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Angra - Aurora Consurgens Reviewer: Rich Catino When 1995 rolled in I was looking for some new faces who was creating true Heavy Metal in the spirit of godfathers Maiden, Priest, Sabbath, Dio , Savatage , Kiss, etc, and possibly next in line to sit beside their thrones. I surely did not find it in the current trends of false Heavy Metal that came and went in the States like grunge (accept from Alice in Chains and Soundgarden ), alternative, rap rock, and now today's metalcore sound. Angra are one of those bands I discovered in 1996 for their second effort “Holy Land” which caught my attention instantly after hearing the various different instrumentations in the music like the timbales, congas, brush snares, and Latin percussion. As to this day they stand tall among their peers because of their use of the many organic instruments and natural sounds from their homeland of Brazil , combined with the speed and dual guitar attack of Helloween and progressive elements of Dream Theater. After losing three of their original members in the late 90's, original guitarists Kiko Loureiro and Rafael Bittencourt forged ahead with the appropriately titled “Rebirth” in 2001 with new vocalist Edu Falaschi , a more than capable replacement for Andre Matos. 2004's “ Temple of Shadows ” really saw the new lineup gel and stands as one of my favorite and recommended albums by the band. “Aurora Consurgens ”, which is the title of a book written by Saint Thomas of Aquin used to establish relations between dreams and different mental conditions, is just about that. Suicidal tendencies, schizophrenia, manic depression, etc. Starting off with the track “The Course of Nature”, you can get a sense of their style right off the bat and a feel for those organic natural sounds that infiltrate many of their compositions. The Helloween influence appears often in their music on faster numbers “The Voice Commanding You” and Gamma Ray (yes Helloween and Gamma Ray are two separate entities) for “Salvation: Suicide”, as does the Dream Theater because songs like such do progress into different avenues. For example there are some choir voices here before the guitar solo on “Voice”. They vary drum beats and arrangements for something like the moodyer “Ego Painted Grey” that also has some more modern played guitar leads, then it goes full steam into a prog movement. Same with the soft ballad “Breaking Ties” where guitar leads are the essence to the peaceful melody. Kiko and Rafael know how to shred no question of that. But what is equally important that fact they play with plenty of heart and for the song and chorus at hand. “So Near So Far” has a Middle Eastern flavor, “Passing By”, “The Course of Nature” are my favorites and very strong choices for those curious to start off with listening to if you are un familiar with their brand of Euro Brazilian Power/Prog Metal. This is one of my favorites of 2006.
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