Review Summary: Facing a storm and choosing to embrace it.
There seems to exist a general consensus that Angra delivers the best results when the band keeps Power Metal as the basis of its sound. Some experimentation and enrichments are welcome as long as the band’s Power Metal core is left intact. Any attempt to veer too much into other territories, like leaning too heavily into prog, normally results in boring and lackluster albums. To put it shortly, a lot of the band’s fans would most likely agree that Power Metal Angra is the best Angra. The most valuable and amazing thing about “Secret Garden” is that it bravely subverts that paradigm, long perceived to be an axiom, and in doing so manages to push the band’s sound to some previously unexplored limits while preserving Angra’s identity. All that at a time when the band was experiencing another line-up turmoil.
Indeed, Angra lost its singer Edu Falaschi even before the start of writing and recording sessions for “Secret Garden,” and a couple of years later their long-standing drummer Ricardo Confessori announced his departure as well. I don’t know if Kiko Loureiro already knew that he’d be leaving for Megadeth when this album was in the works, and how soon did he share the news with the other band members before revealing them to the audience, but it’s clear that an in-between situation like that also could have affected the quality of the music. It would’ve been understandable if the remaining band members felt lost and overwhelmed. Any other band would’ve played it safe in a situation like that, finding a copycat singer and sticking to the basics of their sound (think Kamelot after Roy Khan's departure). But Angra chose to fire it up instead and make variety and diversity the main feature of the upcoming record.
Yes, the album contains maybe three Power Metal songs in total, which normally would’ve been a recipe for disaster for Angra. Yes, this is their first album with a non-Brazilian frontman as Fabio Lione joins the fold, which also does not bode well on paper, given Angra’s usual focus on their Brazilian roots and heritage. But despite all the line-up disturbances, the band’s songwriting core remains intact for now, and both Loureiro and Bittencourt are firing on all cylinders. Let’s take “Newborn Me” as an example. It is a classic fast-paced Angra opener in any case, but they just had to spice it up with that wonderful flamenco solo, elevating an already great song to some extra heights.
That extra factor is present in nearly every song on the LP, and sometimes it’s a direct result of the band’s risky but audacious decision to stuff everything they have in store into the album. So, we lost a singer? No problem, let’s have two frontmen on our new record, and invite two great ladies to fill in the guest spots for good measure! Letting Bittencourt to share singing duties with Lione is yet another risky decision that pays off. Lione mostly covers the more “classic” Power Metal tracks on his own, otherwise singing together with Bittencourt or stepping out entirely, and it actually works most of the time. Rafael has a grittier voice with a hint of rasp, and he proves to be a reasonably diverse singer, able to pull of the uplifting bridge in “Storm of Emotions,” the gloomy and intense “Violet Sky,” and the tender ballad “Silent Call” equally well. The one song where I feel that Lione might have done a better job is “Crushing Room,” but it has the glorious Doro Pesch who is armed and ready to pour her heart into the song. Simone Simons is an equally fitting choice for the waltzing goodness of the title track serving as yet another album highlight.
To be honest, some of the songs here are so rich and full of twists and turns that they deserve their own review. One prominent deep cut is “Higher Levels,” which still keeps metal as a basis but also has intricate bass lines and piano melodies, tribal drumming, mood swings from doom and gloom to a break in the clouds, and most importantly a great psychedelic section with enchanting guitars and ethereal singing. At the same time, the band is perfectly aware when a song does not need any oddball sections to shine. Both “Black-Hearted Soul” and “Perfect Symmetry,” the two other “pure” Power Metal tracks besides the opener, represent a more traditional Angra sound with some neo-classical touches. “Perfect Symmetry” in particular seems to be an intentional callback all the way into the past to “Carry On,” while “Black-Hearted Soul” represents a more grounded and grittier take on the band’s faster songs.
Speaking of which, yet another unexpected development is that alongside with some of the most blissful and optimistic songs such as the title track, the album also contains probably the darkest and grimmest songs Angra has ever written. There are several brooding, bottom-heavy tracks with prominent bass, grinding mid-tempo riffs, and desperate lyrics. The first iteration of this sound is “Final Light” with its pressing atmosphere, moody synths, and dramatic chorus, while “Violet Sky” is an even better and more refined execution of this style and “Crushing Room” serves as a triumphant culmination of it. Like I said before, a lot of credit goes to Doro Pesch providing the necessary grit and drama, but what’s equally important is that the riffs are indeed crushing here, and the atmosphere progresses from pressing to suffocating, thus fully realizing this image of Angra going as dark as they possibly can.
I could go on and write more and more about the rich and diverse experience that is “Secret Garden,” as most of the songs here deserve a closer look and deeper analysis, save for that strange Sting cover which feels out of place in the middle of the album and should be relegated to bonus tracks. But I feel like no amount of words would be enough to properly convey the uniqueness of this album and the exceptionally wide palette of styles and moods that it contains. This time Angra is like a dashing surfer facing a particularly tall and capricious wave with glee and panache instead of trepidation, excelling against the odds and delivering a worthy final hurray for Kiko Loureiro.
