i had a trippy parallel in my exploration of spock's beard and angra last year, my two most listened to bands for the year (orbs was a close 3rd despite only one album to their credit, AND despite it only coming out later on in the year).
i mentioned months back in the spock's thread how i was a pretty big fan circa 1999-2001. but i only ever checked out one song on the first album following neal's departure, wasn't impressed, and was too ignorant and too busy getting into other bands that i never bothered to checking out anything post-neal era until last summer. don't get me wrong, i continued to enjoy neal-era spock's over those 8 years, but i partly assumed they were nowhere near as good without him and didnt check out anything new over them years...then (possible as a result of the success i had in the first half of 2010 with angra) i decide to finally give "nick's beard" a fair chance...next thing you know i'm learning Feel Euphoria, Octane, s/t, and X inside-out over the course of a couple months, and all of a sudden i was kinda like, "neal who?"
well it went pretty much the exact same way earlier last year for me with angra. me and a buddy became big fans of Holy Land and Fireworks circa 1999/2000. and just like spock's, angra found themselves needing a new singer only shortly after i got into them. and just like i didnt give post-neal spock's a fair chance, i only gave Rebirth one chance (i dont even think i listened to the whole album), wasnt impressed, and never revisited it over the years nor any of the album's that came out since, yet all the while continuing to enjoy Holy Land and Fireworks from time to time.
i'm not sure what prompted it, but last year in january i checked out salvation suicide and thought, *wow, that's pretty fucking awesome*...before i knew it, edu-era angra was my new obsession. i acquired it all and spun everything from the past decade so much in about 3 or 4 months that i no longer felt like *look what i've been missing out on all these years* but instead felt like i HAD been spinning them all these years.
so needless to say, i was highly anticipating the release of Aqua. and though i tripped out on it from the first couple spins (yes, the production is a little off, and edu's vox sound different somehow...i read someone suggesting it sounds like edu had a cold during the tracking), i absolutely love the album. it was my second favorite album of the year (a very close second, next to the mentioned Orbs album).
also, for anyone that finds they like felipe/aquiles-era angra, be sure to check out Freakeys. it's to angra what LTE is to dream theater, an instrumental album featuring angra's bassist, drummer, and touring keyboardist. i've heard it slammed on this forum as being nowhere near the quality of, say, LTE...sure, it might not have quite the variety of LTE, and i could even see how someone might call it 'generic prog' or something, but i rather like it. it might not have gotten as many spins last year as Temple, Consurgens, or Aqua, but it was definitely up there. really sick playing, and strong song writing according to pain of occupation.