Angra Discuss New Album

The album will be available in four formats: a limited edition digipak that includes a bonus CD featuring acareer spanning overview of the Edu Falaschi era, a standard jewel case edition, a double LP edition that includes 3 bonus tracks, and it will be available as a digital download.

ANGRA guitarist Rafael Bittencourt recently spoke at length about the concept and recording of "AQUA": "Here we are again. Doing what we love the most, which is to bring our music to the world. That amazing feeling of having our ideas spread among the fans like seeds that will be growing, as people get more involved with the album. Finally, after four years of no work released, we are bringing what in our opinion is one of our best pieces ever composed. "AQUA".

There is a very interesting guideline to the play. After reading the text a few times we've discovered that the element water is the main character of the story. It changes in cycles, transforming itself; transforming things around it, representing the wrath in the surges, then the forgiveness in the calm. Everything happens after a huge storm that took place on an island shore. While the wild waters are coming from above and below, a ship and its crew are fighting to avoid a shipwreck.

Maybe by coincidence, this year we had strong storms that caused floods, landslides and other problems to many Brazilian cities. We could see that the same thing was happening in different countries almost at the same time injuring and killing people. It seems that the waters are representing a time of change. The upcoming of the Age of Aquarius, the apocalypse, the prophecies about 2012 and other matters were flying around our conversations.

We wanted a title that would describe in a very concise way, that concept. "AQUA" is the Latin word for water and summarizes the whole idea behind the Shakespearean play and our feelings at this remarkable moment.

The Tempest is also a very mysterious and unique work from Shakespeare. It was the very last play that he had written and it is full of personal statements. Every time you read you discover some new aspect of the construction or some hidden curiosity within the lines.

The story is about a king named Prospero and his Daughter Miranda. They were left exiled on an island that was supposed to be a wasteland. The Island was not so deserted and they've built a life together with the magic creatures of that very enchanted place. Prospero plans revenge against his betraying opponents and raises, by means of magic, a huge storm upon the ship that carries them. He finally forgives the evil acts of his enemies when he realizes that those acts haven't harmed him like they were intended to.

So, the water is representing the coming of Prospero's maturity and all the transformations and cycles that led him to that point. We were also going through a lot of renovation processes and we wanted to express the idea of being renewed. Letting go of bad feelings and thoughts is a common theme between this Shakespeare's text and "AQUA". The Tempest helped us to describe more clearly our emotions at this moment.

Although this album sounds very different then our previous album "Aurora Consurgens", there are not many musical differences between "AQUA" and our last three albums. We tried to keep the idea of combining metal with progressive, classic, Brazilian, ethnic, pop and many other styles. The big difference is that this time we were really hit by inspiration. So we wrote almost thirty good songs, and we ended up picking the best ten out of the big list. All the atmosphere of companionship and teamwork was captured in the tracks. We really helped each other on every detail and that's what made the songs so powerful and special.

Another important difference is that the drummer Ricardo Confessori is back in the band. This was only possible because, after the recording sessions of the Bittencourt Project's Brainworms where he performed on a couple of tracks. Since then, we have regained our trust and friendship. We had a few rehearsals with ANGRA where he jammed around songs from the old and new era of the band. Also, we presented some new ideas for him to arrange and he showed that he had kept his creativity and graceful musicianship. We had good laughs remembering things we've done together in the past and how the Brazilian-mixed kind grooves were a very significant quality of our pre-Rebirth Era.