Matos, Andre

Viper, Angra, and Shaaman

Matos grew up in his hometown of São Paulo in Brazil. He began his musical education at the age of ten, when he received his first piano from his parents. Like all teenagers, Matos gathered with friends and listened to his favorite bands. Later, they began to learn to play, too, and Matos joined his first band, Viper. The group first played on April 8, 1985, when he was 13 years old. In the same year, they recorded their first demo , The Killera Sword.

In a short time, Viper has become a phenomenon on the Brazilian heavy metal scene. They were considered the second group to combine classical music and heavy metal. Although Matos continued to sing, he had no intention of remaining a vocalist, it was a role that he assumed only because “his vocals were the poorest of them all,” and because he resembled the vocals of Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson . His instruments have always been the piano and keyboards. Matos left Viper when the band began to change their musical style. He became interested in classical music, and felt that his musical views began to diverge from those of other members of the group who wanted to concentrate on heavy, “immature” music.

After leaving Viper, Matos returned to school and graduated from a music education majoring as an orchestra conductor and composer . Angra was formed in 1991, and with its first album "Angels Cry", which was released in 1993, became famous in Japan and Europe. Holy Land and Fireworks were later released. Angra's style evolved from Helloween 's inspirational speed metal melodies, in a unique mix with heavy metal, classical music and traditional Brazilian motifs. This brought them worldwide criticism.

Andre Matos took part in the world competition to replace Bruce Dickinson in Iron Maiden and was in the top three finalists with James LaBri and winner Blaze Bailey.

In 2001, Matos left Angra with the rhythm section composer Luis Mariutti (bass) and Ricardo Confessori (drums) due to disagreement with guitarists Rafael Bittencourt and Kiko Loureiro about the management of the group.

Andre stayed with Luis Mariutti, took his brother Hugo Mariutti into the guitarists: together they created the Shaman group, changing the name for Shaaman for legal reasons before the release of the second album.

The group received sudden success thanks to the song Fairy Tale, which sounded in the Brazilian " soap opera " "Kiss of the Vampire." The first album, entitled “Ritual,” was sold in more than 200,000 copies worldwide in the first year after release. The result was a tour with 150 concerts around the world and a DVD called “Ritualive” featuring a concert in Sao Paulo in front of an audience of more than 7,000 Brazilians.

The second Reason album was successful and culminated in a concert in front of 10,000 spectators in Rio de Janeiro . However, after this, Confessori, the band's owner and former Angra drummer, fired Matos and the Mariutti brothers from the group.

Symfonia

In 2010, Matos joined the new project of Timo Tolkki Symfonia, which also includes the former drummer Helloween and Masterplan - Uli Kush. In March 2011, the debut album In Paradisum was released.

After leaving Shaaman, along with his Mariutti brothers, he released his first solo album, Time To Be Free, under the brand name Andre Matos in August 2007.

Time To Be Free

Currently, Andre Matos continues his solo career with the Mariutti brothers. But he often says that calling it a solo career is a big mistake, because it is not a solo career, but a group with his name, and they all decided so, thanks to the fame of his name around the world and the frequent withdrawals from other groups. Their first album, Time To Be Free, was produced by Roy Z. The theme and lyrics of the album have something in common with his departure from Shaaman due to their dismissal by drummer Confessori, this is also seen in the album title, and this is the most symphonic album written by Matos. However, the album reached high places in Brazilian and European chats, reached fourth place in Russia and second in Japan. The album was successful in the opinion of both critics and fans. Time To Be Free is a more personal album, although guitarist Hugo Mariutti wrote almost every song along with Matos and Pete Passarel, Matos's ex-partner on Viper, who was a guest on this album.

Despite all the success that accompanied the album, and contrary to expectations, Matos decided not to record the clip, he only recorded and released an exclusive clip for the Japanese audience.

“Time To Be Free” was accompanied by a tour of more than 50 concerts around the world, Matos was invited to tour with Scorpions and Edguy (These are some of his old friends, their friendship began when Matos was in Angra, and Edguy was invited to warm up on the tour in support of Angra's album “Fireworks”), which took place in Europe, Brazil and Japan at the big festivals Loud Park, Live and Louder, for the first time in Finland at the Finnish Metal Expo. Matos was also invited by the headliner to ProgPower USA, but due to problems with passports, the concert had to be canceled, and it was replaced by another Brazilian band MindFlow. At the very end of the tour, Matos teamed up with Hangar (a Brazilian rising metal band, the scenery for which was made by Aquiles Pryster, a former Angra drummer) in the Metal Christmas Project, which was an exclusive Brazilian tour with concerts in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and some other countries. Then Matos returned to the studio to record a new album.

Mentalize

The new album is more heavy metal than ever. Mentalize was first published in Brazil and Japan at the end of 2009. The tour started in Brazil with concerts in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Fortaleca and other cities. In early 2010, the album was released in Europe. Matos wins back at some summer festivals.

Mentalize was produced by Corciolly, brought together the album Sasha Payet.

Matos participated in the recording of three albums: “The Metal Opera” , “The Metal Opera. Part. II " ," The Wicked Symphony ". Also participated in concerts and tours in their support.

Andre Matos died on June 8, 2019. The cause was called a heart attack.

• Andre Matos - vocals and piano
• Andre Hernandez - guitar
• Hugo Mariutti - Guitar
• Luis Mariutti - Bass Guitar
• Eloy Casagrande - drums
• Fabio Ribeiro - keyboards

Former member

• Rafael Rosa - drums

• Official website of Andre Matos