Band: Avantasia
Genre: Power Metal
Discography: "Avantasia" (EP, 2000), "The Metal Opera" (2001), "The Metal Opera Part II" (2002), "Lost In Space Part I" (EP, 2007), "Lost In Space Part II" (EP, 2007), "The Scarecrow" (2008)
Power metal is very often the portal to the metal world for newbies in listening to this field of music. Why?...well, power metal is easy to digest, melodic, vocal based and generic. It is also true that after one learns to listen to music, to pay attention to the instruments, power metal becomes really boring and uninteresting. Luckily there are exceptions to the rule, today i´ll recommend you one of those exceptions: Avantasia.
Avantasia is the brainchild of Edguy´s vocalist Tobias Sammet, who surrounds himself with good guest musicians to accomplish the creation of a clear example of the german school of power metal. He´s obviously the star of the show with his good voice but he leaves enough room for the other musians to show up as well, which is a very positive characteristic.
Avantasia´s music is not original, they play the same music hundreds of other bands play as well, but the difference is Avantasia makes it better. Catchy riffing, good guitar soloing, prominent varied drums (which sadly is an exception and not the rule in power metal), clear high pitched vocals and a lot of orchestrated arrangements are the elements in display. There is the awful mandatory ballad here and there, but in the most of parts the albums are enjoyable.
So there you go, a good point of start for the newbies in the metal world and not that big of a disappointment for the more demanding metalhead...i hope you enjoy it....
Song: "Farewell" from "The Metal Opera"
