Edu Falaschi Official Japanese blog

ブラジルの主要なロック、へヴィメタル系ウェブサイトWhiplashが
ANGRAのニューアルバム"AQUA"のCDレビューを掲載しました。

取り急ぎ、英文訳を掲載します。
日本語訳は追ってアップいたします。


ANGRA: the main Brazilian rock / metal website about Aqua


One of the most important Brazilian rock and metal webzines Whiplash came up
with the album review. Here you can check the most significant parts of the
journalist's impressions. The original review in Portuguese is available
here: http://whiplash.net/materias/cds/113282-angra.html



The CD review was done after a pre-listening party and firstly musicians of
Angra clarified the new album's details:



"With this CD we intentionally returned and re-forced the use of ethnic
elements, since Ricardo came back and this is a natural thing for his sound,
with Angra or without", explained guitarist Rafael Bittencourt. "But this is
also an organic thing which always exists inside us and in our sound".



Besides the ethnic sound "Aqua" has the unique conception like it has
happened with all the previous CDs since "Rebirth". In case of "Aqua" The
Tempest, the very last play of William Shakespeare has been chosen as the
album idea. (...)



Speaking about the team work, the vocalist Edu Falaschi expressed the
opinion of everyone that after almost ten years since "Rebirth" it has been
improving every day more and more. "Every time we understand each other
better and better. We already know what to do with the arrangements, which
stuff fits the whole thing and which stuff doesn't", confirmed the bassist
Felipe Andreoli. (.)



Although a big part of the fans were afraid that the participation of the
members in various side projects such as Almah, Bittencourt Project,
Freakeys, Karma and others would mean the end of the band, the musicians
disagree. According to them, this type of activities just helps them to get
the new experience and the new sound for Angra, their main activity. "We are
not only Angra's members. We are musicians. Our friends are musicians as
well. We are the persons who enjoy playing music. It's not only work for us,
but also is a hobby. And for us, to play also means to stay with friends,
with people we like. When I don't play in Angra, I do it with Kiko, Rafael,
Edu and others", explains Felipe. (...)



Angra admits that still there are questions of the fans and the media about
the previous line-up of the band with Andre Matos as a frontman, but they
don't consider it as a negative thing. "There will always be the memory
about the old line-up, but we are not going to pretend that this part of the
history of the band has never existed", - tells Edu, the eternal target of
comparisons with Andre Matos. In his opinion such examples when the fans
were divided between two frontmen like it happened in case of Ozzy x Dio
(Black Sabbath) or David Lee Roth x Sammy Hagar (Van Halen) just prove the
fact that every period is no less important than the other. And one vocalist
doesn't overshadow the talent of another. "A vocalist characterizes a band
quite a lot, there's no other way", - tells Rafael. "This is a part of our
history, we can't forget it". Felipe agrees: "You see, we always play old
songs and we don't have any intention to take it out from our set-list. It's
our history and it's a good history". (.)


CD REVIEW
So, let's talk about what's really important, the music. The band has chosen
"Arising Thunder" as the first single and as the first album's track, but as
one listens on, with the third song "Awake from Darkness" it already becomes
clear, that the first impression was not so true. Don't understand me wrong,
"Arising Thunder" is a great song, it rocks, it is really exciting! But it's
a quite typical speed / metal melodic piece with double bass and wild heavy
guitar riffs. "Awake from Darkness" makes it clear that "Arising Thunder"
doesn't come close to representing the rest of "Aqua". The 3rd song begins
with the long-awaited comeback of Brazilian ethnic elements, with the
percussion's rhythms, thanks to Ricardo, the guru of this subject. Having
the bass guitar parts by Felipe which make it heavier and the guitar hooks
by Kiko and Rafael, right in the middle the song surprises with the
interlude of piano and violin. "The Rage of the Waters" brings the same
feeling, mixing elements of northwestern music (from the Nord-West of
Brazil, mainly, the states Bahia and Pernambuco, the center of traditional
afro-brazilian rhythms) with typical heavy metal base. Then the game
changes. After the intro with some technological effects, "Hollow" brings
this classical and nervous thrash metal riff. At least, one Angra song on
every CD is like that. But being tired with all these moments of violence,
it finds an harmonic opportunity to open some space for the crystal clear
guitars. The atmospheric "Spirit of the Air" reminds "The Shadow Hunter". It
begins with some Spanish chords, then going to metal killer sound and
returning back to ballad, it walks chorus-wards, to a pompous epic break and
finishes with an Arabian theme. But the stuff which could sound in a very
eclectic way is, on the contrary, perfectly integrated.

"Aqua" even has its proper "Make Believe" - the perfect "Weakness of a Man".
I mean, it's a song created without fear to flirt with the pop music
inspiration and, I dare to say that it even has moments that can be
considered as dancing ones. But, whatever traditional headbangers could
think, it doesn't make "Weakness of a Man" less heavy metal. Even the nice
ballad "Lease of Life" which seems to break the rhythm of "Aqua" a bit
continues to be pretty interesting, especially in its guitar parts, almost
rock'n'roll ones until the solo, and pretty close to bossa nova after it.
But maybe the most courageous song of the album is "A Monster in Her Eyes"
which presents one of the most varied performances of Edu. He starts like a
bard, nearly reciting in a Medieval style and then, catching the courage he
presents very aggressive parts full of fury which reminds his typical manner
in Almah.

Another excellent moment, "Ashes" finishes the CD. It begins with dreadful
and dark, almost horror-movie-like keyboard parts, which give the first
impressions about what will follow. The vocalist uses the opportunities of
the lyrics which represent the last act of the play to come up with elevated
style performance with sorrowful atmosphere, a kind of opera-rock. Perfect!

"Aqua" is the kind of album which deserves to be listened attentively at
least 2-3 times. It's not a type of work to be easily defined, to put a
label on or to tell if it's metal because of this or that. At most, it's
possible to say that Angra returned to its best conditions, sounding like
classical Angra. And so this is much more than a positive fact.



Translation Irina Ivanova, Andrei Koulikov for www.edufalaschi.com.br




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☆ANGRA New Album "AQUA" 発売中！
http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/-/Artist/A006979.html

ANGRA オフィシャル・サイト
http://www.angra.net

Edu Falaschi オフィシャルサイト
http://www.edufalaschi.com.br/
Edu Falaschi 英語版オフィシャルサイト
http://www.edufalaschi.com.br/eng//
Edu Falaschi オフィシャルフランス版ブログ
http://edufalaschifrenchblog.blogspot.com/

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