So the other day, Spotify suggested that I listen to the song “Reflective” from the album Sounds of Innocence by Kiko Loureiro. Since the name looked interesting and he appeared to be a guitarist I downloaded the album onto the iPhone and it became the soundtrack for my ride to the Motor Vehicle Inspection Station. I discovered that Kiko is a very, very talented progressive rock guitarist and a member of the Progressive Metal band Angra. So after listening to Loureiro’s solo album, I downloaded Angra’s latest release Aqua and gave it a listen! Both of the albums are very good, but I think I prefer Aqua. Sometimes solo prog rock guitar albums seem a little boring to me. So here’s what I discovered about Angra.
Angra is a five man Brazilian neo-classical progressive metal band. The band was formed in 1991 by vocalist Andre Matos and guitarist Kiko Loureiro. Angra means “goddess of fire” in brazilian mythology and represents a small cove or bay used as natural harbor. The name was also chosen because of the resemblance to the English adjective “angry”! Released in 2010, Aqua is the seventh studio album from the band, which has also released five EPs and three Live albums. Through the years the band has had many changes in membership the current line-up of the band includes:
Fabio Lione- vocals
Rafael Bittencort – guitar
Kiko Loureiro – guitar
Ricardo Confessori – drums
Felipe Andreoli – bass
Angra is a straight ahead hard-driving progressive metal album with some changes in tempo spaced throughout the album. Supposedly, Aqua is more metal than their earlier albums. But I went back and listened to Temple of Shadows and I find it just as metal as this album. The one big change from the very early albums is that there is less reliance and use of their initial Brazilian and classical influences.But their very early albums are not available on Spotify or MOG, so I can’t compare them.
As I thought about Angra’s music and where it fits into my music listening, I came to the conclusion that there are some bands because of the fast pace of their music and their flying guitars, which Kiko provides in Angra,,that are really get you going type albums and are great for soundtracks on my runs!! Angra certainly falls into that category along with say Until Rain and Dragonforce!! So I can’t wait until the weather finally starts to get warmer, and I can get back to my regular running routine!!
For now though let’s go “into the night” with the first two tracks from Aqua the “Intro and “Arising Thunder”!!
