Nando Mello

Nando Mello — Brazilian bassist — has been associated with Hangar since the Last Time (1999) period, and is one of the band's most constant presences. That continuity is notable in a group that went through six different singers, several guitar changes and periods of interruption across almost three decades. Alongside drummer and founder Aquiles Priester, Mello forms the rhythmic base that crossed the reformulations — and in a melodic power metal repertoire played at fast tempo, that pair is what keeps the tracks from falling apart. His function in the genre is specific. The bass in power metal follows the guitar in unison most of the time, which looks simple but demands precision: any lag against the double kick is immediately audible. Holding that line beside a drummer of Priester's technique, in tracks of long structure and changes of tempo, is work of exactness.