Angra
Copenhell - 2023
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
After being truly uplifted by Jakob Stegelmann & Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, we headed in high spirits towards Helvíti, where Angra was about to start.
To be perfectly honest, Angra is a band I’ve known of for a very long time, but not one I’ve listened to all that much. Not for any particular reason, they’ve just not hooked me up to this point. Maybe it was time to change all that?
First of all, and this doesn’t reflect the band, but more on Copenhell’s planning, why was Jakob Stegelmann placed on the second stage and Angra given the main stage? The place was absolutely jam-packed for the former, and for Angra, well, there were definitely people there, but not all that many, to be honest, and it was certainly no problem walking right into the first or second row, if you wanted to do that.
As said though, that had nothing to do with the band as such, but it wasn’t because of stage dressing that they needed they bigger stage, that’s for sure. One semi-large backdrop, that was all. I don’t know why, but I think I was expecting something a little more impressive than that.
Still, there was the performance and the music to focus on. Not knowing the band all that well beforehand, I was surprised to recognise Fabio Lione (ex-Rhapsody Of Fire) handling the vocals, but pleasantly so, since he’s a good vocalist for this kind of thing, and usually a good performer as well. It wasn’t him I was initially impressed by however, but rather bassist Felipe Andreoli, who was whirling up a storm with his instrument straight from the start.
All of the musicians were highly competent, as I had expected, and I was mostly grabbed by Andreoli and guitarist Marcelo Barbosa who looked really cool as well as played well.
Sadly, however, Angra never really managed to grab me. The performance wasn’t all that engaging, and while Lione tried hard to work his magic and get the audience to play along, apart from a few highly enthusiastic fans in the front, most people seemed to feel like me.
Lione’s vocal exercises with the crowd between songs were quite popular though, I’ll give him that.
Overall though, I don’t feel worse about Angra than I did before the show, but they didn’t convince me to look further into them either for the future.
Setlist (incomplete):
Newborn Me
Nothing To Say
Angels Cry
Travelers Of Time
Waiting Silence
Carry On
Nova Era
To be perfectly honest, Angra is a band I’ve known of for a very long time, but not one I’ve listened to all that much. Not for any particular reason, they’ve just not hooked me up to this point. Maybe it was time to change all that?
First of all, and this doesn’t reflect the band, but more on Copenhell’s planning, why was Jakob Stegelmann placed on the second stage and Angra given the main stage? The place was absolutely jam-packed for the former, and for Angra, well, there were definitely people there, but not all that many, to be honest, and it was certainly no problem walking right into the first or second row, if you wanted to do that.
As said though, that had nothing to do with the band as such, but it wasn’t because of stage dressing that they needed they bigger stage, that’s for sure. One semi-large backdrop, that was all. I don’t know why, but I think I was expecting something a little more impressive than that.
Still, there was the performance and the music to focus on. Not knowing the band all that well beforehand, I was surprised to recognise Fabio Lione (ex-Rhapsody Of Fire) handling the vocals, but pleasantly so, since he’s a good vocalist for this kind of thing, and usually a good performer as well. It wasn’t him I was initially impressed by however, but rather bassist Felipe Andreoli, who was whirling up a storm with his instrument straight from the start.
All of the musicians were highly competent, as I had expected, and I was mostly grabbed by Andreoli and guitarist Marcelo Barbosa who looked really cool as well as played well.
Sadly, however, Angra never really managed to grab me. The performance wasn’t all that engaging, and while Lione tried hard to work his magic and get the audience to play along, apart from a few highly enthusiastic fans in the front, most people seemed to feel like me.
Lione’s vocal exercises with the crowd between songs were quite popular though, I’ll give him that.
Overall though, I don’t feel worse about Angra than I did before the show, but they didn’t convince me to look further into them either for the future.
Setlist (incomplete):
Newborn Me
Nothing To Say
Angels Cry
Travelers Of Time
Waiting Silence
Carry On
Nova Era
