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Timo Tolkki - Returns With A Symphonic Metal Opera


Frontiers Records has recently announced the release of Timo Tolkki's Avalon new Metal Opera entitled The Land Of New Hope on May 17th in Europe and May 21st in North America. Take a look at the artwork below, which was specially created for this project by Stanis W. Decker and will be released in two versions - regular CD and deluxe edition with a bonus DVD including a 30 minutes documentary "making of the album" and two promotional video clips.

Timo Tolkki has been silently preparing his musical revenge. Following a call in august 2012 from Frontiers Records President Serafino Perugino, Tolkki quickly cancelled all plans and started writing new music following an original concept discussed years ago between the artist and Perugino. The idea was to have a magniloquent metal/rock opera with cinematic orchestrations to bring back the Stratovarius original sound in a more symphonic and grandiose fashion.

"I sort of rediscovered myself musically in the process of making this album", explains Tolkki. "I wrote the story first and started composing the music after that. My aim was to write memorable songs with good melodies that would support the story. In Stratovarius back in early 90's, I was one of those who were there in creating the whole Power Metal genre, so it is natural that people may associate this music style to me. But on this album you will find a lot of different dynamics as well with some songs that are fully orchestrated and sound very very big."

For this unique album, Tolkki gathered some of the most renowned singers around including Michael Kiske (Unisonic), Elize Ryd (Amaranthe), Rob Rock (Impelliteri), Russell Allen (Symphony X), Sharon Den Adel (Within Temptation) and Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica).

Rounding up the line-up of this album are: Alex Holzwarth (Rhapsody Of Fire) on drums and Jens Johansson (Stratovarius), Derek Sherinian (Black Country Communion), Mikko Härkin (Sonata Arctica) on keyboards, with Tolkki taking care of all guitars and bass recordings and production duties.

Tolkki says: "The Land Of New Hope album is one part of the story, the end of it actually. The story is longer and goes back to the time before this album's story, so 2 more Metal Operas are likely to follow to complete a trilogy. In generally, I find the Metal Opera concept fascinating and logical to me at this point of my career. I love classical music and just like in Classical Opera, in the Metal Opera you can also create stories and have almost limitless possibilities musically. It is not so easy to stay fresh after 25 years career, but this album is truly something special."

The first single "Enshrined In My Memory" (sung by Amaranthe's Elize Ryd) will be released digitally worldwide on March 25th. You can enjoy a full EPK presentation of the album here.





The Land Of New Hope tracklist:

01. Avalanche Anthem
02. A World Without Us
03. Enshrined In My Memory
04. In The Name Of The Rose
05. We Will Find A Way
06. Shine
07. The Magic Of The Night
08. To The Edge Of The Earth
09. I'll Sing You Home
10. The Land Of New Hope

Source: frontiers.it
Band profile: Timo Tolkki
Posted: 20.03.2013 by Kallis Helmi


Comments

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Comments: 15   [ 1 ignored ]   Visited by: 114 users
20.03.2013 - 12:25
cossaisVendeurs

Hey... Did they rip that off?
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20.03.2013 - 15:14
Wukk

With those singers, I really hope he doesn't muck this one up.
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If you're 666 then I'm 777
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20.03.2013 - 16:34
JÄY
Metal slave
That album artist has been real busy, lately.....Seems every power metal album uses him and I'm sick of the style.
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20.03.2013 - 21:45
Azarath
Free as a.. Fish
That's a pretty impressive list of singers.
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21.03.2013 - 00:00
renai

This looks serious! Hope it goes well. Btw, Avantasia vs Avalon ...hmmm and Avalon, I bet I ever heard a power metal band with that name.
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21.03.2013 - 00:23
Lord_Regnier

Let's hope it won't be anything like Saana. That sucked real hard.
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"Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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21.03.2013 - 00:25
Lord_Regnier

Written by JÄY on 20.03.2013 at 16:34

That album artist has been real busy, lately.....Seems every power metal album uses him and I'm sick of the style.


Indeed. Almost every Powermetal artwork looks more or less the same since a while.
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"Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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21.03.2013 - 07:45
Patrick.

I'm drooling over the line-up and drooling over the artwork... Let's see if it reaches beyond that! First the new Avantasia is coming, then this one. Plus new Ayreon is scheduled this year as well. Let's hope all three hit the mark.
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26.03.2013 - 04:52
mikeprado30

I just hope he doesn't cancel it as it happened with Credo (I had high hopes with that one)
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BARDS WE ARE, BARDS WE WILL BE!
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26.03.2013 - 08:54
Joppe
Steelemeister
Although I liked Tolkki's work on Revolution Renaissance I've a strong feeling that this one will turn out to be a big failure. Source: heard a new song from this album.
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My vision is augmented
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26.03.2013 - 11:08
Rhiannon
Account deleted
I will definetly check this out, if only for the singers.
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26.03.2013 - 20:15
musclassia

Russell Allen really can't get enough of these metal operas can he? Avantasia, Ayreon, now Avalon... I guess he hasn't really got SymX demanding his whole attention with the rat they release albums
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28.03.2013 - 04:50
LICH

Checked a song, yea this really does suck. as much as i loved tolkkis guitar parts on strat. i fucking hate his solo work TOO DAMN CHEESY !!!
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28.03.2013 - 11:08
Ellrohir
Heaven Knight
I listened to song that came out with the video, but i dont even remember listening to it...
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My rest seems now calm and deep
Finally I got my dead man sleep


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28.03.2013 - 13:07
Metal_Elle

Great news from Tolkki's side ! I hope this project will be really good. At least, I bet that it will be a good album. After the video clip "Enshrined In Memory" with the sexy Elize Ryd from Amaranthe behind the microphone, I think this will be a very powerful cd with great melodies. ^^
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