Angra – Angels Cry

I have to it that I overlooked Angra when they released their debut album Angels Cry back in 1993. At that point I was trading most of my metal CDs for Seattle's wave of flannel-clad grunge merchants. Aside from my Metallica albums, Dream Theater's Images and Words was the only other metal album that I hung onto. Had I known there were bands out there that followed Dream Theater's progressive approach to metal, I like to think my musical tastes in the mid 1990's would have been drastically different. As it stands, I didn't discover Angra until 1999, just before the breakup of the original lineup.

I've always considered Angra to be a power metal band first and foremost. I'm sure many see them as a progressive metal band, but to me it's clear that the band's influences lean far more towards Helloween and Iron Maiden than Yes and ELP. Still, there's definitely a progressive metal feel to Angels Cry, which is what led me to the album in the first place. The band's technical prowess and intricate song structures are certainly worthy of the progressive label, even if the overall melodic, anthemic approach is power metal all the way. Either way it is clear that Angra, as well as bands like Stratovarius and Conception, were the forerunners of the whole prog/power genre.

Angels Cry is an incredibly strong debut album. It's so well written and well executed that it comes across as anything but a debut effort. Everything about this album just seems to work perfectly, from the classical elements to the high-speed metal riffs to the lush keyboards to the powerful melodies. Even Andre Matos's high-pitched vocals, which have been known to turn some people off, are executed perfectly here. Just about every song on this album is fantastic, though "Carry On", "Never Understand", and the title track are my favorites. The only weak moment (and even that's not as bad as some would have you believe) is the band's take on Kate Bush's song "Wuthering Heights", which finds Matos trying to match Bush's vocals, taking his already ball-squeezing vocals to new heights.

Angels Cry is a superb metal album, and a milestone for the prog/power genre. This is an album that belongs in the collection of everyone into bands like Helloween, Gamma Ray, Stratovarius, DragonForce, Vanden Plas, Tad Morose, Brainstorm, and just about every other prog/power band.

Reissue Notes: Century Media's 1999 version of Angels Cry features three bonus tracks - an alternate version of "Evil Warning" and remixes of "Angels Cry" and "Carry On." They're interesting enough, but don't really add that much value to this already great album.