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Way nicer than the old one! - 100%

Bruno, June 3rd, 2004

Well, finally we have the new Angra! Many people think this line-up is the better that the last one. My opinion on it is: Andre Matos has such a clean and female voice. Not that he is a bad singer, but it was just... too childish. Edu Falaschi is able to sing in a clean way and reach all those high tones Andre did. But he has a "more metal" voice, maybe with a Bruce Dickinson-like technic. Such a great singer! Aquiles Priester in my opinion made the ex-drummer disappeared! In my opinion he is one of the best metal drummers in the world! Sometimes I wonder:"What the...! How can he do that???". He simply kicks ass and his performance is jaw-dropping! And along with the new bassist Felipe Andreoli he makes a solid ground. Felipe's bass appears much more on the album that the last bassist and he is full of technics. All these guys together with the well-known guitarrists and main composers Kiko Loureiro and Rafael Bittencourt make Angra way better, heavier and nicer than the old one! First you have to know that Angra is a completely different band from all these melodic bands we have being seen appearing day after day.

Rebirth begins with an intro called 'In Excelsis'. It prepares the listeners to the concept with keyboards and orchestras. Those strings sound pretty beautiful to me. So the album starts in the right way!

Then 'Nova Era' blasts! It's a typical openner! It starts with riffs and orchestras and then become quite fast! Nova Era is an expression in Portuguese and means 'New Era' in English. The track is breath-taking and the refrain is glorious! Kiko Loureiro fast solo is pretty nice but the song wouldn't be that good and powerful without Aquiles Priester. What a drummer! Just like the other tracks the song is heavy and melodic at the same time. It has become one of the favourite songs of the fans!

Now we have 'Millennium Sun'. It begins with Edu singing followed by a beautiful piano and strings. Then riffs starts and we have a typical melodic metal song but with a 'hard metal' thing I guess. The refrain is great, Edu reaches high tones with his voice. The song is not as fast as 'Nova Era' and the solos are nice duets between Kiko and Rafael.

Now my favourite song at all! 'Acid Rain' is epic! It begins with epic choirs and the keyboards have a special part here though the main thing of the band are the guitars. Edu's vocal lines here were very well composed and sung. He kicks ass here. Great verses, great bridge, great refrain! In the middle we have a keyboards solo followed by Brazilian percussion and from now on it gets even nicer! Solos by Kiko and Rafael with Aquiles changing the rythm from kind of slow in the beginning and fast in the end. This is one of the best songs Angra has ever composed on its carrer! I really loved it! All the keyboards on the album were composed by Kiko who is also a pianist and were played by a professional keyboarder. By the way it's one of the best keyboards I have ever heard on a metal album. It doesn't appear all the time as the band is heavy. But when it comes out it's special and the sounds were very well chosen.

'Heroes of Sand' is a semi-ballad and it's really great! It begins with Edu singing followed by an acoustic guitar and then the stuff gets heavier! It's a strong song and very emotional too. It's nice this cd doesn't have those soft and totally acoustic ballads.

'Unholy Wars' begins with songs from a Brazilian dancing group with percussions and then the song gets pretty fast! Aquiles makes the drums roar here! Great performance! This song has everything! After a bass solo it has a slower part with Edu and after epic choirs Kiko plays a pretty fast solo and everything gets fast again! It's the longest song on the album.

The song that gives title to the album 'Rebirth' begins with Edu's voice being followed by acoustic guitars and then everything become pretty heavy with some choirs! Grandious vocals and a great performance by Aquiles. After the refrain the song gets quite fast with fast solos by Kiko and Rafael! Then the refrain is repeated and finishes in an acoustic way. Great song!

'Judgement Day' begins with a great drums arrangement by Aquiles and then quite heavy guitars appears and pianos. The song is pretty nice and on the refrain Edu shows us what he can do reaching high notes. In the middle of the song, before the solo, the orchestra thing appears followed by the drums and then by Edu's voice. It's a pretty nice and original song!

Now 'Running Alone' turn has come! It begins with very nice epic choirs! But please. You guys can read that throughout this review I mention "epic things" some times. But don't get me wrong, all this classical stuff you find here is not like Rhapsody and all these new melodic metal bands we see nowadays. Especially because Angra is a pretty different melodic band. This is a typical Angra song: it's fast, melodic and heavy! The thing that called my attention was the nice piano solo just before the guitar solo!

The album finishes with 'Visions Prelude' which is adapted from Chopin Op. 24 Prelude in C minor (big, hum?) made by the guitarrist Kiko Loureiro. Good song with piano, orchestra and Edu's voice here is shown full of felling.

So Angra has released the perfect album in my opinion! The band is way nicer than the old one. Waiting for the next album!