AVANTASIA — The Metal Opera Pt. II (review)

AVANTASIA — The Metal Opera Pt. II album cover

Album · 2002 · Power Metal

3.5/5 · 2023-10-23
lukretion

Hot on the heels of the success of Avantasia’s 2001 debut record, Tobias Sammet released the second instalment of his metal opera already one year later, relying on same cast of musicians and vocalists who had lent him their talents for Part 1. The overall approach has not changed much either relative to the first part: The Metal Opera Part 2 has the same ambition to unite the spirit of rock operas and Broadway musicals with that of heavy metal.

Sammet seems to have a clear idea of how to achieve this. His basic formula contains three key ingredients: 1) liberal inspiration from the heavy metal subgenres he admires the most (NWOBHM, classic heavy metal, European power metal), 2) a touch of theatrical flair by virtue of tasteful piano and keyboards arrangements, and 3) most importantly, a large cast of singers to interpret the songs, with each singer assigned to a different character as in a musical. The approach feels slightly primitive and visceral, and it lacks the sophistication and breadth of an Arjen Lucassen’s rock/metal opera, but it does work and it has certainly delivered a bunch of great songs across this and the previous record.

Sammet’s metal opera sounds most convincing when one can most clearly perceive a difference in songwriting between the songs written for Avantasia and those Sammet writes for his regular band, German speed/power metal veterans Edguy. On Part 1, this happened only sporadically, whereas here Sammet seems to have made a more conscious effort to avoid relying too much on standard speed/power metal aesthetics. This is what makes The Metal Opera Part 2 a more successful and satisfying album compared to its predecessor, in my opinion. The songwriting is more varied, spanning a wider array of styles in metal and rock, with nods to the great bands of the past (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Rainbow, Dio) as well as the contemporaneous German speed/power metal scene. This variety injects a sense of development and purpose to the album, which flows like a story should.

Two mellow, vaguely AOR songs like “The Looking Glass” and “In Quest For”, majestically interpreted by Bob Catley, may feel out of place on a metal album, but they are perfect in the context of a metal/rock opera, as they provide a suitable change of pace, mood and delivery compared to the faster and heavier material found in the rest of the album, thus adding another dimension to the music. The contrast with the following track “The Final Sacrifice”, which is one of the heaviest pieces here, fuelled by David DeFeis’s mighty roar, is wonderful and it is exactly what one needs to develop an overarching, dynamic narrative that can transcend individual songs and be more than the sum of its parts. The album’s opener “The Seven Angels” is another example of the considerable progress Sammet made in his songwriting in the span of a few months. Even though one could describe it as essentially two songs stitched together by a semi-ambient mid-section, the flow feels natural and works well, with good dynamics that allow the listener to engage with the music for the whole 14 minutes of the song’s duration.

Unfortunately, after an explosive and near-perfect first-half, the album inexplicably peters out in the second half, with a sequence of songs that are much more homogeneous in style and feel less inspired overall. Here the speed/power metal aesthetics seem to prevail, which may be a hint of auto-pilot songwriting on the part of Sammet. The fact these songs rely on a cast of singers who sound quite similar to one another (Rob Rock, Kai Hansen, Sammet himself) is another reason why I feel slightly underwhelmed every time I pass track #5 and go through the album’s final five songs. It is only with the closing song “Into the Unknown” that things get interesting again, mostly thanks to the beautiful vocal contribution by Sharon den Adel, who as in Part 1 feels again criminally underutilized by Sammet.

Overall, if Sammet’s ultimate goal was to forge a new genre of music (“the metal opera”), it’s fair to say that Avantasia only partially succeeded in doing so in their first two records. The speed/power metal dimension ultimately dominates proceedings here as in 2001’s Part 1 and the “opera” elements mostly come in the form of multiple singers interpreting the songs. However, The Metal Opera Part 2 comes a step closer to hitting the mark compared to Part 1, by virtue of a first-half which gives us glimpses of how one can accomplish a natural and successful hybridization between the worlds of metal and Broadway. I suspect this is ultimately why this album receives consistently less praise than its precursor in metal circles, as it is a step removed from metal orthodoxy and a step closer to realizing Sammet’s true vision for Avantasia.