Band:	Avantasia
Album:	The Metal Opera Part I
Style:	Symphonic power metal
Release date:	2001

01. Prelude
02. Reach Out For The Light
03. Serpents In Paradise
04. Malleus Maleficarum
05. Breaking Away
06. Farewell
07. The Glory Of Rome
08. In Nomine Patris
09. Avantasia
10. A New Dimension
11. Inside
12. Sign Of The Cross
13. The Tower

Power Metal. A ridiculed genre made fun of because of it's fascination with vocal choirs and lyrical themes (often based around swords and sorcery-type tales of good versus evil). Not many people respect it, however, but I do, and I greatly respect the musicians who stick to this type of "unpopular" genre, not least because they are almost always talented musicians, more talented in their playing than this week's favourite metalcore darlings. So imagine my joy when I came across this band called Avantasia: a group formed of one of my most admired metal vocalists (the awesome Tobias Sammet of Edguy) and one of my most admired guitarists (Gamma Ray's Henjo Richter) that also happened to feature guest vocals by Kai Hansen (THE power metal god), Angra's Andre Mateos, and Stratovarius' Timo Tolkki! Members from some of my favourite bands all on the same album! Too good to be true I thought. That's until listened to it. It was true. VERY true. Expecting a Power metal masterpiece, that is what I got.

It's hard to pin point ONE defining thing about the album that described why it is so good but I would have to say that the variety of styles of the impressive collection of songs has to be one of the defining things about the album. We get out and out old fashioned power metal anthems (Reach Out for the Light & The Glory of Rome), we get an epic ballad (Farewell), and we get some power metal epics with more progressive slants (The Tower, Sign of the cross). Okay, not stunningly varied, but no one song sounds the same and each has their own individual impact on the listener. And what an impact they do have! The quality here is on par with such classics as Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys Part One and Gamma Ray's Somewhere Out in Space. No, really, it's that good! Nothing more can be said than that the songs all have brilliantly winning melodies, guitars and some great drumming and that there is not one bit of filler here(out of the proper songs, as I do not count the small interludes as "proper" songs); each song has their own hook that simply reels you in, that won't get out of your head for a long while, that has such utter passion put into it that it is hard not be in awe of the performances here.

Personal highlights here have to be "Reach For the Light," the nastier "Serpents in paradise," and the epic, galloping "The Glory of Rome." Once again, this is an amazing album, one that although does not have a chance of winning over the haters, is the perfect musical gift to the genre's devotees. I put emphasis on the word PERFECT by the way, because that is (barring the annoying interludes) essentially what this album is: perfect, or as near to perfect as is probably possible. Like power metal? You have no excuse not to buy this album.