Aqua

Angra, seemingly a band that could do no wrong, released a number of great albums one after the other. Their last album was not as good as 2004's Temple of Shadows, but it was still a very good album. Then we got this, Aqua.

Aqua's is much better than 2006's Aurora Consurgens and maybe on par with Temple of Shadows in terms of songwriting, but the production is very bad, which is the major flaw of this album. The production while not loud, is rather dead. The instruments are mixed quite well and there is good dynamic range present. But it's still quite dead. I'm listening from the CD too, so don't criticize me for using illegally downloaded mp3's.

The music doesn't punch you in the face as other bands do, even bands with shitty production jobs get you headbanging, this doesn't. The production is reminiscent of Metallica's And Justice For All. Do you understand what I'm getting at, great music is at the surface but they don't really engage you.

As for the songwriting, very good as was mentioned earlier, faster tracks are my preference, but I enjoy the slower tracks such as "Lease of Life". There's much variety on this album. Duh, it's progressive/power metal. The guitarists are great with tons of melodic chops, rifs, classicial picking (on the slower songs). The guitars are probably the highlight of the album, there's always some sort of ever-changing guitar work present almost every second.

The bass is given quite a bit of authority on the recording, but I can't enjoy it due to the shameless production job. It's actually quite well done, even if it's mostly rhythm bass, it follows the rhythm guitar, and brings body to the music. Most of the time it's actually difficult to pinpoint the bass again due to the production job.

Drums are quite good. Fast paced and energetic, the drummer has done an excellent job in the rhythm of the music, can't really complain, and something different can be heard here on "Weakness of a Man". I have no idea what he's hitting, but it sounds good and is not something found on your regular power metal band. Maybe it's something Brazilian.

Lastly vocals, just how I like em, no more high as fuck and cheesy falsettos (this ain't 90's Angra). A rather consistent melodic style of singing can be found here that isn't too high or low akin to the last albums. Don't get me wrong, there's quite a good vocal range present, but not overly extreme.

In conclusion, 2010's Aqua maybe Angra's defining album but it lacks a proper production job, it's dull. It's not clean sounding a la Wintersun or overly loud a la Death Magnetic. It's a dead and lifeless production job that accomplishes nothing.