We listened to Angra's new album
Last Saturday, February 10th, during Carnival, Angra invited fans, press, and partners to listen to their new album, Ømni . In a relaxed gathering, with Holy Land, Angels Cry, and the 25th-anniversary commemorative beers being served, Fabio Lione, Rafael Bittencourt, Marcelo Barbosa, Felipe Andreoli, and Bruno Valverde enthusiastically welcomed everyone to talk about their newest work.
Bittencourt opened the event with an emotional speech, saying how proud he was not only of the result, but also of his bandmates and how collective the composition of this work was.
ØMNI delivers everything an Angra fan expects: melodies, heaviness, and Brazilian rhythms. The track “Light Of Transcedence” opens the album with symphonic elements, a typical Angra Power Metal sound, followed by “Travelers Of Time” (whose lyric video you can check out at the end of this text), with an introduction featuring elements of Brazilian music.
“Black Widow's Web” is the heaviest song on the album, with broken time signatures and featuring two rather unusual guest appearances: singer Sandy, along with Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Enemy (formerly The Agonist). The idea of including Alissa's voice came in 2016, when the band participated in the 70000 Tons Of Metal festival and watched Arch Enemy perform. The concept of the song was to showcase the two opposing aspects of the Black Widow, hence the soft, angelic voice contrasting with the guttural and aggressive vocals. Without a doubt, one of the highlights of the CD.
The next song, “Insania” , is another Power Metal track with a touch of Prog, featuring beautiful bass work. The band has already recorded a music video for this song.
“The Bottom Of My Soul” is another highlight on the album. A beautiful, emotional ballad featuring Rafael Bittencourt on vocals. The band has also recorded a music video for the track “War Horns ,” which features Kiko Loureiro, a founding member of Angra who now plays in Megadeth.
Brazilian music reappears in "Caveman," which also features parts in Portuguese – something Fabio Lione was keen to emphasize, noting that he greatly admires bands that incorporate their native language into their work.
“Magic Mirror” has a bit of an eighties sound, and a catchy chorus in 7 minutes of a real trip. Felipe Andreoli, bassist, said that this song first emerged from a part played on the piano, which was a collective composition process, and is his favorite on the album.
"Always More" is another ballad and was composed during the time of the album Secret Garden . The band said that a music video has already been filmed for it.
“ØMNI – Silence Inside” begins with a Spanish influence and features a Brazilian rhythm, as well as a Prog side, going through calm verses and others that are quite heavy, and once again, Rafael Bittencourt delights us with his voice. The album ends with an instrumental track, “ØMNI – Infinite Nothing,” which is soaring and incorporates symphonic elements.
After listening to the album, the band answered questions from fans and the press. The idea is that a music video or some other audiovisual work will be made for all the songs on the album. Andreoli and Marcelo Barbosa emphasized that the band always tries to keep up with changes in the relationship and consumption of the public, so much so that the creation process of ØMNI was made available on the internet through videos on YouTube. Click here to watch.
When asked by a fan whether Heavy Metal will be considered the classical music of today in the future, Rafael Bittencourt emphatically stated, “Metal will not be the classical music of the future. Metal fans need to stop being arrogant. Heavy Metal needs to be respected just like any other musical style. We have to be careful not to fuel discord.”
The band will be embarking on a world tour that will include eleven dates in Brazil. Click here to check it out.
ØMNI is Angra's ninth studio album, and the second with Fabio Lione (ex-Rhapsody) on vocals. It was recorded in Sweden and will be released on February 16th via earMUSIC.
ØMNI tracklist:
- “Light Of Transcendence”
- "Travelers of Time"
- "Black Widow's Web"
- "Insanity"
- "The Bottom Of My Soul"
- "War Horns"
- "Caveman"
- "Magic Mirror"
- "Always More"
- “Ømni – Silence Inside”
- “Ømni – Infinite Nothing”
Check out the lyric video for the song “Travelers Of Time” below:
