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.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
666sharon666 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
The best Avantasia for me. The second half just doesn't compare.

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Tarantula Heart Sludge Metal
MELVINS
Buy this album from MMA partners
God Damned You To Hell Traditional Doom Metal
FRIENDS OF HELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Absence Melodic Death Metal
THE ABSENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Unextinct Technical Death Metal
HIDEOUS DIVINITY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Powerlords Power Metal
ELETTRA STORM
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Fallen Ashes - Wage War (Official Lyric Video)
FALLEN ASHES
Bosh66· 7 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Unreality (Single) 2024
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 7 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Cold Hands
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 7 days ago
IRON MONKEY - Misanthropizer (Official Music Video)
IRON MONKEY
Bosh66· 9 days ago
??? (Losing ART) - "????" (Official Music Video) [HD]
漂浮者樂團
Bosh66· 10 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed