Band:	Shaman
Album:	RituAlive
Style:	Progressive power metal
Release date:	2003
A review by:	Jeff

01. Ancient Winds
02. Here I Am
03. Distant Thunder
04. For Tomorrow
05. Time Will Come
06. Over Your Head [feat. Marcus Viana]
07. Fairy Tale [feat. Marcus Viana]
08. Blind Spell
09. Ritual
10. Sign Of The Cross [Avantasia cover] [feat. Tobias Sammet & Sascha Paeth]
11. Pride [Feat. Tobias Sammet & Sascha Paeth]
12. Eagle Fly Free [Helloween cover] [feat. Andi Deris & Michael Weikath]
+ Carry On [multimedia] [Angra cover]

"Ritualive" is the first live album of the "new" band of Angra's former members Andre Matos, Luis Mariutti and Ricardo Confessori with in addition Luis' brother, Hugo Mariutti as a guitar player. After their first album "Ritual", the band come with this Live album recorded in São Paulo on April 5th, 2003.

The first thing I can say is that this album has in fact the same track list as the studio album "Ritual". Excepted the great cover from Helloween [with Andi Deris and Michael Weikath as guests] "Eagle Fly Free" and the song "Sign Of The Cross" from Avantasia [with Tobias Sammet] this live album is the same as their first one.
Then maybe we can wonder why the band has done that and if it's really a good thing to do a live album after only one studio album? Well, personally I really don't know what I can say about that, and I will not try to answer that question, to that [marketing?] concept? Why? Well maybe just because the only answer could come from "Ritualive". "Ritual" was a really good album, but we see here that Shaman is also a great live band. Not hard when you are guys who formed and played a lot of time with Angra before, but this live album is so excellent that maybe it's not a bad thing to have it today.

A great and powerful sound, an excellent crowd, which sings with the band on all the songs, a ton of guest musicians with the guys of Shaman [who were just perfect and excellent this night] and a lot of great songs [you already know that if you know Shaman's first album] are the ingredients of that new album. And believe me, this live album is just really good, to such an extent that we can wonder if this album is not better than the studio's one. Because yes Shaman and then "Ritual" are made to play on stage, and well I'm not against that when I listen this album

Excepted the fact that we only have "one" album on this live, I can also regret the fact that the Angra's song "Carry On" is only a Multimedia bonus track. Ok it's a real good thing to see the song in video but why not as a real song on the CD too Just too bad?

At the end, I will really advise this album, to all fans of Metal, to fans of Shaman of course and even to fans of Angra. This is a real great production, very true, really moving and even if it's strange to do such a live after one unique studio album, I think that we can buy this album, because it's a good one, and because the true metal fan that you are can't be disappointed by it. No doubt that after their first great album, the guys of Shaman show us that they are also a great band on stage. If you have any doubt about this band, you'll see with that release that you are totally wrong. For sure they are great, and I'm already waiting for the new album, which will be released this year.