| Angels Cry | 1993 |
| Holy Land | 1995 |
| Freedom Call [EP] | 1996 |
| Fireworks | 1998 |
| Holy Live [EP] | 1999 |
| Rebirth | 2001 |
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Although they would later combine progressive/power metal with Brazilian elements to a spectacular, epic effect, here Angra sounds mostly like a fairly standard band in that vein as far as arrangements and band setup goes, albeit one with a considerable amount of musical skill - during their 'thrash' moments, they sound a little derivative of Iron Maiden and Helloween (Andre Matos' high register vocals also add to the comparison), and the technically excellent, just about immaculate, playing inevitably draws comparisons to fellow prog contemporaries Dream Theater. With one listen to this material, the latter virtue they have could give one the impression that they could play most of their peers in the genre under the table, and the songs themselves are pretty good, too. Basically, Angels Cry serves as a worthwhile collection of power/prog songs that are mostly there to showcase the great playing, with occasional catchy melodies and thrill in the arrangements.
The best of these, following the short, purely classically influenced keyboard intro in "Unfinished Allegro", comes in the great thrash rocker "Carry On", which just pounds along in such a great fashion with a nice transition into its' faster sections - I especially love the manic guitar soloing in the verses and the lightning fast symphonic keys. Really catchy over the top melody, too. The more 'prog' influenced moment, meanwhile, might be in the title track, mostly in the nice shift from thrash to power verse groove, and the middle section here, which is essentially a great jam for the members to showcase their chops, and man, do they ever do it well. "Never Understand" actually does have the 'Brazilian' influence in the sound most, with the spare bongo rhythm helping drive a fabulous acoustic guitar part, a nice, interesting touch to an otherwise pretty thrashy prog epic. And on a completely unrelated note, they do a cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights", where Andre actually sounds dangerously close to Bush in his own falsetto voice, but the song is very well performed and suits their 'softer' side rather well - they really make the chorus soar, and the keyboard touches are really nice.
The rest of the album doesn't quite sound as spectacular - "Stand Away" is a somewhat boring generic track, with the predictable acoustic intro building up to a power chorus, "Time" (though enjoyable) is a pretty formulaic and somewhat overblown ballad, and "Streets Of Tomorrow" has such a killer crunching groove opening and closing it that the rest of the song seems downright uninteresting in comparison (though the jam is again attention-grabbing). Really, though, there's very little that can be called bad here. Plus, if you're a speed freak, "Evil Warning" will definitely keep you entertained, with banjo-like keyboard touches over the fast thrash pace and another nice bass-led jam. And the way the album ends can't be beat - they keep repeating a great symphonic melody over and over at the close of the otherwise just OK "Lasting Child" that sticks in your head long after the album is over (I really, really dig things like that). The album itself is good overall, too, but get the next one first, and if you enjoyed that one, come back here.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
After a more straightforward power/prog metal release with their debut, Angra first really started incorporating Brazilian elements (most apparent in the rhythms) into their sound, and it merges on this album very effortlessly. It's immediately apparent on the opening track "Crossing", a traditional chanting number, which after it ends slowly builds from a rainstorm to the hard-hitting and aggressive "Nothing To Say", which is one of the moments of pure shredding that will surely satisfy guitar freaks -- top-notch guitar work and melody here. "Silence And Distance", although a bit of an acquired taste as far as vocals go, starts off as a beautiful piano ballad before a sudden time change. The song then proceeds to amaze the listener with a soaring and powerful chorus, and it's one of the album's major highlights and incredible songs.
The pounding, monstrous tribal drums really come to the forefront on the absolute standout of the album, "Carolina IV" (one of my all-time favorite songs by any band). The massive rhythm slowly moves into a soaring section with background horns and keyboards, then a sudden change to a speed-metal vibe in the chorus. The song then builds up, with a beautiful, dramatic keyboard melody, to an astonishingly climactic solo section (with a jaw-dropping performance there that absolutely smokes), all with very inspirational lyrics. By the time the first half ends with the title track which begins with a beautiful piano melody and moves into a seamless blend of relaxing Brazilian elements in the great chorus, the album has become something undoubtedly amazing.
"The Shaman" continues in the ambitious ground which the album covers, while "Make Believe" (another outstanding ballad) has more exceptional melody and emotion, especially for a band with such a focus on first-rate instrumental ability. "Z.I.T.O." is another multi-faceted and very exciting guitar thrasher, with an unpredictable edge. "Deep Blue", meanwhile, pales in comparison to the other songs here (although it is unsettling and haunting), as does the closing acoustic "Lullaby For Lucifer", but Holy Land is still one of the most unique and well crafted albums to come along in awhile, which makes it an essential.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
I really don't get why, after seemingly finding such a great, promising sound with the fusion of traditional Brazilian music and progressive elements, they would take such a sudden step back and release an album like this. Don't get me wrong - in terms of listenability and overall consistent songwriting, Fireworks isn't really much weaker than the previous albums, and the songs are still fairly dynamic, with the instrumental parts top-notch. There's not really a truly weak one on the whole effort, in fact, but there are a couple big problems here - for one, the melodies on this record, while definitely pleasant in nature, are so unmemorable it takes away from their impact quite a bit. The numbers that lean more toward metal than in prog are more generic than ever, and the combination of this and a forgettable melodic base don't really help much.
Take the rhyming pair "Mystery Machine" and "Extreme Dream" - the former is just a bland, though listenable, power metal romp through Iron Maiden/early Queensryche land whose only redeeming feature is the soloing, and the latter is just your standard 'take a generic thrash riff, shift the tempo a little, maybe throw in a decent pop melody, and hope to get by on its ass kicking power' type of song. There's also the quite self-explanatory "Metal Icarus", a fun (and reasonably catchy) but quite standard, thrasher with an echoing riff as its' main attraction in the verses. The closing "Speed" is also exactly what the title would imply, too, though that one's somewhat better because it actually has a riveting vocal melody, nice subtle keyboard touches amongst its' riff and a nice jam within the middle section (Angra jams are always worthwhile).
Fortunately, the album doesn't wallow in that generic, melody-deprived sound for the whole time, or else I would have rated it lower - the opening "Wings Of Reality" has by far the most memorable refrain on the whole album, and it's musical dynamics actually justify its' more intense edge, unlike most the tracks. The symphonic keyboard line of "Lisbon" will also get stuck in your head once in awhile, and it works well enough to drive the whole song (with Genesis' Banksynth tone thrown in during the solo!), while "Petrified Eyes" has a great, almost bluesy sort of touch within its' intro that prevents the overall power/speed metal sound of the rest of the song from becoming monotonous. Good job, dudes. Plus, in spite of all the album's flaws, there are two tracks that are considerably strong on their own to lift the rating up from maybe a low 6 or so to a near 7 (maybe even that rating if you're associated with the band and can actually remember how everything on here goes).
First off, there's the very appropriately named title track, and I say this because it's an impressive showcase of both the atmospheric and harder sides of the band. The melody may not be great (as is usual with this stuff), but the guitar colorings in the verses, the majestic 'night sky' kind of melody, and the way the tempo gradually becomes faster over it makes it very easy to visualize the fireworks exploding into the air. And my favorite song here, "Gentle Change", is quite a gorgeously delicate entry into the band's catalog, the one that showcases the Holy Land influence most in overall tone, with extremely pretty guitar lines all over the place, an exquisitely uplifting chorus melody, and a simply beautiful jazzy ending that makes it rule supremely. Those two songs can't really save this from being a falloff in songwriting, but they're nice nonetheless, and still contribute to make the album a quite decent listening experience in spite of itself.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
When a band's lead singer and primary songwriter leaves and takes half the remaining band members with him (in this case, he left only the two guitarists Kiko Loureiro and Rafael Bittencourt to contemplate what to do next), it's a good time to say that the writing would seriously be on the wall for whoever's left in the lineup. And indeed, many people following the band understandably doubted their future at this point, but admirably, the two axemen recruited three new musicians, including vocalist Edu Falaschi, bassist Felipe Andreoli, and drummer Aquiles Priester, all quite competent players. As for the new frontman, while Andre Matos maybe could get a little grating over the course of an album to some people (sometimes even me), Edu's voice is probably a little more easier on the ears in terms of expressiveness and tone. Of course, the reason for this probably has more to do with that he sounds suspiciously close to a lot of singers I've heard in the metal vein, but he does the job okay enough.
How good is the actual album, though? Well, this is about the point where I say the new (and old) Angra guys didn't quite pull it off this time around. Fireworks was probably a bit of a regression, but at least that one had a few keepers on it, while this is often overly straightforward power metal - not really good power metal, either. More like the kind of symphonic prog that about a million European bands are/were doing, with arrangements that take themselves way too seriously, unmemorable melodies, and riffs and solos that are almost all flash and no substance. I guess you could say the sound is a lot closer to Angels Cry than before, since that album is rooted a lot in power prog, but I really had no trouble picking out standout instrumental parts, neat ideas or melodies, where as here this is somewhat of a harder task. Sure, moments of inspiration are here - the otherwise standard, though energetic, opening symphonic thrash tune "Nova Era" has a really entertaining singalong chorus that redeems the rest of the song, and the title track, thanks to its' fine acoustic-led minute and a half intro, is quite pretty before it turns into a generic 'we're back!' anthem, but in general, this is just kind of a blah.
To make matters worse, there are a few downright silly and/or cheesy bits in the songs that don't help their already somewhat generic status. Wow, "Acid Rain" sure has a huge introductory choir part - that automatically makes it good (sarcasm off). How does the rest of the song go again? And the 8 minute epic "Unholy Wars" just strikes me as a really lame reworking of "Carolina IV", especially in the chanting and percussion bits and the faster portions that pale immeasurably to its' predecessor. And the side-closing power ballads "Heroes Of Sand" and "Visions Prelude" don't really have any reason for existence, even though the first of these does have a decent beauty to it. What about the rest of the tracks? Ehh... oh yeah, there is one really nice keeper here (besides "Nova Era", to a lesser extent) in "Millennium Sun". It may not be anything more than a rewrite of "Silence And Distance", with its' beautiful ballad-like state caterpillaring into a sort of prog-like rocker, but in this case both melodies here are highly memorable, and I get a kick out of the bombastic singing throughout. Most of the album I could take or leave, though, even if it's not overly bad. Just... boring, unmelodic and average. And really disappointing.
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