall into a riff from the 80’s, or early 90’s. I was trying to find where I have heard the type of vocals from Sucoth Benoth before and I remember a band from the 90's called GREEN JELLY with similar vocals. The vocals are not bad, but they are not exceptional as well. A good singer with a weak band is better than a good band with a weak singer. The vocal lines could be more melodic to follow the good riffs.

We go back to double bass drum madness with “Waiting Your Command” that has even some blast beats for our listening pleasure. This track has a total Death Metal touch. Keeping in the Devil’s neighborhood, we have “Riding To Hell” that has the ticker bass sound I heard in a while. For me the best of the album so far. We get close to the end with a ballad?! In this album? With this vocal? No.It is not a ballad. It is just a creepy vocal with a nice musical arrangement in the background. The song is "Hopeless" (literally), and could use some melody in the vocal lines as the musical part is very good and it has an amazing solo from the good guitar player Caos. We end our journey with a tune called “Swimming with the Sharks” that has a long introduction with good riffs but followed with an uninteresting vocal melody. My final thoughts therefore is that the band is very good, the production is also nice (the bass sound in every track is something to be happy about), but the singer is the weak link in my opinion. The lack of singing melodies and the demoniac approach to the vocals gets stale after the second track. I based my opinion on bands like KING DIAMOND and BLACK SABBATH that have satanic themes, but with amazing singers. There is so much more to explore in the vocal lines. So many cool melodies could be added. Good work nevertheless.