History & Biography Named after a mythological Brazilian goddess of fire, Angra blazed a path across South America, Europe and Japan with its brand of heavy metal proving that there is life in Brazil beyond death and thrash metal. The band was formed following the frustrations Andre Matos felt in Viper. While Matos was leaning more and more towards melodic and classical arrangements, the other Vipers had other ideas. With one demo under their belts, the band has a deal in Europe and recording in Germany. Angra always has a touring keyboardist in tow and the members are all recognized experts and instructors in their field. Three albums, two EPS and several sampler and tribute albums later, the fans are shocked with news of strife within the band and the parting of ways. Both parties work hard pushing forward with their new line-ups and ideas. In 2001 Angra recruited new members and came back with a fourth album closer to the first two records than Fireworks.
The Brazilians released a live album and a DVD in 2002. The band began work on a new studio album in 2004 with Dennis Ward producing. Temple Of Shadows was issued in September, 2004. Aurora Consurgens was issued in late 2006 and was named after a book by Saint Thomas Of Aquin. The band entered a period of turmoil and conflict involving its manager who claimed ownership of the name Angra in 2007 and ceased its activities. Falaschi started Almah. Former drummer Ricardo Confessori replaced Aquiles Priester reportedly for a resumption of activity in 2009. Angra released its seventh studio album, Aqua, on September 29th, 2010 through SPV. Aqua was a concept album. Singer Eduardo "Edu" Falaschi left the Brazilian metal band in the spring of 2012. Angra would release a compilation, Best Reached Horizons, in October, 2012 through SPV/Steamhammer. The band publicly announced its wish to have Andre Matos back in the fold. Kiko Loureiro joined Megadeth in 2015 replacing Chris Broderick. Five years following his departure from Angra, Edu Falaschi announced he would be performing songs from the band's catalogue as part of his newly launched solo career with plans to tour various countries. Falaschi released his solo album Moonlight in 2016 through Test Your Metal Records. The album was comprised of acoustic versions of songs of his career with Angra and Almah. Avelion was the opening act in Angra’s European tour of early 2018 with Operation: Mindcrime and Halcyon Way. Halfway through its European tour with Rhapsody, Romania-based female fronted melodic rock/metal band Scarlet Aura was confirmed for a string of North American dates with Angra for September 2018. Former singer and solo artist André Matos died in July 2019. He was 47 years old. Cause was attributed to heart attack. Valverde was a guest for Sepultura’s concerts in 2022 when that band’s drummer became injured and was unavailable.
Luis Mariutti created Mariutti Team and organized a concert for a new combined entity called ShamanAngra for the start of 2024. Luis Mariutti, drummer Aquiles Priester, guitarist Hugo Mariutti, vocalist Thiago Bianchi and keyboardist Fabio Ribeiro. were part of the line-up, which also included a couple of newcomers to the combination act. Firewing and Vocifer were opening this concert where Luis was also presenting his solo record.
Angra signed with Atomic Fire Records and release an album, called Cycles Of Pain, on November 3rd. A record release concert was scheduled for Tokio Marine Hall in São Paulo, Brazil on the same day. The band was touring Brazil in the autumn and was booked for 70000Tons Of Metal for January 2024. The band had an acoustic DVD, recorded at Brazil's the Ópera De Arame, for late 2024. Everyone on the scene was doing anniversary gigs, anniversary albums, anniversary sets and anniversary merchandise and Angra announced the Interlude tour for the 20th anniversary of its Temple Of Shadows album for late 2024 and early 2025. This followed a regular tour of Europe. The band was to take the rest of 2025 off as a sabbatical to do other personal and professional things.
Reviews ANGRA - REBIRTH - SPV
Admittedly I was never a fan of Angra. The latest incarnation of the Brazilian melodic rockers is nowhere near changing my opinion. In general, with a wholesale line up change, which saw the departure of 3 members to form Shaman since the band's last outing, expectations were inclined to the negative. Angra, though, has surprised the fans and come back if not better then no worse than previously. Despite that, the band's approach is too melodic for the average heavy metal fan and further impaired by the glut of harmonization in the vocals and the abundance of keyboards. The presence of the so-called Brazilian passages is not abetting the band's cause either. It's not all bad, admittedly, and the guitarists have their moments; yet in the grand scheme of things Angra is bound to remain more popular with Rhapsody and Dream Theater fans than heavy or power metal followers. - Ali "The Metallian"
ANGRA - TEMPLE OF SHADOWS - STEAMHAMMER
Angra's fifth full-length album, Temple Of Shadows, is a concept album which narrates the story of an eleventh century crusader soldier called The Shadow Hunter. He questions the motive behind the crusades and the ideals of his church.
Be it the familiar restrictions of a concept album or the band's intended direction Temple Of Shadows is a diverse and jumbled effort. The album begins hard enough, but soon falls prey to the band's grandiose aspirations. The album is unfocused musically and ends up being tiresome. There are several notable guest musicians on the album. They fail to redeem the temple. There is some power metal here, some Spanish guitars, some ethnic percussions, some programmed parts, prog moments, some Yngwie-style shred interludes with fast Classical guitar parts, many instrumental pieces and a general potpourri of vocals styles that range from something akin to a Slaughter album to operatic to some that are better suited to Flamenco. Fan boys will love everything Angra might do - even a Polka album - but metal fans will find this deluded and diluted. - Ali "The Metallian"
ANGRA - AURORA CONSURGENS - SPV 
Having suffered through the last few albums of Angra it would not have been difficult for an observer to predict that Aurora Consurgens was not going to be a major catastrophe in the eyes of this writer. After all, how much worse could it get?
Having impersonated a metal band for so many years - if the label and press’ description of the Brazilians is to be believed; the band itself might have declared itself pop/rock years ago for all one knows - the group’s 2006 record actually moderately stands up to inspection. The band has picked up its guitars, inserted some heaviness here and consequently given the fans something that could be construed as a mixture of Rush, Dream Theater (themselves hardly the pillars of the heavy metal scene), Helloween and unfortunately... Angra. In other words, the new album is harder and more credible, but not quite ready to be above average just yet. Instead, the album has enough to be considered hard rock in part, shows that the band can still get it together should it so choose and yet still harbours too many progressive, ethnic, keyboards, pianos, synthesizers and orchestral interludes and pieces. Be it the freedom a band derives when not operating within the confines of a strict concept album, the sense that the band had gone too commercial or ethnic for its own good or another reason Angra 2006 has good vocals and guitars amidst the rest of the elements one dislikes, yet fully expects. Were the band to steadily improve between albums, as it has here compared to 2004’s temple Of Shadows, it will produce a really good metal band three or four albums down the line. - Ali “The Metallian”
ANGRA - CYCLES OF PAIN - ATOMIC FIRE
Cycles Of Pain begins with an intro called Cyclus Doloris, which is Latin for the same and it fast becomes obvious that this is a thematic album. It is complex and well considered, which means it requires focus and attention to really dig in. It is difficult to do if the music is simply not that attractive. It is attractive at select moments. Either way, the band has put in the work and has a CD of over an hour here. The intro’s audio invokes images of angels and a church that matches the mood of the artwork. We will work our way to the songs, but first there are conclusions to be drawn here after my multiple back to back listens. Like any album this long the material wanders. It also sounds as if the band has arranged the heavy songs to alternate with soft tunes. It stops the album from getting going. Its weakness is its diversity. The Latin singer, jungle beats, soft rock songs and guest pop singers who are adding nothing but commercial music are all head scratchers. I am a metal fan. I listen to metal so I don’t have to put up with this stuff. The strength is the complexity, the energy, the upbeat songs, the bass, the solos by Rafael Bittencourt and Fabio Lione is hell of a singer of course.
After the intro the first thing that hits this girl is the fast galloping drums that are a marked contrast to the melodious and more restrained vocals and backing vocals even if they come in multiple channels. The two are on two different lanes and the guitar leads are somewhere in-between. It is like Exodus is battling Dream Theater. That is another thing about Angra and Cycles of Pain. Were they always this close musically to Dream Theater? Sure, I know they were formed around the same time. Dead Man On Display slows down for a dramatic pompous moment before going to being fullbore. Lione sings impressively and is in control. Ride Into Storm is a heavier track. Then came Tide Of Changes - Part I and II. The latter is very Dream Theater, not as complex but in the same tier. The bass solo and drums particularly impress here. The vocals go gritty. It sounded as if the band slowed down to catch its breath. Vida Seca is next with words in Portuguese and English. Is this trying to corner the local dance club market? Oh my goodness. The vocals by Brazilian singer-Songwriter Lenine scream ‘why?’ Why is this man here? Why do people think I want to listen to this stuff? Seriously. Gods Of The World is more complex, has more vocals, more backing vocals, impressive bass, impressive solo and reminds me Angra likes to go back and forth between the hard stuff and the lame stuff. What did I just say? Title tracks are more typically the barnstormers. Here it is melodious and the commercial keyboards are soft and mushy. It is a total soft rock waste of time. Is that flute on Faithless Sanctuary? It is an accompaniment to the dramatic vocals. Fabio is the star here. By the way, the jungle theme is back with this one. Fast forward to Generation Warriors and again Fabio has cool pipes, the neoclassical lead is like lightning before Tears Of Blood brings out the spooky boring opera. The female vocals with illusions of grandeur form a poppy duet with Fabio and they have the synthesizers in the background. It is bad enough that I am not even going to look up who the woman is. Angra is playing ping pong with us and it is on purpose.
Bottom-line: This band had issued no less than fourteen full-lengths and fans of prog metal to self-affected pop could do worse, but the love for versatility and the superfluous guests turn it into jungle mud. This band could, but would not. Program your audio to play every second track and you will thank me for it. - Anna Tergel
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