NEWS RELEASE
Montreal, QC – April 7, 2021
For fans of Dream Theater, Keith Merrow, Periphery, Tesseract, Jeff Loomis
Manuel Barbará Shares How To Play “The God Complex” w/ New Guitar Video
Playthrough Premiere via TechnicalMusicReview
New Album “Moonrise” Out Now!
New Jersey’s Manuel Barbará released his seven-track instrumental album “Moonrise” on March 19th. The full-length is the first introduction of heavy, ambient, and classically inspired progressive metal by Barbará who is the sole songwriter of this project.
Today, he shares more insight into the record with his latest guitar playthrough video for the track “The God Complex”, which is heavily inspired by guitar gods Jeff Loomis and Keith Merrow. The composition blends heavy guitars and tribal drum patterns with light cinematic and electronic elements. It is also the only piece on the album to have a true guitar solo.
Barbará adds:
“The drums for God Complex were tracked during a 7:00 pm to 5:00 am session nearly a month after we recorded the drums for the rest of the album. To this day, I don’t know how I managed to go to work to teach music theory the next day.”
The playthrough for “The God Complex” can be viewed via its premiere on TechnicalMusicReview HERE.
Barbará took up the guitar at the age of 16 and managed to successfully audition for Berklee at age 18. The debut album “Moonrise” is a unique piece of music, much of the writing was done during the very early days of his training in classical composition. For Barbará, this work is a journey through a series of sonic worlds and colors that he has carefully crafted. He comments on the album:
“This music has been part of my own little universe for so long, and I am beyond excited to share it with the world. The process of making the album has been an epic journey, a learning experience, and a trial by fire all wrapped into one and I am looking forward to bringing that journey to an audience, and into the future with the music that is to come.
The purpose of music for me, after all the craft and technique and study are done, is to draw the listeners in and allow them to experience totally new worlds. The details of those worlds will be up to each individual person, but I hope the audience will join me on this small adventure I’ve prepared.”
According to Barbará, these songs, so far, were only ever performed live once and are not likely to be performed again for some time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he makes an effort during his live performances to avoid the “musical statues” syndrome that plagues so many prog bands.
A fluid and extravagant progressive masterpiece, “Moonrise” awaits fans of Periphery, Tesseract, and Jeff Loomis.
Album stream and download available on 8stringalchemy.bandcamp.com, Apple Music, and Spotify.
Previous Playthroughs:
Title Track “Moonrise” (Guitar / Bass Playthrough) – https://youtu.be/HIpLs6TXQU0
“The Nightmare Weaver” (Guitar Playthrough) – https://youtu.be/4QtXcqyAMjs
Track Listing
- Moonrise (5:08)
- The God Complex (6:08)
- Children of Prometheus (4:54)
- Mirrors I – Image (5:10)
- Mirrors II – Silver (3:48)
- Mirrors III – Reflection (4:20)
- The Nightmare Weaver (6:15)
Album Length: 35:45
More Info:
Facebook.com/8stringalchemy
Instagram.com/8stringalchemy
YouTube
EPK
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“With its rhythmic elements and heavy riffs, Manuel Barbará’s debut album is in the purity of modern instrumental progressive metal. But his influences from classical composers add an interesting extra touch.”- Music Waves
“a spectacular showcase of the progressive qualities of Manuel Barbará.” – Games, Brains and A Headbanging Life
“without a doubt that we have a talented musician and composer in front of us. The approach is in large parts of the material progressive metal with the corresponding hardness and complexity… You can’t deny the band’s instrumental quality…” – Metal-Heads.de
“Manuel Barbará shines bright on Moonrise… this is a fascinating listen and it is easy to appreciate Manuel’s complex musical narrative… this deserves a listen as it does embody the prog metal ideal and as such, it’s a damn good album: think Tesseract or Periphery.” – RAMzine
“Unbelievable that Moonrise is the debut of a musical whiz kid. Manuel Barbará publishes an incredibly mature masterpiece, which not only pays homage to its role models Dream Theater , Keith Marrow or Periphery , but also presents a crisp progressive Djent Metal at eye level,” – Sound Magnet
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