Avantasia - The Metal Opera Pt.2

*=Staff's pick	The Seven Angels* No Return The Looking Glass* In Quest For The Final Sacrifice Neverland* Anywhere Chalice Of Agony* Memory Into The Unknown

Genre	Melodic Power Metal	Tobias Sammet	Vocals
Tracks	10	Henjo Richter	Guitar
Runningtime	59 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Marcus Grosskopf	Bass
Release	26 Aug. 2002	Alex Holzwarth	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Edguy, Freedom Call, Helloween, Gamma Ray

Tobias Sammet has once again gathered his forces for the second and unfortunately final installment in his Metal Opera saga. And this time Eric Singer (Kiss, Alice Cooper) and Bob Catley (Magnum) have joined the already impressive list of guest musicians. It just might have been enough with Michael Kiske, Kai Hansen, David DeFeis, Timo Tolkki and the rest but obviously Mr Sammet doesn't settle for less.

Part II continues in it's predecessor's footsteps with all that can be expected. Almost all the ingredients from part I can also be found here- same extraordinary vocals, majestic choires and choruses, brilliant melodies and also a very good mixture between faster Helloween-Edguy-inspired tracks and more mid-tempo songs and slower ballads.

And Tobias Sammet also writes the perfect song for just the right vocalist which also adds up to another detail that makes these albums so great. However I must admit that I think that part I is the better one of the two and it's mainly two details that make it so. Part II lacks the great keyboard-intros that I just loved with part I and it isn't as fast. But on the other hand, part II is a bit heavier and Bob Catley's contribution will rock my world for years and years to come.

So in the end it's just a matter of taste and The Metal Opera part II is worth every single penny you spend on it. If you loved part I you will definitely love part II as well, I promise you as much. Although this was the last part in the Metal Opera-era I definitely hope that Tobias Sammet continues to give us solo-projects of this magnitude and that Avantasia returns sometime in a very near future!

See also review of: Ghostlights , The Mystery Of Time , The Scarecrow , The Metal Opera Pt.1

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9	8	8,5

Summary
8,5 chalices of 10 - Mat