Angra is one of those bands that I never really heard before, so I picked up their latest release "Temple of Shadows." Musically I love it, the lyrics are kind of odd (I wonder if I should know more about gnosticism and medieval heresy to truly "get" it). I was just wondering other people's take on it.
Angra, "The Shadow Hunter"
- Thread starter Ruthven
- Start date
dargormudshark
Senior Member
The album is called Temple of Shadows. I loved Angra up until this, there are 3 songs I like. I just don't like the melodies on this album thay are written too much around the arrangements. IMO 
I think it's one of Angra's best works IMO. The second track is amazing I think...
Definatly one of the top 2 albums for Angra for me.
Definatly one of the top 2 albums for Angra for me.
Great album! I wrote a brief review in our forum here (around post 13 or so).
@Ruthven - Since you're just getting into them, get Rebirth next if you're going to Prog Power. The reason I say that is that this album is with the current lineup, and most of what they will play at PP will be from the 3 newest releases (the two mentioned so far and the Hunters & Prey EP).
After that get Holy Land and Angels Cry.
These guys are such a talented band!
@Ruthven - Since you're just getting into them, get Rebirth next if you're going to Prog Power. The reason I say that is that this album is with the current lineup, and most of what they will play at PP will be from the 3 newest releases (the two mentioned so far and the Hunters & Prey EP).
After that get Holy Land and Angels Cry.
These guys are such a talented band!
I loved Angels Cry, but after Holy Land bored me to tears I had my doubts about Angra. I bought Rebirth and while it was okay I thought "Well, that's enough of that." After reading the reviews of Temple of Shadows I sighed and decided to go ahead and buy it. Now I'm pumped for Angra again. I agree with Nightmare1z, it's only second to Angels IMO.
JayKeeley
Be still, O wand'rer!
While I like prog more than power, I still like power a lot too and Angra is my second favorite power metal band. However, I guess power metal has become much broader than it used to be and thus it is possible to really like some power metal and to be really bored with others. In my case, Holy Land is my favorite Angra album - even above Angels Cry. Temple of Shadows, on the other hand, is my least favorite. Every time I listen to it, I like it less and less so I have stopped listening to it. It's not that I don't like their new lineup - I like both Rebirth and Hunters and Prey a lot. In fact, I like all of their other albums a lot. I just find this album to be incredibly boring. Funny that someone should mention Blind Guardian's A Night at the Opera because I feel the same way about that album. I like all of Blind Guardian's (my favorite power metal band's) previous albums but this one just killed them for me. The interesting guitar leads were gone and Hansi tried to sing above his range for the entire album. Oh well, I guess we must just be listening to different things in their music.
Kenneth R.
Cináed
control-denied777
Member
- Oct 2, 2004
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i love tos ,the fucking drumwork is just superawesome.Those guys really deserve to get more credit for what they do
Hunter of the Cross
New Metal Member
- Mar 9, 2005
- 3
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I'm partial to Holy Land, but Temple Of Shadows is a great album, probably #2 on my list.
I've liked every Angra album, but Rebirth would probably be my least favorite because it's the simplest.
I've liked every Angra album, but Rebirth would probably be my least favorite because it's the simplest.
Temple of Shadows may be my favorite as well...rarely has a day gone by the last few months that I haven't listened to it. But I guess I need to get it out of my system first before deciding if I really like it better than Holy Land. Nice thread title though, as The Shadow Hunter is one of my favorite tracks!
SyXified
Member
ToS is alright, I don't think it is anywhere close to as good as Rebirth or Angels Cry. Also the production on ToS is horrid, particularly the guitar tone, what the hell happened! To me, Angra is supposed to be that happier, bright sound like Carry On and not so much the darker sound featured on ToS.
edgeofthorns
24 Hours Ago...
Ruthven said:
Ruthven, I'm going to try to attempt to answer your question. You're right, the lyrics creeped me out a bit, before I understood what they've written about. I believe what they've done is taken an excerpt from history and written their own story with their own characters. In other words, they've taken actual historical events, and created a story about the Shadow Hunter. If they're trying to express their own beliefs, I don't know. That's a question you could ask Edu at the pre-party!
I believe there is some sort of pope that's in the story that you can actually look him up on the internet and get information on him. In addition, IMO, Angra is trying to say that that particular time in history is alot like our time now. For example, religious zealots killing one another, while saying they're doing it for God. It's kinda like the Dream Theater song, Killing In the Name of God, which is a fantastic song by the way! I hope that I've helped you!Fireworks is the mediocre one, don't get that unless you want everything Angra. Not that it sucks, it's just not up to Angra standards.
Sautherom
With Floor Jansen :)
Temple of shadows its a great album, but in my opinion "Rebirth" is better... is a real masterpiece
edgeofthorns said:
Thanks for addressing that, I was hoping that more people would offer their take on the lyrical content because of its unusual nature. I'm a "discerning Christian," to borrow a phrase from Hansi Kursch, but I listen to a lot of music made by non-Christian folks (and in the case of the pagan folk-metal bands, I generally understand their attitude). So potentially Christian-baiting lyrics are not unusual to me, but it was odd to hear controversial religious topics on a progressive/power metal, i.e. "non-growly" band album. I also enjoy albums that make you think, as ToS does.
FWIW, I did read on Angra's website that most of the band identifies as Catholic, and Mr. Discernment himself guests on the album. Not that it ultimately matters, because Angra rocks!
