Avantasia: the Metal Opera Part 1 [Import]

Avantasia: the Metal Opera Part 1 [Import]

Track Listings

1. Prelude

2. Reach Out For The Light

3. Serpents In Paradise

4. Malleus Maleficarum

5. Breaking Away

6. Farewell

7. Glory Of Rome

8. In Nomine Patris

9. Avantasia

10. New Dimension

11. Inside

12. Sign Of The Cross

13. Tower

14. Avantasia (Edit Version)

15. Final Sacrifice

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Japanese Version Featuirng Two Bonus Tracks: "Avantasia (Edit Version)", and "The Final Sacrifice".

Avantasia: the Metal Opera Part 1,Tobias Sammet (Edguy),Jvc Victor,Heavy Metal

Average customer rating:

A good album

Nice attempt, mediocre result. M.Kiske shines, as always!!

All the famous power metal cliches in just one album.

Not innovative, but a great power metal album: buy it!

Is this guy a genius or what?

Avantasia: The Metal Opera Part 1
Tobias Sammet
Manufacturer: Jvc Victor
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Avantasia Part II: The Metal Opera

ASIN: B00005HT2J
Release Date: 2001-01-24

Tracks:

Prelude
Reach Out For The Light
Serpents In Paradise
Malleus Maleficarum
Breaking Away
Farewell
Glory Of Rome
In Nomine Patris
Avantasia
New Dimension
Inside
Sign Of The Cross
Tower
Avantasia (Edit Version)
Final Sacrifice

Album Details

Japanese Version Featuirng Two Bonus Tracks: "Avantasia (Edit Version)", and "The Final Sacrifice".

Customer Reviews:

A good album.......2004-03-13

After a deep analisis of Avantasia I think this album is based on Heavy Metal lines.

You can hear DIO, EUROPE, HELLOWEEN, IRON MAIDEN, DOKKEN and others in it. Really, study the album and youll be amazed.

The voices are fine, and the best singer is MICHAEL KISKE, obviously.

I think this is not a METAL OPERA, but you hear a lot of interest things

Nice attempt, mediocre result. M.Kiske shines, as always!!.......2004-02-29

If you are expecting a metal OPERA with this cd, forget about it. Don't be put down though; this is an o.k power metal album with some interesing suprises.

Tomas Sammet of Edguy conceived the idea for this project, wrote the songs and invited musicians H.Richter,M.Grosskopf and A.Holzwarth to form the Avantasia band.

Except the wonderful musicians a great surprise is achieved with the appearance of 8 quest vocalists!! All of the vocalists do a nice job, especially Sharon Den Adel(Anna) and Andre Matos(Elderane).
The only disappointment is that most of the lead vocals are done by (the quite talented) T.Sammet leaving little room for the other performers.

But the biggest surprise of all - the return of legendary vocalist `Michael Kiske' (Helloween 86-93)!! The gifted and greatly talented Kiske returns (briefly) to Power Metal, still hitting those high pitched notes that gave you the chills in the Keeper Of The Seven Keys albums. His voice is in great shape and filled with much emotion, that definitely makes him stand out in the album. His performance on `The Tower' will surely amaze you. In the cd-cover he appears as Ernie...

As for the songwriting...satisfying but without offering something `new' to the scene. Moreover the songs follow the Edguy atmosphere with some very few exceptions such as some parts in `Reach Out For The Light' and the `The Tower', which remind of Helloween and Blind Guardian. The highlights of the album are the two songs mentioned above and `Farewell' (who's beginning is terrible). Good bass playing throughout the album by Grosskopf and some good guitar solos and drumming here and there. The only epic and best song(for me)in the album is The Tower, but the atmosphere is mainly maintained by operatic backing vocals, some cool keyboards and M.Kiske's melodic voice (for instance the guitar solo is really simple and doesn't fit...).
If there were more guitars, better backing vocals and the quest vocalists had bigger parts this could be considered a Metal Opera.

This is a good attempt from T.Sammet to bring all these musicians together in order create this power metal album. There are some very good ideas throughout but they are not placed together very wisely. Fine use of vocals especially by Kiske and Sammet, but luck in songwriting, in my opinion. Maybe Sammet should have waited a bit longer to finish this project...But still a power metal album, worth listening (especially if you are a M.Kiske or Edguy fan).

(Part II of this project is not worth listening except maybe for die-hard Edguy fans...)

All the famous power metal cliches in just one album........2003-11-20

This ambitious project by Edguy's talented singer, Tobias Sammet, just backfired, in my opinion. It has absolutely NO inovation, and, still worst than that, it seems to put the together all the available cliches of German power / melodic metal in just one CD. It's almost unbearable at certain parts. Of course all the musicians involved are very skillfull, but that did not save the album. THe term "metal opera" is wasted here. Trust me, it's just another power metal record: double kick drums all along, screaming vocals, hopeful lyrics, harmonic solos. It's pleasant, but, like I said before, just a copy from another copy.

Not innovative, but a great power metal album: buy it!.......2001-11-02

Made with passion and honesty, although too much influenced by the Helloween of the early years, this is a wonderful album for power metal fans. I won't say "masterpiece" because I don't want to be blinded by the love that I have for this kind of music, but I can say that this is a superb artwork that no rocker must miss. Its production is exquisite, and not to mention the playing and singing!

This album is performed by an "all star" team. Henjo Richter (from Gamma Ray) in guitar duties does an exceptional job, even going neoclassical by times, but always imposing the power metal style with those speedy riffs and his characteristic aggressiveness. The bass (Markus Grosskopf, from Helloween) and drums (Alex Holzwarth, from Rhapsody) are also great. And vocals, well... what can be said? Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween, remember? AKA "Ernie" now ;-)) comes back to power metal better than ever; while Tobias Sammet (the leader of this project, from Edguy) is in good shape as always, with his Dickinson-like sound and his higher pitched singing. Perhaps they are the two most "visible" performers in this album, but here you'll also find some other power metal vocalists playing secondary roles, such as Kai Hansen -who is not so brilliant this time, but that decorously does his job.

However, in a less positive vein, I have to say that characters are not easily differentiable because the similarity of the performers' voices. Probably with Hansi Kursh (Blind Guardian) and Mathias Blad (Falconer) in the line-up, things could sound differently for better. In addition, backing vocals and orchestrations, although good enough to please exigent ears, probably are the weakest part of this release. That's why I think that calling this "A Metal Opera" is fairly pretentious, given the not-so-classical sound of the interludes and the lack of "mass" in choirs (Hey, if you're not agree with me in this last assertion, please listen "Nightfall In The Middle Earth" from Blind Guardian or any good release from Queen, and then come back to talk about choirs and "opera" in rock ;-)). Because of that I would say that this is rather a concept album, featured by many seasoned musicians, than an "opera".

Talking now about songwriting, Tobias Sammet has demonstrated that he is able to write smarter lyrics than the average found in the genre. Lyrics are good and far less ridiculous than what you listen over there (Well... I think that Rhapsody is a good example of poor and kitschy poetry, as well as Falconer, aren't they?). Sammet tells us a story that contains all the ingredients needed to catch power metal fans, but without being too much silly. I sincerely admire this, and I think that he's a very capable musician and a great songwriter in spite of his age and his BIG ego. He is also able to write catchy melodies, which needs more talent than what you would need to write complex(ified ;-)) themes.

In few words: this is a great album, a tad pretentious but that succeeds in giving us the sound of power metal as we use to like it. I give to it four stars because it is not innovative at all, but I think that this is anyway one of the bests releases of the year for its fine quality. I strongly recommend this CD. I'll be looking forward to purchasing Part II, and in the meanwhile I'll be listening this. Good work, Mr. Sammet!

Is this guy a genius or what?.......2001-10-05

What can you say about Tobias Sammet? Well, very much! A gifted song writer, one hell of a singer and a genius! Avantasia is his first (I hope not the last) solo album away from his band Edguy. The massive reunion of singers and guitar players are the guests on Avantasia. Like Rhapsody and Freedom Call, this album is a story of some sort (I have not read it yet I`m afraid). I have to be totaly honest with you, I had to listen to it twice to be able to like it as much as I do. Tobias did us a favour by not making Avantasia sound like Edguy, at least that was what I expected. Yeah, sure you can hear the Edguy sound sometimes but Tobias has made a little anti-Edguy. And that is fine with me, as long as he keeps staying.
Now back to Avantasia. I really love this masterpiece Tobias made, it`s so personal in a way. A struggle of belief, betrayal, friendship and a lost family member (sounds like a great Hollywood movie). Timo Tolkki from Stratovarius and Kai Hansen from Gamma Ray along with many more sings. Henjo Richter from Gamma Ray and Jens Ludwig from (yes that`s right) Edguy, plays the guitars. Tobias Sammet, or "Gabriel" in the story, has (as always) a exellent voice. Songs like "Reach out for the light", "Serpents in paradise", "Breaking away", "The glory of Rome", "Avantasia", "Sign of the cross" and "The Tower" just gives me goose bumps! And I think I have never heard a better song by Tobias than Farewell, I LOVE THAT FLUTE!!!

If I could give this CD more stars I would, no CD collection is complete without this album!

Metal Opera: Part 1
Average customer rating:
Metal Opera: Part 1
Avantasia
Manufacturer: Century Media
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000LX5ROK