Soulspell Metal Opera is a Brazilian Heavy Metal project conceived by the drummer Heleno Vale. The project was started in 2005 in the city of Lençóis Paulista, in the state of São Paulo. Many singers from all over the world play different characters in a story concerning the conflicts among human emotions in a way never broached before. These characters face situations of internal conflict as they are requested for making decisions which, without their knowledge, affect and change the course of the present, future, and even past of all other characters of the saga. Although the story takes place in the present, many historic events are also tangled in it. Soulspell story intends to make us wonder how a fifteen-year-old boy, an imaginary character of a powerful dragon, or even a humble lumberjack, can interfere in the lives of all other existing beins, in every possible dimension, simply living and believing.

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Soulspell started playing live in 2006 when the project won a band's contest among other 21 Rock bands. The prize was to record its first demo-CD, entitled: "Just let the time flow" released in the same year with 3 songs: Soulspell, Weight Of Evil and Eternal Skies. These songs would figure in Soulspell's first album, which would be released two years later, in 2008 counting on different instrumentists and singers. 

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The project's first album was released in 2008 by Spiritual Beast Records in Japan and Hellion Records in Brazil. It is called “A Legacy of Honor” and it is filled with authentic, talented and regarded Brazilian musicians. In Brazil's most important survey, done by RoadieCrew magazine, the album won the 4th place as the highlight of 2008 and the 9th place as the best album of the year. In about 4 months, the first press of "A Legacy Of Honor" was already sold-out in Brazil and did very well in Japan.

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After a successful reception, the project gained assistance from great world-wide names like Roland Grapow (ex-Helloween and Masterplan), Zak Stevens and Jon Oliva (from Savatage) as well as some great Brazilian names like Edu Falaschi (singer of Angra at that time) and Nando Fernandes (ex-Hangar). Beside the names mentioned above, for the second album called “The Labyrinth of Truths”, Soulspell Metal Opera invited four young and upcoming Brazilian singers to join the team of Soulspell act II. One of them was the winner of the first project's singing contest, among 100 other contestants from every part of Brazil: Raphael Dantas (winner), Lucas Martins, Gui Antonioli and Jefferson Albert. This last one became an important piece of the live band in the following years. In 2010, Soulspell won the third place as best national band and the second place as the best show of the year. Yet "The Labyrinth of Truths" won the third place as the best album of the year in the biggest Rock website from Brazil (Whiplash). In the same year Daísa Munhoz won the first place as the best singer of Brazil.

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Until 2011 Soulspell had released 2 studio albums and traveled Brazil 2 times taking its saga to 7 states of brazil. These first two albums presented Soulspell a quick and growing national acceptance like none before, and the reason is simple: Brazilian musicians and fans give their support to the project as if it were theirs, and it truly is. Our main goal is to show the world that Brazil has many talented singers and musicians. 

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The third album came two years later in 2012 and it is called "Hollow's Gathering". For the first time Soulspell worked with Inner Wound Records from Sweden and keep Hellion Records from Brazil. The album counted on another great international well known participations like: Amanda Somerville (Avantasia among other projects), Michael Vescera (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen), Blaze Bayley (ex-Iron Maiden) and Tim "Ripper" Owens (ex-Judas Priest). But after the release of this album the band decided not to tour Brazil again and invest on recording some tributes. Then, in the next years the band recorded a Helloween tribute for the song "We Got The Right" supporting the protests against politicians in and corruption in Brazil. This video reached more than 1.5 million views in 2017. Also, Soulspell recorded tributes for Celine Dion for the song "My Heart Will Go On" which counts on more than 200.000 views and Angra, for the song "Spread Your Fire" with more than 100.000 views already. But the biggest tribute was recorded for the band Ayreon, a big influence for Soulspell. It was recorded all the voices of their last album "The Theory Of Everything" in portuguse. This last one took more than one year and a half to be done!

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In 2017 Soulspell released its fourth album called "The Second Big Bang" and started a new Brazilian tour. The album took many years to be completed and it is the biggest card played by Soulspell until now. It counts on the great Heavy Metal Stars: Timo Kotipelto, Andre Matos, Fabio Lione, Ralf Scheepers, Kiko Loureiro, Arjen Lucassen, Oliver Hartmann, Tim "Ripper" Owens, Blaze Bayley, Jani Liimatainen, Markus Grösskopf, The Harp Twins, among many others.

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In 2018 Soulspell recorded its first LIVE CONCERT called "X Years Of Soul" which counted on 30 artists from almost every Brazilian regions besides Fabio Lione from Italy.

Finally, as Soulspell is a fiction story filled with many different characters, it invest in artwork nearly as much as in music. So the concepts for Soulspell cover artworks so far were created by four regarded artists. The artist who created the art for the first album cover was the French J.P. Fournier, the same that did famous Heavy Metal cover artworks like Avantasia and Edguy. His work for "A Legacy Of Honor" was absolutely brilliant. The artist who created the cover art for the album "The Labyrinth of Truths" was the British artist John Avon, the same who worked for Magic Cards and did a wonderful and especially obscure art for Soulspell's second album. Hollow's Gathering art was created by Felipe Machado who worked with Rhapsody and Blind Guardian. And, finally, The Second Big Bang art was created by Andreas Marschall, the man responsible for the old Blind Guardian beautiful cover arts. Most of singles arts were created by CadiesArt and the characters art were created by some Brazilian great artists, chosen by our fans through Soulspell's website and social media. We have this remarkable, constant interaction with the fans and that's one of the reasons we think this project is unique…and for sure this is also the most rewarding part.

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For now, this is it! Hope I can tell you more good news soon :) 
Stay tuned!

Heleno Vale

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