ANGRA – Rebirth

I didn’t notice much buzz about this CD so far. Maybe most people gave up on Angra when master composer Andre Matos grabbed the rhythm section and went on to form Shaman, Virgo and whatever else. Remaining members are the most brilliant twin guitar attack in the scene over the last decade; Rafael Bittencourt and Kiko Loureiro. Joined by drummer Aquiles Priester (also known from Hangar, who got fucked by the Savatage sound engineer last August when trying to warm up for my American favorites) and bass player Felipe Andreoli, the guitar players have found a musical platform not very different from the original line-up. And with Eduardo Falaschi on vocals, Angra returns with a crew that easily stands as strong as ever. Edu must be a huge fan of Matos – if not I think Matos’ father has something to admit. As much as I love and adore Andre Matos both as a singer and composer (in a confident and heterosexual way, of course), I am happy to say that Angra today has got it all together. They return with a singer who can do all the classic Matos material as well as lead the band to new heights (or make the band reach new horizons ;-)). His voice is more “mature” than its predecessor, which hopefully sees more people into Angra, but still clean and beautiful, like fans love it. And speaking of Falaschi, he actually penned one of the albums best tracks, “Heroes Of Sand”, himself, and co-wrote the killer album opener “Nova Era”. He also seems to have less of that Brazilian accent… This dude brings meaning back to life for the band and its fans. “Unholy Wars” reminds me a bit of “Carolina IV”, the song is build up the same way and has an intro and outro section that makes you jump around in your living room. The title track has a beautiful acoustic part, as well as a very strong melody. Simply awesome! I could go on and mention every piece of music from this fine Dennis Ward-produced disc, but I’ll leave a little excitement for you, as I presume you already started running to your local dealer. And as a last note: Okay, I’ll admit I was also among those who didn’t expect Angra to strike back with so much fireworks left, but man; I am glad they did!!!