This album really surprised me. On the previous album “Fireworks” the band was searching towards a new style and didn’t know which direction the band would hit. It ultimately led to the discharge of three members. Guitar players Kiko Loureiro and Rafael Bittencourt searched for new guys and did find them. A very steady rhythm section is recruited by the new drummer Aquiles Priester and bass player Felipe Andreoli. But the biggest surprise is vocalist Edu Falaschi. His voice is not as high as Andre Matos but he has much more power and is sometimes very aggressive, then very emotional and melodic. His influence led to the return of the style of the first two albums and especially “Holy Land”. He even composed three songs in the typical Angra style. Listen to the first track “Nova Era” a very fast track in the old style. The perfect mixture between the German metal and the Brazilian rhythms are back. If you hear songs like the bombastic “Acid Rain”, the melodic “Judgement Day” and “Unholy Wars”. This long piece of music is one of the highlights and has besides a lot of power with great riffs and solo’s, also a very touching mid section with strong vocals supported by heavy violins.

Another highlight is the great title track. This heavy power ballad has some very emotional and heavy parts. The third song that is very strong is the beautifully structured “Heroes Of Sand” with great acoustic guitars. There isn’t a bad track on “Rebirth”, most songs are very beautifully supported by the keyboards of Gunter Werno of VandenPlas. He follows the guitar sound great and never pushes them back. On “Millenium Sun” you hear a great piano and the very varied “Running Alone” feature many keyboards. The album is closed by the melodramatic “Visions Prelude”, which is based on Chopin`s Opus 24 in C minor. Angra is back and delivers a very strong album with a strong, clear and heavy bombastic sound created by producer Dennis Ward (bass player of Pink Cream 69). I hope that “Rebirth” will lead to the big success that Angra always deserved.