HUNTERS AND PREY

This EP is an improvement from the Rebirth album. The title track and "Eyes of Christ" are strong, there is also a nice acoustic version of "Heroes of Sand". The throwback of this release is the poor rendition of "Mama" (a Genesis cover). The best track is without doubt Caça e Caçador ("Hunters and Prey" in Portuguese), this is not the same title track with vocals in Portuguese at all... This is a different composition and features IMHO the best songwriting since the Holy Land album. This track alone is worth the whole EP and gives an idea of the (good) direction the band is taking.

Not a bad EP as it gives a person an idea of their sound. They do a cover of GENESIS "Mama" which is pretty good, but it's their own material that's worth checking out. They have a very good vocalist, almost sounding like Bruce Dickinson on "Eyes Of Christ". I really like the quiet parts on "Hunters And Prey" as well. It's the last track sung in Portuguese that steals the show though. So this is a pretty good little EP to get a taste of the band is about. A low 3 stars and i'd suggest you check out some of their studio albums.

What do you expect from an EP of the band that you know quite well before? An introduction of some songs for their next album? Leftovers of previous recording sessions? Or another version of full fledged album? The latter was the case and primary reason for me to buy this CD couple of months ago. Not only that actually, because I also wanted to know how Angra plays the music of Genesis even though the track covered is not something that I like - but that's okay for me. Having satisfied with "Rebirth" album which also served as my first falling in love with Angra, I wanted to hear another version of the album title track which is featured in this EP. Lumped together all of the factors led me to a decision to purchase this CD from Amazon.

Why liking this mini album?

Angra music has been special and unique for my taste. At first, I catalogued Angra under the power metal band in the vein of Helloween, Stratovarious, Artension, Kamelot, etc. But later I found a bit of prog elements of their music so I then catalogued them under progressive metal sub-genre with 80% metal component and leaving only 20% for prog component. It's not truly prog, I would say. (Remember, I come from old days prog scene with bands like Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd - so I do not consider Angra music is somewhat closer to the legendary prog bands). But that's okay, I don't want to bring (or even drag) you into academic scene, because at the end it boils down into basic principle: music is emotion. When I purchased "Rebirth" album, it was in the format of cassette because I did not want to invest into CD for bands that I never heard before. There was a bonus track "Bleeding Heart" included in the cassette. This track is too mellow and poppy to my ears and it did not attract me at all. Unfortunately this track is covered in this EP. Too bad.

The "soul" is there. Oh yes, this is the first reason why I like this album. Look at the opening track "Live and Learn" . the first thing I read the title way before I listened to the track, I had a strong preconception in my mind on how positive the messages that the band wanted to put across. That's probably too personal to me because "learning" is my passion in life. I believe if I stop learning, it means that I'm dead. I will learn whenever I'm alive. Not only that, the music of this track has a powerful soul that characterized typical music of Angra. The energy is presented well in this track. As my colleague calls it, this track has an excellent "groove". It's actually not the only case as this track has stunning power metal rhythm with double pedal bass drums and speed. "Hunters and Prey" shares similar nuance with "Live and Learn"

Good acoustic version. Typically, I do not favor acoustic music. But I like the acoustic music after I get acquainted with the original version. In this case, I can feel that "Rebirth" acoustic version is really good, especially with the insertion of string sounds through keyboard. "Heroes and of Sand" is also good being interpreted in acoustic version.

Why NOT liking this mini album?.

Ignorance is probably one of the reasons why people do not favor this album. This might be the case that Angra is something related with prog music at all - most people categorize the band under metal flag. The other reason is probably that there is nothing really unique offered by Angra - many other bands have similar style with Angra. This can be understood for non die hard fans of the band. Die hard fans would say that Angra is a unique band. In my case, I was quite surprised knowing that the band did nothing to re-arrange Genesis tune "Mama" according to their own interpretation. It sounds to me that "Mama" is performed like what Genesis did, nothing is different.

Overall, I consider this mini album is really a good one that any Angra fan should have the CD in their collection. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

After the rather excellent Rebirth album, Angra released this mixture of new tracks, acoustic takes on two Rebirth tracks, and rather unnecessarily a cover of Genesis' Mama. Hardly essential listening, though it would be a shame to miss "Eyes of Christ", plus the title track "Hunters & Prey" along with its Portuguese language version. I'm not a great fan of acoustic retakes, nor cover versions, so half this album is superfluous. But worth tracking down if you are particularly taken by Angra.

As a pointer, Angra are Brazilian prog metal, with elements of speed/thrash metal (though not too much as I dislike those genres), with some nice Latin American textures thrown into their sound. Excellent guitar work abounds, and for me vocalist Edu Falaschi was an upgrade on predecessor Andre Matos' rather nasal vocals. Holy Land is well regarded by prog fans (with Matos) but my recommendation would be to start with Rebirth, or Temple of Shadows.