I get what you mean. Personally I love those last two Almah albums and I think that, artistically, they came from a more sincere place than Vera Cruz. But, let's face it, they were commercial failures and Edu had to think about the viability of his musical career. And he did exactly what his fans (and a lot of Angra fans) were asking for. To my surprise, despite he made Vera Cruz clearly having ToS as model, I think he suceed to make an excellent album. IMO Dream Theater more or less, for different reasons, made that with aDToE and also suceed artistically.