Angra just presented to us their third studio album, called "Fireworks". Despite the rumors to the contrary, Angra continue with the same line-up. The first thing that one notices, even from the first song, is that the album is heavier and faster than "Holy Land". One other thing that anyone can notice is that there are more classical orchestrations, this time played by a real orchestra and not by synths, and fewer, almost none, Brazilian folk music parts, which were numerous in "Holy Land". Let's now see the songs one by one. The first song, "Wings Of Reality", is a quite fast song, a "typical" heavy metal song, but with many orchestral parts in the middle of the song. My favorite part from this song is the guitar solo with the orchestra and piano playing in the background. The second song, "Petrified Eyes" is a progressive song, with many jazz-blues influences, but always based on metal forms. The third song, called "Lisbon", is one of the three more "emotional" (be careful, not love song or so) songs of this album. "Lisbon" is more like a ballad, with the orchestra playing most of the time, having a lead part and not just ambient part. The way the song begins, with the harpsichord (that's the name of the instrument if I am not mistaken) and the orchestra, makes you think you are about to hear classical music. The song that follows "Lisbon" is "Metal Icarus", which is a pure heavy metal song, with heavy riffs and a strong and solid rhythm section. It's a song written about heavy metal! After "Metal Icarus" is "Fireworks", the second emotional song of the album. It's a slow, ballad-like song with the orchestra playing all the time in the background, but in "Fireworks" there exist some faster parts. The song creates an atmosphere and really makes you think you are watching beautiful fireworks on a clear night! The sixth song is "Paradise", a mid-tempo but heavy song, with catch but heavy riffs that stick on your mind, and with a quite strange chorus. "Mystery Machine", the next song, is a quite fast and catch song. The eighth song, called "Extreme Dream" is again like "Mystery Machine" and "Paradise" a fast song with catchy riffs and chorus, and with melodic solos. The ninth song is "Gentle Change" and it's the album's ballad, we could say. The song crates the atmosphere that was intended for. It's a very beautiful song, with some Brazilian percussion. I have to say I really love this song. Now let's move on to the tenth and last song of the album, called "Speed". As its name says it's the fastest song in the album, a pure power-speed song. As a conclusion my favorite songs are "Wings Of Reality", "Petrified Eyes", "Fireworks" and "Gentle Change". I also have to add that "Fireworks" is a very good album, very original as all the bands albums, but I prefer "Holy Land", because of it's many folk-ish elements that make it stand out.

This is the special edition of Angra's second album containing two CD's.The first CD is "Holy Land" in the Japanese edition with one extra song and the second is called "Live Acoustic At FNAC" and it's from the French edition of Holy Land. "Holy Land" is a fantastic album but no one can put it in a category because it's a mixture of classical heavy metal, melodical power metal, classical music and Brazilian folk music and it's a fantastic mixture! But do not expect something very heavy like Gamma Ray, on the contruary it's very soft and melodical. Heavy metalers who like very heavy sound but want to hear something different and soft metal lovers buy it without a second thought the others do not aproach. For me it deserves: @@@@@ 1/2