AVANTASIA — The Metal Opera (review)

AVANTASIA — The Metal Opera album cover Album · 2001 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
Now here’s a power metal wet dream come about in the thralls of tangible reality. A METAL OPERA is the debut album by the German act AVANTASIA led by Tobias Sammet (of Edguy) about a young novice of the Dominican order known as Gabriel Laymann in the year 1602, who begins suspecting that the Roman Catholic Church is up to no good falsely accusing woman of being witches after his stepsister Anna is accused of such. The plot is actually quite comprehensive embodying two albums worth of material but on this debut album by Tobias Sammet and a little help from his friends from Helloween, Gamma Ray, Statovarius and Rhapsody Of Fire he conjures up a far reaching musical vision that he could surely not accomplish by his lonesome.

While power metal bands for me are a little hit and miss, this one falls squarely into the hit category. While wine and cheese can go together like bread and butter, the mismatching of refined tastes can result in utmost dissatisfaction. Power metal has the propensity of unleashing these universal imbalances in great proportions with musicians mixing and matching sounds while not paying enough detail to the consequences of these musical engineerings. On A METAL OPERA all seems to flip and fall with a satisfaction flag ultimately flapping its approval in the winds of musical excess.

First of all, i don’t find anything on this release TOO cheesy. Power metal is notorious for its cheese without the proper accompanying wine and crackers but this album eschews many of those pitfalls. I really love all the vocalists on board here ranging from Tobias Sammet to the large cast of vocal characters including Kai Hansen (Helloween, Gamma Ray), Michael Kiske (Helloween), David DeFeis (Virgin Steele), Timo Tolkki (Statovarious) and MORE! There are also a plethora of guitarists, keyboardists and well…. ideas. This is really a well thought out affair that contemplates all the pieces of the puzzle and brings them to fruition, not just your run of the mill act that thinks of a theme and doesn’t follow through on the goods.
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666sharon666 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
The best Avantasia for me. The second half just doesn't compare.

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