Angra

The Brazilian heavy metal band Angra was formed in Sao Paulo in 1991 by college friends Rafael Bittencourt, André Matos and André Linhares. During rehearsals Matos and Bittencourt emerged as the band's main songwriters and almost 30 years after their initial meeting, Bittencourt remains the band's main songwriter. Throughout its history, the band has consistently struggled to maintain a stable lineup and various musicians have come and gone. With personnel issues and management problems, they have suffered two enforced breaks from playing, which on each occasion stalled their career for two years, one in 1999 and the other in 2007. Angra have recorded nine studio albums, including their 1993 studio debut Angels Cry, which sold 900,000 copies and launched the band into the lucrative Japanese heavy metal market, an audience which continues to buy the band's albums in significant numbers. In addition, all of their LPs have been certified gold in Japan, with their fifth studio album Temple of Shadows (2004) being the last one to achieve that feat. Despite numerous setbacks over the years, Angra kept releasing music on an almost consistent basis, delivering well-received albums such as Aurora Consurgens (2006), Aqua (2010), Secret Garden (2014), and ØMNI (2018). In 2023, the group returned with their tenth studio outing Cycles of Pain, their first release for the Atomic Fire label.