Review: Twilight Aura – Believe

Style: Power metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Shaman, Angra, Queensrÿche
Country: Brazil
Release date: 13 June 2025

Kids these days, am I right? As a wizened, elderly crone approaching thirty years of age, I recently listened to a podcast which showcased a Gen Z representative explaining modern slang terms to the podcast’s Gen X hosts, and nothing has ever made me feel older. I had only just figured out what “rizz” is, but apparently that’s totally passé; these days it’s all about the aura. Unlike the traditional sense of a subtle atmosphere or energetic field, the modern aura is all about charisma; coolness; having an it factor. One can engage in aura farming or auramaxxing in an attempt to gain aura points and become cooler. But of course, whether you’re a teen boy trying to sink baskets to impress the ladies or a metal band attempting to stand out from the crowd in 2025, such efforts are fraught with the deadly peril of trying too hard. Originally formed in 1993, Twilight Aura released one album in 1995 (when Gen Z was still but a whisper on the horizon) before going on a formidable twenty-seven year hiatus. So, what has the band been doing all that time? Have they, perhaps, been… auramaxxing?

If so, they’ve done a tasteful job of it. Believe is the second album of Twilight Aura’s comeback after For a Better World in 2022, and there’s no try-hard breaking of the mold here, just roll-up-your-sleeves, guitar-forward power metal with fist-pumping choruses and unmistakable influences from the Brazilian metal landscape. Twilight Aura operate with self-assured, unhurried Queensrÿche-like swagger, further complimented by impeccable guitar work that calls to mind Angra greats Kiko Loureiro and Rafael Bittencourt¹. But to be clear, Believe is “prog metal” in the same way that LaCroix sparkling water is “fruit-flavoured”. At most, there was a whisper of prog in the next room over while Believe was being recorded, but the light touches—playful frolics between time signatures, shimmering and curling synth timbres—add freshness to the band’s formula, scoring them more aura points without breaking a sweat.

While Believe is unquestionably a capably-executed album, your mileage may vary based on your penchant for being surprised and challenged by your music; the album is more likely to win you over gradually than stop you in your tracks. Perhaps the biggest surprise on Believe occurs fifty-two seconds into the first track, when Daísa Munhoz’s lead vocals make their entrance. This corner of the metal world usually leans on male vocals (though they may scale bafflingly high octaves à la Angra or Elegy); by contrast, Munhoz’s vocals are a welcome shift, bright and technically unimpeachable with a hint of rock ’n’ roll grit. The vocals are frequently layered, particularly in choruses, to stirringly anthemic effect. When she’s not harmonizing with herself, Munhoz has a host of guest contributors to duet with, including Fabio Caldeira of Maestrick in the heart-on-sleeve ballad “Coming Home” and Jeff Scott Soto in “Hold Me Tight”. Munhoz’s commanding presence at the mic also helps sell Believe’s social justice-themed lyrics, which, notably for the power/prog genre, are straightforward and literal in a market over-saturated with armadas, dragons, and blades (“Right Thing” deals with climate change; “Real World” with fake news).

Elsewhere, Believe rarely strays from the well-worn paths of the genre. There are soaring, extended guitar solos—Andre Bastos on lead guitar takes the spotlight 3:55 into “Laws of Life” and doesn’t relinquish it for a good minute and a half. There’s a sappily-harmonized power ballad duet (“Coming Home”). And there’s no shortage of what we used to call, back in my choral singing days, “feel-good key changes”.  But these are all familiar pleasures, if not particularly daring ones, and confined to Believe’s tidy forty-minute runtime, the tropes don’t have time to overstay their welcome².

So, have Twilight Aura maxxed out that aura of theirs? Perhaps not fully, but Believe is a cogent, compelling slice of the elements that made Brazil’s metal scene great in the 80s and 90s when the band’s members were getting their start. It doesn’t push boundaries, but it doesn’t need to: with their refreshing, charismatic vocals and musicianship that speaks of long-earned confidence in the genre, Twilight Aura have plenty of strengths to play to, and there may be aura left to harvest yet.

Recommended tracks: Yourself Again, Laws of Life, Hold Me Tight
You may also like: Age of Artemis, Elegy, Auro Control, Maestrick
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Wikimetal Records – Facebook | Official Website

Twilight Aura is:
– Filipe Guerra (Bass)
– Claudio Reis (Drums)
– Andre Luiz Linhares Bastos (Guitar)
– Rodolfo Elsas (Guitar)
– Leo Loebenberg (Keyboards)
– Daísa Munhoz (Vocals)

1. Twilight Aura’s guitar player, Andre Bastos—not to be confused with Andre Matos—was actually a founding guitarist in Angra, but left the band in 1992. ↩︎
2. For a Better World dragged at almost an hour long ↩︎