Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Angra as its best!!!, December 12, 2001
Perhaps the best album from one of the all-time greatest bands in the progressive power metal scene, Angra brings a renewed and yet rooted sound, which reminds the band glorious past but also shows the signs of a new forthcoming era.Breaking the ties (but not too much :-) with its earlier sound, Angra now focuses more on classical metal, displaying technical excellence with lots of emotional tunes. Angra's sound is marvelous. With the departure of former singer Andre Mattos, one of Angra's trademarks, along with drummer and bassist, the band almost quit, but with the support of fans worldwide, guitar players Kiko Loureiro and Rafael Bittencurt went out searching and hired the legendary Eduardo Falaschi on lead vocals, the astounting Aquiles Priester on drums, and the very technical Felipe Andreoli on bass, building a line-up that could rival and even exceeds the former formation. The album is almost perfect on its entirety. You won't find any boring moments. The highlights are "Nova Era", "Heroes of Sand" (listen to the beutiful chorus - unbelievable!), "Acid Rain", "Rebirth" and "Millenium Sun". If you are a fan of Angra this album will certainly fit in one of the band's top releases. If you don't know or did not like former Angra's sound, give it a chance, I'm sure this album will make tears fall from your eyes.
|
|
|
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
you can't be disappointed..., October 14, 2003
The last time I listened to this, something funny came to mind. Rebirth has drumming similar to that on King of the Nordic Twilight. They are both rare style drumming and are hard to get used to, but once you do, it's what makes Angra Angra and Luca Turilli Luca Turilli. Onto some of the songs. The intro is very soft. Nova Era is almost an incredible song, but it doesn't stand out as much as other openers to me. It is still very good and a decent opener, but it's no wonder, like Eagleheart or Knightrider of Doom. Millennium Sun, the first time I listened to Rebirth, almost shocked me having a second song being a ballad. But, it's not a ballad. Millennium Sun is just as good as Nova Era. I don't know this CD song by song as well as I know others, but I can tell you that "Unholy Wars" is a PERFECT song for someone getting into euro-metal. It is over 8:00 and it's just so fun of a song! My other highlight is Visions Prelude, the closing ballad. I love this song. Again, it's one of a kind. Angra is a band that might take over as someone's favorite band within a week. Or they might just be someone who is great to listen to whenever you actually decide to put it into the CD player, like me. I do this with Vision Divine, too, which is also a great band. Actually, I would recommend them to all Angra fans. All in all, this CD just has to be in every euro metal collection - it's a classic, or diamond in the rough, if you prefer. Also, I found that when I listen to this CD, it reminds me of Beholder's CD "Wish for Destruction". The 2 are comparable in so many ways. They are both fast, not that heavy, and quite melodic. If you own either one of these and like it, buy the other one. When you get the chance, check out my other reviews. I don't have a lot of melodic metal reviews as we speak, but my other reviews are still good. Also, do me and other amazon shoppers a favor and say if this review helped you or not. Thanks.
|
|
|
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
FINALLY something worth sinking my teeth into..., May 27, 2005
All right. I'm a professional musician and I'm into everything from Suffocation to Shakti. I've been really frustrated with the North American metal scene for years as it seems to have been a 'music machine' pent on churning out crap time and again. In my search for something quality or something interesting, I've wandered off through most of the Euro-metal scene and I recently discovered the Brazillian band Angra.
These guys are great players and clever songwriters and I've become a maniacal fan of Angra on the basis of this album and the following one (Temple of Shadows). The songs are well written, though not insanely original, but the playing and production are fantastic. Kiko Loureiro and Raphael Bittencourt are a fantastic pair of guitarists, Aquiles Priester is a drummer who reminds me of Mike Portnoy or Virgil Donati (very creative playing), Filepe Andreoli is a super bass player and Edu Falaschi should be singing for Dream Theater. They're a great collection of fantastic parts that adds up to an awe inspiring whole.
Apparently some fans are frustrated because this new line up (new drummer, bassist and vocalist) is 'not as good' as the old one, but I strongly disagree. I'm a new fan to Angra and not committed to the original line up, and if you like any Euro Metal, you'll LOVE Angra. Also, some have criticized the musicianship and commented no recycled songs. As for that criticim, I simply laugh. There's no such thing as a song that isn't influenced by previous music, and if you think Angra has crappy musicianship, you simply are confused about what 'musicianship' means. None the less, I've been listening to them for the last 3 weeks straight and it's only getting better.
****
Update -March 23, 2009- I've been listening to Angra for several years now and I STILL listen to Rebirth regularly. "Nova Era" and "Unholy Wars" are two AMAZING metal songs. I think that "Temple of Shadows" is their best album, with this as a close second and "Aurora Consurgens" as third. I have found other bands that have somewhat close to the technical ability of Angra, but no other bands combines musicality with such amazingly diverse songwriting. Angra is astoundingly good metal!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Angra 
