Drearylands

Dreary is a word used to express gloom and sadness and melancholy, and this feeling is the inspiration behind the sounds of Drearylands and their premier 2000 release, Some Dreary Songs And Other Tunes From The Shadows. They started in 1993 under the name Shadows where they released a split and a demo, but by 1999 internal troubles would push the band to its tolerance and resulted in the nixing of what would have been an earlier premier release. Four members would remain to reform as Drearylands, Jason Bittencourt (electric/acoustic guitars/vocals), Louis Bear (drums/vocals), Rick Iglesias (bass/vocals) and Lio "lion" Leao (vocals). Only Dennis Leoni (guitars) would not continue for the reformation.

In December of 1999 Drearylands began production on what would be their new premier recording. Around that same time, Patrick Amorim (guitar) joined. The aforementioned self-financed album, on their own 'Mandrahgora' label, was launched in July of 2000. It merged heavy metal with medieval sounds, choirs, violins, and classical/acoustic guitars. A professional recording all the way, they would start to work on a second record almost immediately, that album came in 2003 as From the Ashes EP (2003). Heliopolis... or Just Another Dreary Season (2003), Collateral Damage EP (2016) and No Poetry Lasts (2017) would follow.

Iglesias and Bittencourt would leave and be replaced several times over, eventually settling on Marcos Cazé and Rafael Syade respectively, with Páris Menescal adding another guitar to the mix. The act would split twice... once in 2006 where it was thought they had quit. They re-united briefly in 2011 for three shows only to re-unite more permanently in 2015.