Pastore

Pastore are a Brazilian heavy metal band formed in São Paulo in 2007 by vocalist Mário Pastore and guitarist Raphael Gazal. The group was completed by Aléxis Gallucci on bass and Fabio Buitvidas on drums, the line-up that carried both albums released to date. The debut came in 2010 with The Price for the Human Sins, sung in English and aimed from the outset beyond the domestic market — a common choice among Brazilian melodic metal bands of that period, who found audiences abroad more receptive than at home. The bet paid off: the album was well received in Japan too, a market historically attentive to melodic heavy metal and one that had already welcomed other Brazilian bands of the genre. The End of Our Flames arrived in 2012 and held the line of the first record, with classically structured compositions, melodic choruses and emphasis on Gazal's guitar and Mário Pastore's vocals. The sound sits at the crossing of traditional heavy metal and melodic power metal, with little symphonic ornamentation and more band weight. With two records in five years and an independent production model, Pastore represent a specific stratum of the Brazilian scene well: technically solid bands that built careers outside the major circuits, sustained by small tours, digital distribution and the interest of foreign audiences — the Japanese above all — in melodic metal made seriously and without concessions to the fashion of the moment.