Song challenge: Monica Possel (Hamen)

Monica Possel is a vocalist and the main lyricist of Brazilian symphonic power metal band Hamen. Founded in 2013, the band debuted with and EP “Altar” in 2015, and three years later, they released their debut LP “Unreflected Mirror” with sci-fi influences. Monica performed as a soprano in the Chamber Choir of the Conservatory Villa-Lobos and has over 10 years of experience of performing. See the results of our song challenge for Monica below.

A song that helps you clear your head: Emphasis – Alda

“Alda” from Emphasis band, a post-rock band created in 2005, from the album Gliding Over All. I like all the songs from this album. I knew this band since 2014 when I was composing the first EP of my band Hamen. ‘Cause I wanted to introduce some post-rock/post-metal in our first material.”

A song that got you hooked on symphonic metal: After Forever – Monolith Of Doubt

““Monolith of Doubt” from After Forever, this song is even on our Symphonic Metal Day playlist that you can hear in our Spotify profile. I think that if it wasn’t the first one, it was one of the first songs I heard of symphonic metal. I fell in love the first time I heard Floor Jansen’s vocals and from there I saw that I could put together a metal band with lyrical vocals, because there were bands that already did it very well out there.”

A song from an album with a beautiful cover:

“I love Lana Lane album covers. They have a surreal style, especially the cover of the Ballads album. I have a degree in design and when I studied art history in college, I used the covers of Lana Lane for schoolwork. I love that style and I love how she managed to bring that to the concept of her work in music.”

A song from your favourite Brazilian artist: Flowerleaf – All My Life

“The song is “All my Life” by the band Flowerleaf. I love this band, one of the best symphonic metal bands I know in Brazil. I even covered this song in their launch campaign, it’s on my covers youtube channel. Flowerleaf is a symphonic band that makes my mood happy, I like to listen while I am working with my second work, which is technology. It makes me feel better in my day-to-day work.”

A song from Hamen with most challenging vocal parts: Lost Feelings

LI think it’s “Lost Feelings”, because for this song we wanted to put dynamics in the arrangement and vocal techniques, as well. So you can hear almost all of my vocal registers, like chest voice, with vibrato, belt techniques, some drives and some bel canto voices in the back of the Italian poem, where I put some operatic techniques like an opera aria.”

A song from Hamen with your favourite lyrics: The Life Has Passed

“This question is very difficult for me, ’cause I am the person who wrote all the lyrics of the album and each song represents a feeling for me in that situation. But the lyrics that some fans already said to me that impact them so much is the trilogy “Invasive Feelings”, which represents a character that has its feelings invaded and manipulated by your parents at the childhood, after your relationships and the last one (My True Freedom), that is the final of this situation, is where the character thinks that he acquired the liberty of its feelings and they’re exclusively yours.”

“But there is another song that represents so much nowadays, and that is “The Life Has Passed” with the participation of Marcelo Barbosa, the guitarist from Angra. The song tells about a man who lives in a global world, with no time to stay with his family. He sees himself, his child had left, his wife had left and he is alone, just with his thoughts and his work. In the finale of this song, he is going to the dark space, that nobody knows, but can interpret that he went to die. And it represents almost all lives nowadays, principally after the pandemic, when most of all hadn’t time to stay home with their families. This song is very relevant, really…”