30 Years. Thirty whole years have somehow passed since Brazil’s premium Progressive Power Metal band Angra released their excellent debut album “Angel’s Cry”. Three years later the stunning follow-up “Holy Land” set the bar even higher. Then, Andre Matos’ tenure with the band bizarrely fizzled out with the lack-lustre “Fireworks” in 1998 and I figured with the line-up fractions therein this mighty band and would simply fade away. But continue they did, fronted by Edu Falaschi and the band continued to release a succession of more than decent albums with many highlights, but alas without ever capturing quite the essence they had on those first two releases.
2014’s “Secret Garden” brought into the band former Rhapsody Of Fire vocalist Fabio Lione and even though by now I tried to view the band as a new entity, the slightly confused, awkward nature of the album for whatever reason made me think it was a short lived Brazilian/Italian experiment, a union that wouldn’t last. But 2018’s “Ømni” had much more cohesion and focus, which really came across like something had clicked once more in Angra as a unit. So here we are with “Cycle Of Pain” – It could go either way…
Luckily (or by design), what worked about the band’s previous album is continued here. Lione delivers a stellar, honest performance that suits where are Angra are 30 long years after that debut, but he retains his Italian vocal theatricality which suits the band’s Brazilian flamboyance and imaginative delivery. Resplendent with so much of Angra’s trademark dazzling guitar-work and arrangements, this is an album littered with all those little rhythmical and musical nuances that I’ve always enjoyed about Angra. There’s speed and aggression from the first proper track ‘Ride Into The Storm’ and this intensity recurs throughout the album as the band gradually introduce all the familiar styles of Metal that they always like to squeeze into their albums. The lasting feeling I have as I listen to this album is that it sounds exactly how the band want it to right now.
Although it was a rebirth (!) for the band, I felt that all the albums with Edu Falaschi were caught between what the band wanted, what was expected of them and what their fans needed. Bringing in an internationally renowned singer like Lione meant a new beginning that needed time to gel and finally I think we’re starting to witness this. There’s parts of this album that maybe don’t seem to flow, but that’s one of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Angra – the unexpected. There’s possibly parts of the album I’m not sure entirely click on early listens, but Angra albums have a longevity which begins to make more sense the more you hear it. There’s definitely many parts of the album that are actually rather good, even great, so this is what will keep me coming back for those further listens. I never thought Angra with Fabio Lione would work, but here on “Cycle Of Pain”, as I hear Angra and Lione putting in some of their best performances for many a year I don’t think it can be in any doubt any longer.
(8/10 Andy Barker)
Leave a Reply