FIREWORKS

"Fireworks" is ANGRA's attempt for doing metal album with a strong sense of hard rock music. Fans of classic rock music like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin or Uriah Heep would find it familiar with the style of music Angra plays in "Fireworks". For me personally despite I like hard rock music, it's the voice quality of Andre Matos that really sounds unique for me. I can hear clearly through the opening track "Wings Of Reality" (5:55) where his charisma overlays the whole song in a whole. The song has an excellent composition especially with the insertion of orchestration throughout the passage of the song.

Through the second track "Petrified Eyes" (6:05), the band performs bluesy ambient at the opening with guitar solo followed with power metal music with powerful voice of Matos. "Lisbon" (5:13) cools down the music with a flavor of classical overture at the intro through keyboard sound. The keyboard sound carries forward as main rhythm until vocal enters and the song turns into a ballad style. As the name implies "Metal Icarus" (6:24) brings metal elements thicker in this track with attractive guitar loops followed with heavy guitar solo and fast tempo music as indicated by the double bass pedal drumming.

The relatively long track "Paradise"(7:38) kicks off with distorted guitar solo at the opening followed with hard rock style music. The intro reminds me back to the opening of Roger Daltrey's "Under a Raging Moon" even though it's totally different. The music is almost hard rock style with medium tempo. While the next track "Mystery Machine" (4:12) brings metal back into the music as it is characterized through the guitar riffs produced throughout this track.

The album title track "Fireworks" (6:21) is again another hard rock music with medium tempo. "Extreme Dream" (4:17) is a power metal music with heavy guitar riffs and dynamic drumming. Again, I like how Matos sings in this track. "Gentle Change" (5:26) is probably the only track that has different style than the other as it has a bit of Brazilian style through the percussion work. "Speed" (5:57) concludes the track in power metal vein with fast tempo and rough guitar riffs.

Overall, this album has a good composition, neat songwriting and good performance. Keep on proggin' ..!

DragonForce "Inhuman Rampage World Tour" Live in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 19, 2007.