|
Rating:
8.8 |
Avantasia - The Metal Opera Part II
2002
01. The Seven Angels
02. No Return
03. The Looking Glass
04. In Quest For
05. The Final Sacrifice
06. Neverland
07. Anywhere
08. Chalice Of Agony
09. Memory
10. Into The Unknown
11. Chalice Of Agony [edit version]
12. Avantasia [single version]
And here's the second part of the opera. This one is a lot better in my opinion. Most notably it has much more variation. And a really, really, really really seriously awesome and amazing opening track. The Seven Angels is an epic masterpiece spanning fourteen minutes and featuring seven of the eleven vocalists. Plus two choirs and some solos. Great song, nothing more to say about it.
Lyrically this album continues where the first left off. After stopping the evil pope-man in the first episode, our hero saves all the dwarves and elves and happy people in Avantasia. When that is done he visits the tree of knowledge who tells him the kind of stuff that such trees know. With his newfound illumination, thanks to the plant, Gabriel (Tobias Sammet) goes back to Rome and saves some souls. Unfortunately his dwarvish friend dies though. His druid friend then saves his stepsister but unfortunately dies too. But the stepbrother and stepsister are finally together again; Thus, again the lyrics are rubbish.
Musically this album is a lot more advanced predecessor though. It has a more mature touch and a lot more variation. It's less symphonic then the first one but has a lot more non-power metal elements. The fact that it's not 'pure' power metal alone already makes this album much different then the first. The drumming isn't always fast anymore (but in my opinion a tad worse) and the solos are more complicated. The vocals are still done mainly by Tobias Sammet but with help from many others and again Sharon Den Adel's wonderful voice, unfortunately, enriches this album on only one song, the last one.
Something else that always jumps to my attention is that the beginning riff (and the scream at the beginning) are EXACTLY the same as the beginning of "Schrei Nach Liebe" by the German punk band Die Ärzte. It's an obvious ripp-off, but it does give more variation to the album as a whole.
I think Tobias took more of a risk with this one. The first one was purely power metal with some symphonic elements, but this album is more. Probably A LOT of people who like power metal very much will disagree with me here, but I think The Metal Opera part II is much better then part I. Although I think Edguy is very bad, this album did prove to me that Tobias is an extremely gifted songwriter and a very good singer.
|
Performance:
|
9 |
|
Songwriting:
|
10 |
|
Originality:
|
7 |
|
Production:
|
9 |
written by Bas | 20.12.2006 |
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
|
|
|
|
Guest review byEmalaith
Rating:
9.5
|
by Emalaith:
There are some albums that are simply greater than others and this one belongs in the first category. For me personally, the release of Avantasia II could not have come at a better time. Avantasia changed my life and Avantasia II was to set everything in stone...
The album begins with a wonderful overture that contains several different choruses, rhythm changes, and atmospheres and introduces almost all of the Avantasia II cast. Like on Avantasia I, Tobi tells the story of Gabriel the Monk not simply through dialogues and monologues but leaves a lot of the story-telling to the music itself. For instance, on track 9 you will know from the first note that this song deals with the bad guys and you can just feel the pain and anguish conveyed on track 5 . To fully comprehend the story, the best way, of course, is to take the booklet and read along as the story unfolds.
Read more ›› |
|
| published 28.08.2003 | Comments (2)
|
Comments
|
|
| Comments: |
3
|
|
|
Users visited:
|
25 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Tobias is an extremely great singer/songwriter. Yet l consider his early work with edguy the best ever. l like avantasia, but it misses some spark imo. Just like his last releases with edguy, it was an avantasia mix with hardrock elements. No good. |
|
|
|
You made a reference on the song "Schrei nach Liebe" but you didn't mention which song resembles to it... So tell me which is it so I can check it! I'm too bored to search the whole CD to find it... 
I find this album better than the Pt. I and I was looking everywhere for it, when I wanted to buy it. Everywhere I turned it was fucking expensive... a sign of its value...
Also it was one of the first albums that initiated me into metal. Very good and quality stuff. |
|
 Bas - 07.06.2007 at 17:31
|
|
|
i'm not sure anymore, it's a long time ago that i wrote that review, and it's rated much too high of course...
but i think that was "memory" |
|
Advertise on Metal Storm
|
Similar topics
Hits total: 2591 | This month: 19 |
