An Age Long Disappeared (Holy Land - Angra)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Holy Land - Angra
Date:	21/01/08 (8 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Highest quality power metal with excellent symphonic and tribal influence and a glorious concept.

Disadvantages: Second half suffers in light of the excellent first.

Angra's second full-length is a magnificently ambitious concept album concerning the conquest of their native Brazil by Europeans at the start of the sixteenth century, following Columbus' 1492 discovery of the gargantuan American landmasses. It isn't a harshly political or conservationist release, and in fact tells the story from both sides lyrically as well as musically; Angra's incorporation of prominent orchestral and tribal elements are juxtaposed in almost every song to reflect the pioneering grandeur of pre-Renaissance Europe and the natural beauty of the Native Americans, with Angra's core band members leading the proceedings from the centre. Like most Angra albums, this varies wildly from catchy, speedy, irresistible power metal to piano-led ballads with no trace of rock in sight, and the balance between all elements is kept painstakingly even.

This was one of producer Sascha Paeth's first power metal triumphs, and although he would later be widely praised as the ultimate producer of symphonic metal, this album bears the same traces of an unperfected craft as Rhapsody's debut 'Legendary Tales' released the following year; although the symphony is clearly present behind the regular instruments, it never really feels fully aligned with them, and the overall sound ends up a little thin as a result. While it's a shame the album can never be quite as perfect and bombastic as it deserved to be, at least it played an important part in Paeth's learning curve that would very soon lead to explosive triumphs with 'Symphony of Enchanted Lands' and Kamelot, among others.

This really is an incredible album and worthy of the highest accolades in both the progressive and power metal camps, from the wailing metal of 'Nothing to Say,' where Andre Matos reaches notes too high for my speakers to handle, right to the soft closing ballads 'Deep Blue' and 'Lullaby for Lucifer.' The central songs are the most ambitious of all, the fantastic 'Carolina IV' being ten minutes of diverse metal and symphony in several distinct movements that neatly wraps up at the end, even harking back to the early seventies prog tradition with a high staccato vocal melody that sounds distinctly like Gentle Giant. 'Holy Land' itself is the perfect partner, led by a memorable piano melody rather than guitars and relying more on logical expansion and repetition than the overbearing mania of its predecessor, throwing even more instruments into the already overflowing broth including maracas, pan pipes and a dominant flute, and leaving the regular rock instruments aside (apart from bass and vocals).

While they're undoubtedly one of the world's most exciting power metal bands, Angra have always had a significant lighter side evidenced in the number of acoustic and piano songs featured through their albums, and this is perhaps one of the lightest of all in terms of ratio. 'Silence and Distance' follows the energetic opener and instantly heads in a slow, epic direction, featuring great solos from Kiko Loureiro over soft tribal percussion, and the style returns later in the equally enjoyable 'Make Believe' before toning down to something less grand and admittedly a little cheesier in the final section of the album, while track two's power is carried into 'The Shaman' and 'Z.I.T.O.,' neither of which really match up. The latter half of the album is slightly disappointing in general, though this is almost entirely due to the splendour of tracks four and five setting the bar unreasonably high for their successors, but nothing is less than excellent, and track six deserves extra points for throwing in a didgeridoo when you least expected it.

This music is great and the concept intriguing, and even though it's probably just some daft and overly sentimental misinterpreting on my part, I can't listen to the nature sounds and quiet choir of the first song without imagining a tribe of Native Americans going about their daily life and rituals in harmony with nature, and feeling angry (angra?) at the past. This short introduction ends with the sound of the sea and an oncoming storm: I wonder what that could be implying?...

1. Crossing
2. Nothing to Say
3. Silence and Distance
4. Carolina IV
5. Holy Land
6. The Shaman
7. Make Believe
8. Z.I.T.O.
9. Deep Blue
10. Lullaby for Lucifer

Summary: Angra's second album (1996).