One of the greatest singers in Brazilian metal, Andre Matos was almost chosen as the vocalist for Iron Maiden in 1994. At the time, the band was looking for a replacement for Bruce Dickinson , who left Iron Maiden to pursue a solo career , while our Rock Maestro was at the beginning of his journey with Angra .
Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden in 1993, shortly after the release of the acclaimed Fear of the Dark (revisit it here ). With the frontman position vacant and no plans to end the band's activities, Maiden began a search for a new vocalist in a global selection process, in which Andre Matos and other Brazilians participated, such as Edu Falaschi .
In the worldwide competition for the position, candidates had to go through several phases, the first of which was sending demos. Still in the embryonic phase of Angra, the material chosen to represent Andre Matos' talent consisted of two albums released with VIPER and the first demo of the new band, called Reaching Horizons (1993).
Andre Matos' steps to join Iron Maiden
The material, of course, pleased the Iron Maiden team, and Andre Matos advanced to the second phase. As Roadie Metal , those who qualified for the next stage had to submit songs singing Iron Maiden's own songs, but Andre did not submit any new material for the contest. “I, personally, never got carried away with the idea of being chosen, because Iron Maiden is too British a band for them to choose a Brazilian to sing, so I didn't have any big plans anyway, so it was natural that they chose Blaze,” the singer explained to Rock Bizz .
But the fact is that no other Brazilian singer came as close to becoming the vocalist for Iron Maiden as Andre Matos, owner of a voice perfectly suited to heavy metal, a theatrical stage presence, and admirable classical technique. “I was really the first name to join Iron Maiden, but (…) there was a rejection of having a Latino vocalist in the group,” the Brazilian explained in 2014 (via Rolling Stone Brazil ).
Despite not being chosen, Andre Matos received recognition from several people connected to Iron Maiden over the years, such as Rod Smallwood , the band's manager. In 1998, Angra recorded the album Fireworks in England, and Andre received an invitation to attend a Maiden show. "You were one of the three finalists. And you still sing very well," Rod told the Brazilian. And he wasn't the only one to praise the Maestro's talent…
According to Blaze Bayley, Andre Matos would "do better" in Iron Maiden.
As we know, Iron Maiden chose the British singer Blaze Bayley as Dickinson's replacement at the time, a daunting task given the mission of honoring a well-established legacy and writing his own history within the band, especially with a different vocal timbre than the previous singer.
Years later, upon meeting Andre Matos in person, Blaze expressed his admiration for the singer and stated that Andre "should have joined Iron Maiden" instead of him.
In a 2011 interview with Heavy Talk , Blaze spoke about this. “His voice is much more suited to Iron Maiden than mine. He could sing the classic songs, like 'The Trooper'. And maybe things from Somewhere In Time, he could probably do that much better than me, because his voice is different, he has a very high range and my voice isn't that high.” See that interview here .
What did Angra think about the possibility of Andre Matos joining Maiden?
At the time of the selection process for the coveted position of frontman for Iron Maiden, Andre Matos was the vocalist for Angra , who were releasing their debut album, Angels Cry, that same year. According to what Andre told the website Rock Bizz in 2012, his former bandmates were worried about losing their vocalist to the newly formed band. "This was a blow to the band because, according to them, there was a great chance I would be chosen, which would completely interrupt the plans for recording the first album," he said.
For his colleagues in Angra, the potential departure of Andre Matos from the still fledgling band could mean the end of the project, since the singer was already a reference in Latin American metal and had a well-established fan base in Japan.
“ Steve Harris decided on Blaze Bayley, thank God, thank God! Otherwise, I don't know if Angra would exist,” commented Rafael Bittencourt on the subject in an interview with the Ciência Sem Fim . “What I do know is that they really considered the possibility of it being Andre. [They said] 'Look, be on standby, you're one of the guys'. But then they came up with Blaze Bayley, which I thought was great… I mean, I thought it was crap, but I thought it was great.”
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