Review Summary: Angra delivers another masterwork. Despite repeated stylistic changes, the band is always on top of what their direction requires, and conjure not just a power metal classic but a literary and cultural experience.
There is good reason why Angra is well-respected by the power metal community. Their music has spanned several different styles throughout their career: the pure power metal of
Angels Cry, the ambitious progressive power/folk metal of
Holy Land, and the even more ambitious progressive power metal of
Temple of Shadows. Two singers have taken the mike: Andre Matos was a clear high tenor while Edu Falaschi is lower and grittier - and thus the Edu era has been heavier overall. The most constant elements of these Brazilians' sound have been a profound sense of their regional identity...and being on top of the power metal camp.
For
Aurora Consurgens, Angra have taken yet another left turn: they dive into the pool of more visceral, aggressive classic metal, sometimes crossing into thrash territory. The first thing the listener notices after the folkish intro to
The Course of Nature is that this album is
HEAVY - the rhythm guitar tone, for one, is absolutely crushing, and the production is flawless. It sounds as if the music is trapped within its walls, straining to get out - broken, tired, and beaten. The whole band has never sounded this intense before, and I don't think Angra will be able to reach this level of adrenaline again. For a band that once prided itself on its less heavy, more neo-classical approach to the genre - so much so that Andre hit the road when his bandmates wanted to crank the heaviness up - the ability to sound so much at home on the heaviest end of the power metal spectrum is proof that Angra deserves their crown.
How
did they do it? The answer is that Angra built
Aurora Consurgens from the ground up as an album where ample doses of heavy guitars are not unnecessary, but play a vital role in telling the album's story. Those familiar with the work of Carl Jung may recall the Aurora Consurgens: it was supposedly published by St. Thomas Aquinas in the 1400s, and its treatise on alchemy was used by the famed psychiatrist to understand the different states of mind through dreams. This is exactly what Angra have just done here, through their collected stories of different types of mental disorders and afflictions: suicidal tendencies, bipolar disorder, sociopathy, etc. Some of these topics are quite disturbing at times, even more so when given Angra's profound sense of realism in their art.
From the beginning, they capture the listener with their trademark folk arrangements and transport them into the jungle, where everything is wild and nothing will come out of unchanged. While the Angra trademarks of folk intrusions, often quite catchy choruses, and neo-classical interludes are still palpably intact, they are only pockets of safety in this wild jungle of metal. Guitarists Kiko and Rafael plain
shred for a respectable duration of
Aurora Consurgens, with their soloing technique edging into more dissonant realms. The instrumental passage of
Ego Painted Grey contains wild, uncontrolled solos, harsh chugging riffs, and buzzsaw drumming...followed by a terrifying scream from behind the mix as the song's main theme returns. Mainstream notions? Just because Anne Rice is fairly mainstream doesn't mean her books aren't creepy anymore...
Vocalist Edu Falaschi also adopts a more straightforward technique, largely setting the higher notes aside for the climaxes and allowing the occasional harsher vocal techniques and his distinctive Brazilian accent to speak for the wounded, troubled characters within these ten stories. Felipe Andreoli lends his also more straightforward bass work best to the less heavy sections of
Aurora Consurgens, but proves himself well adept at gluing the guitars together when they are at full bore. Drummer Aquiles Priester, in his last album with Angra, proves himself one of the best skinsmen in power metal, able to do it all: classic power metal runs, profuse proggier sections and even some tribal percussion to supplement his general preference for the louder stuff.
At the other extreme, the slower passages prove to be equally important to the album's thematic development. The lack of sound is just as valuable as sound itself in dynamics, and the buildup from quiet, blank beginnings to the metal-fest is equally vital to
Ego Painted Grey. Similarly impressive softer sections include the midsection of
Window to Nowhere and the majority of length-leader
So Near So Far, which is the largest reservoir of the memories of the good old days - to both Angra's fans and the characters Edu plays so well. Last but not least is the final song,
Abandoned Fate. The momentum from the rest of the album actually makes this acoustic piece sound heavy, and with their muted descent into obscurity and nothingness, the lyrics match:
"Claim for pain
Was it all in vain?
New sad days to come
Many smiles we've done
Mourning face
In an abandoned fate..."
In only three minutes, this piece encourages us not to ignore those who are suffering from these mental disorders, because one day it will be too late to help those like this unfortunate. It is a poignant, depressive, but entirely suitable closer.
Above all, what makes Angra one of my ten favorite bands is their ability to conjure a unique cultural experience out of their music. Most of my other favorites have all done this themselves:
Orphaned Land,
Kekal and
Myrath also give me their unmistakable cultural imprints when listening to any of their albums. Not all the best music comes from the richest countries with the most musical knowledge: music is, above all, an expression of emotion, and no matter where you're from, if you don't have the emotion, you pretty much cannot make good music.
Although many great musicians can create emotion from music, the truly great artists create music from emotion. Constructed in this manner, everything that makes music timeless will flow naturally from the artist to the audience.
Aurora Consurgens is a case in point.
And now that I've indulged in some Brazilian culture, I'll be off to eat Brazilian food tomorrow...
