Heleno Vale

Heleno Vale — Brazilian drummer, composer and producer — is the creator of Soulspell, the longest-running metal opera ever made in Brazil. Metal opera is a specific format: instead of a fixed band there is an author who writes a complete story and invites different singers to play each character. The model was made canonical in Europe by Avantasia and Ayreon, and Soulspell is the Brazilian answer to it — with the difference of gathering both national and international guests in the same project. Vale writes the music and the script and plays drums. There are five acts across nearly two decades: A Legacy of Honor (2008), The Labyrinth of Truths (2010), Hollow's Gathering (2012), The Second Big Bang (2017) and Act V — Spirits of Ghosts (2025). Each record is a closed narrative with its own vocal cast. Keeping a project of that size going in Brazil — with dozens of guest musicians, elaborate studio production and narrative ambition — takes as much coordination work as writing. It is the kind of undertaking that usually lasts one or two records; Soulspell reached a fifth.