Angra
Fireworks
Century Media
About the best description I can give is that Angra is what Rush would sound like if they wrote Megadeth songs. Andre Matos’ rich vocals carry every single tune on this eleven-track album. He’s able to reach highs and it’s almost as if the rest of the music has to catch up with his voice. Angra’s songs are of the classic operatic metal variety: dramatic lyrics, themes of chivalry, madness, dreams, etc. “Paradise” tells of gladiators of the Golden Age evolving into today’s World Cup soccer stars (no lie!), which has to say something about where Angra’s head is at. I mean, that’s a first, as I don’t rightly know of any American metal bands who’ve sung the praises of football lately. Soccer as a metal theme? I’m in culture shock. It’s a pounding, glorious passionate tune. But soccer?
It’s all here. “Wings of Reality” and “Metal Icarus” are standouts as their good Maiden-esque metal blitzkriegs, which describes just about every song anyway. That they’re from Brazil certainly shows that the South American metal scene is as diverse as one could imagine.
Century Media Records, 1453-A 14th Street #324, Santa Monica, CA 90404.
