Angra - Secret Garden

Published January 18 2015

*=Staff's pick	Newborn Me* Black Hearted Soul* Final Light Storm Of Emotions Synchronicity II Violet Sky Secret Garden* Upper Levels Crushing Room Perfect Symmetry* Silent Call

Genre	Progressive Power Metal	Fabio Lione	Vocals
Tracks	11	Kiko Loureiro	Guitar
Running time	54 Min.	Rafael Bittencourt	Guitar
Label	earMusic	Felipe Andreoli	Bass
Release	16 January 2015	Bruno Valverde	Drums
Country	Brazil	-	Keyboard
Producer	Jens Bogren
Similar artists	---

Street date Japan: December 17th 2014.

Sometimes it feels like the Brazilian progressive power metallers Angra are mostly known because they originate from South America. A continent which European metal fans in general without a doubt don't have that much of a relationship to, in comparison to its own plethora of bands. With that being said, let's focus on the actual outcome of this record instead.

Italian singer Fabio Lione of Rhapsody Of Fire continues to record most of the vocals on Angra's new releases and I believe that most fans to this unit agree with the band's choice of frontman. His range and strength are still impressive and almost complete, but at the same time I have to mention that his voice still isn't the most pleasant to my ears to listen to. Don't misinterpret my words as too provoking, because he really sings well and both his technique and his skill lies way beyond the capacity of most metal singers, but I also sometimes find it difficult to really enjoy the actual tone of his voice.

A lot of parts on this record are pretty nice, but the actual total songwriting seems to be a small weakness in the band's overall appearance. The record is too widely spread in terms of the songs' capacity, as it contains a few awesome tracks, mostly decent to good stuff, but also a pair of terrible creations. The lullaby which closes the album is definitely nothing that I fancy the least. Why someone decides to put such utter crap on a metal album is to me in fact a great mystery.

I can't really embrace most of the songs to the fullest extent. I mean, I want to, but as soon as I feel some real connection to the music, it abruptly comes to an end as the songs don't carry strength all throughout. The songs somehow can't find a path to enter my mind in a suitable way and to anchor themselves in a safe and solid place. It's not really a complex experience, but perhaps I see the music as a little too complicated anyway and not enough heavy hitting or accurate to please my very own metal veins. In the end I also believe that they put too much effort to come out more progressive than necessary and by that also miss out on captivating melodies occasionally.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	6	7	8	5

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe