Holy Land celebrates its 30th anniversary

“Holy Land Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary.” That title came to mind right away. Those spoken words had what Austin called a performative effect. The very act of saying them created something. Something other than nostalgia or a memory. In the literal sense of the word: an anniversary. Another year spent together and the joy of celebrating the other, of reaffirming the attention we give them, whatever name we give it. Celebrating the other for what they’ve become, what they are now, without forgetting what they once were. Holy Land celebrates its 30th anniversary. Thirty years that this work has resonated within us. Not simply the memory we have of hearing it for the first time, and the hundreds of times that followed, but rather the resonance it finds within us today, as we too have changed, just like the world that welcomed it in 1996. And that is what this is all about: feeling, through this album, the invisible yet unbreakable bond that has united us all this time. To gently guide, like Ariadne’s thread, the new generations, inviting them to embark on this fabulous journey with us, here and now. Perhaps another voice will do the same in another thirty years, so that Holy Land may never cease to be alive.

Holy Land is a seminal work for Angra, as this second album firmly established them at the pinnacle of 1990s melodic metal. After a demo that was original to say the least (the speed metal cover of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” certainly contributed to that), followed by the magnificent Angels’ Cry, where the band showcased not only their technical and melodic talent but also their unique personality, blending classical and metal influences, the bar was set high. Yet Holy Land does more than simply confirm and solidify the band’s reputation. With a stable lineup, the band was able to devote itself to crafting a major work, transcending genre boundaries and drawing deeply from its Brazilian roots to deliver one of the most beautiful albums we’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing.

The very concept of “Sacred Land” refers to the Portuguese conquest of Brazil, but viewed alternately through the lens of the colonized peoples and through that of the myth of the “noble savage” peddled by the architects of humanity’s greatest massacre. The situation is not straightforward, since the members of Angra are necessarily the descendants of the intermingling of these two peoples. It is therefore to this complex identity, in which the culture, arts, values, and very worldview of Indigenous peoples still thrive, that Holy Land refers.

The energy of metal infuses the album with the fervor of those dark times, while classical and traditional music meet and clash in a sonic explosion that borders on the sublime on the unforgettable “Carolina IV,” an epic, visceral showpiece lasting over ten minutes, which led us, going against the grain of many readers, to use the term “progressive” to describe its spirit and substance, even though the track was a “power metal” piece (let’s remember that when we first listened to Holy Land, no one was using that journalistic term. We listened to metal, at best, heavy metal, and for us, there was no doubt about the progressive nature of such a work). A few years later, Jérôme Alberola, in his excellent Voyage en ailleurs - Anthologie du rock progressif (Camion blanc), would aptly highlight this difficulty in defining the genre. But let’s not reopen this endless and pointless debate.

From its opening track to the folk lullaby that closes it (“Lullaby for Lucifer”), Holy Land remains a cornerstone of the genre to this day thanks to compositions of the highest quality, in part due to the late André Matos, a trained conductor whose voice brought the band to prominence and who will forever be intimately linked to Holy Land through the purity (“Silence and Distance”), its power (“Z.I.T.O.”), and its sensitivity (“Make Believe”), as well as to the cohesion of the rhythm section (drums/bass/guitar), which grabs you from the very first notes and never lets go. The band members would later say that at that moment, everything seemed possible to them. They were driven by unwavering unity and creativity. This album radiates that friendship and the joy of composition in every second.

Holy Land is thirty years old. And we’re thirty-two years older than we were on that day, when, full of pride, we sat in the small room at the FNAC in the Centre Bourse in Marseille (France), watching André and Kiko come to give us an acoustic performance of Angra, a band that had just “arrived from Brazil”, a group we actually already knew very well and that would soon deliver to the world that sacred album, Holy Land, a gem that had never been released on vinyl, a gap now filled by the collector’s edition offered by the band in collaboration with Rock Hard magazine to honor the French audience, one of the first to have supported Angra (the CNR adventure!) and whose love has never wavered since, a blue Brazilian edition, as well as the official edition released a few days later for the rest of the world. This anniversary is the perfect opportunity to put this album, whether on CD or vinyl, back on the turntable; it will remain an undisputed classic in any record collection.

For if there is one gem that embodies the values of otherness that are so sorely lacking in our dark times, it is this one. And it is as a standard-bearer for these very values that we invite younger generations to embrace it, not merely as a power metal album, which it certainly is, but as the messenger of a different worldview, based on listening, understanding others, sharing, connection, and exchange. Quite a concept, you might say, at a time when obscurantism of all kinds is running rampant. May this album continue to resonate within you for a long time to come. Thank you, André.