Denying their original intended musical background Angel went from their first progressive rockalbum, aptly titled "Angel", with the epic "Tower", the even majestic "Long Time", the amazing "Mariner" and a couple of good rocking songs, laden with the keyboardpyrotechnics courtesy of Greg Giuffria (who repeated that on the post Angel bands Giuffria and House of Lord albums) to bubblegum lovesongs on the following albums "Helluva Band", "On Earth as it is On Heaven", "White Hot" and "Sinful" (a.k.a. "Bad Reputation").  Gone is the ELP, Yes, Gentle Giant and Kansas approach (although the band stayed at times closer to Styx), which has made place for a poppier and even slicker sound. The central theme in the lyrics was 'love' which is scarce on the songs of the mentioned bands. Exactly why they went thay way stays an enigma, because they had the potency to play underground, progressive or symphonic rock (also known as popmprock) with an excellent keyboardist and a great guitarplayer by the name of Punky Meadows. They had a remarkable logo, first the angelic statue, later on the clever upside down readable bandname, an outrageous show, with the members clad in white silk and all kind of stageantics (remember the KISS connection?) so they didn't present themselves as any of those boybands (yuck!). But on the musical side everything went wrong. Instead of a more heavier rocksound, which sometimes turned up again here and there, their main material was far more lowkey. Maybe not as bad as seen on paper but nevertheless not anything you might expect after hearing the first album. They had a penchant for nice melodies but that's eactly the point, it was too nice, too smooth. Listen to this collection of 20 songs an you see what I mean. There is not a true bad song but it is simple too much alike. If you compare them to their contemporaries, with extended songs, varieying themes, abstract lyrics, all kind of instrumental experiments, Angel stays far behind. While they had everything to grow to a worlddominating band in the second halve of the seventies. As often thought it was the deadknell for those already legendaric bands, called dinosaurs, because of the raging disco and punk, but they survived where Angel went down under. People simple couldn't place them properly, the stageshow and first album were at sharp contrast with latterday albumofferings. They released a string of singles (now on 2 CD's), almost every song from one the albums saw the daylight on its own but that was not much help. It accented their new attitude where at night they had a different approach. They even performed the obligate Christmasballad, (on the album "White Hot") called "Winter Song" but with a slight different arrangement on single (again!) more aptly titled "Christmas Song" (a year after ELP singer Greg Lake with his "I Believe in Father Christmas" on "Works vol. 2" and a separate single). The similarities are awing, not so much in the music but overall. A pleasant song in its own right it showcased Angels songwriting and performing abilities but it was a long way from the far more heavy rocksound developed on the first album. So if that was the one you bought and listened to first, as will be in most cases when a new band is operating, you will not recognise easly that it is the same band a couple of albums later, musically spoken. Angel had the power to produce some excellent albums in the same vein, with all kind of keyboards and guitars, but opted for an other sound and shorter songs with itself repeating lyrics. Not what you expected after the first truely progressive album.
Denying their original intended musical background Angel went from their first progressive rockalbum, aptly titled "Angel", with the epic "Tower", the even majestic "Long Time", the amazing "Mariner" and a couple of good rocking songs, laden with the keyboardpyrotechnics courtesy of Greg Giuffria (who repeated that on the post Angel bands Giuffria and House of Lord albums) to bubblegum lovesongs on the following albums "Helluva Band", "On Earth as it is On Heaven", "White Hot" and "Sinful" (a. k.a. "Bad Reputation"). Gone is the ELP, Yes, Gentle Giant and Kansas approach (although the band stayed at times closer to Styx), which has made place for a poppier and even slicker sound. The central theme in the lyrics was 'love' which is scarce on the songs of the mentioned bands. Exactly why they went thay way stays an enigma, because they had the potency to play underground, progressive or symphonic rock (also known as popmprock) with an excellent keyboardist and a great guitarplayer by the name of Punky Meadows. They had a remarkable logo, first the angelic statue, later on the clever upside down readable bandname, an outrageous show, with the members clad in white silk and all kind of stageantics (remember the KISS connection? ) so they didn't present themselves as any of those boybands (yuck! ). But on the musical side everything went wrong. Instead of a more heavier rocksound, which sometimes turned up again here and there, their main material was far more lowkey. Maybe not as bad as seen on paper but nevertheless not anything you might expect after hearing the first album. They had a penchant for nice melodies but that's eactly the point, it was too nice, too smooth. Listen to this collection of 20 songs an you see what I mean. There is not a true bad song but it is simple too much alike. If you compare them to their contemporaries, with extended songs, varieying themes, abstract lyrics, all kind of instrumental experiments, Angel stays far behind. While they had everything to grow to a worlddominating band in the second halve of the seventies. As often thought it was the deadknell for those already legendaric bands, called dinosaurs, because of the raging disco and punk, but they survived where Angel went down under. People simple couldn't place them properly, the stageshow and first album were at sharp contrast with latterday albumofferings. They released a string of singles (now on 2 CD's), almost every song from one the albums saw the daylight on its own but that was not much help. It accented their new attitude where at night they had a different approach. They even performed the obligate Christmasballad, (on the album "White Hot") called "Winter Song" but with a slight different arrangement on single (again! ) more aptly titled "Christmas Song" (a year after ELP singer Greg Lake with his "I Believe in Father Christmas" on "Works vol. 2" and a separate single). The similarities are awing, not so much in the music but overall. A pleasant song in its own right it showcased Angels songwriting and performing abilities but it was a long way from the far more heavy rocksound developed on the first album. So if that was the one you bought and listened to first, as will be in most cases when a new band is operating, you will not recognise easly that it is the same band a couple of albums later, musically spoken. Angel had the power to produce some excellent albums in the same vein, with all kind of keyboards and guitars, but opted for an other sound and shorter songs with itself repeating lyrics. Not what you expected after the first truely progressive album.