All subgenres of Metal allow the bands to experience whatever they want to improve things and to avoid of living in the shadows of greater names. So it's clear that there are no excuses to be a copy of any other band that already exists, and to make something to say that's carrying on the legacy of a band that's over is a fallacy. You must be yourself, because if the way is hard, harder is the end of Dolly clones (no one can be fooled all the time). And even on an eroded Metal subgenre, the sextet GLAYSA, hailing from Portugal, made a great work on "Attarghan", their second album.

They play a form of Symphonic Metal that can be said as popularized by names as XANDRIA, NIGHTWISH and WITHIN TEMPTATION (on their early works), with charming orchestrations, very good arrangements and with the powerful and melodic singing of Eduarda. B-U-T (this is to call your full attention for the following words) their musical work has a dramatic appeal, because the central concept behind the album, so the songs are filled with contrasts to fit on the narration of the story, and to the characters of it. So be prepared for a true sample of a great form of musical that easily could be labeled as Symphonic Soundtrack Metal. Fernando Matias worked as the producer and did the mixing as well on Pentagon Audio Manufacturers studio, and the mastering was done by the hands of Darius van Helfteren. The final result is a great sonority that allows the band to express its musical ideas, is clean and defined as well, but with a dose of musical weight. And as guests, the band brought Caterina Nix of CHAOS MAGIC to make some vocals, Marco Pastorino (of TEMPERANCE) to sing on "The Retaliation", Corvus of DESIRE, Rim of REST IN ME, and Lavinia Roseiro, Nélson Raposo, Inna Calori e Catarina Póvoa as well.

The album offers 15 songs for the fans, forming a solid unity that has to be heard entirely to have a deeper idea of what the band is up to. But for the lazy ones, for a first time on it, songs as "From Enemy to Hero" (a dramatic song filled with grandiose arrangements and orchestrations, along with contrasts between the vocals), "Way to Victory" (the fine arrangements of the keyboards and the orchestrations enriches the narrations and improves all the melodic grandiose parts), "The Retaliation" (a heavier and aggressive song, what means that the guitars are working in evidence with excellent riffs and themes), "First Taste of Freedom" (what a lovely and tender melodic appeal and excellent leads from the guitar, and the contrast given by this song is amazing), "Journey to Akhbar" (a charming Middle East ambience is given by the melodies of this song, and the rhythmic conductions of the bass guitar and drums is amazing, allowing the band to travel from epic parts to symphonic ones without problems), "Battle for Trust" (the dramatic appeal of this song reinforces the ambience of a battle occurring, and the lovely vocals are really charming), "Within the Sandstorm" (another song with a dense ambience that fits perfectly on the narration of the story), "Eye to Eye Sword to Sword" (a bombastic set of Middle-East melodies and arrangements of the keyboards is really amazing), and "A New Era Has Come" (a grandiose song with many hard melodies created by the vocals and guitars) are the right ones. And the story of the lyrics, well, it's homework for the lazy ones.

GLAYSA did a very good work on "Attarghan", and they deserve the attention of all Metalheads for what they're doing.