Avantasia – Here Be Dragons review

01. Creepshow
02. Here Be Dragons
03. The Moorland At Twilight
04. The Witch
05. Phantasmagoria
06. Bring On The Night
07. Unleash The Kraken
08. Avalon
09. Against The Wind
10. Everybody’s Here Until The End

A new Avantasia has arrived, as expected, from the hand of Tobias Sammet and his loyal guests who join us on an epic journey.

Whenever Avantasia or Tobias Sammet releases a new album, expectations are enormous. We know of Toby’s tremendous songwriting abilities, the quality of the guests who are part of this project, and we’re also quite familiar with Toby’s talent for generating enormous hype around each new work he releases. It’s inevitable that each new album will be greeted with great anticipation.

The first thing you get is the album’s title, and wow, it was a great choice! An excellent play on words, one can’t tell if it refers to the fact that dragons will be found on this album or if one will simply embark on an epic journey in search of mysteries and treasures. It doesn’t really matter; both options ensure that it will be something epic and magical, just as Avantasia is. The cover shows a huge dragon guarding the entrance to a castle. At times, it reminds us of the cover of Rhapsody‘s Symphony Of Enchanted Lands, but in a slightly more subtle and theatrical version, with a very characteristic Magnum design. This is the last design by the legendary Rodney Mathews, an excellent way to say goodbye to the world of record design.

Moving on to the album itself, it is very diverse, showcasing Tobias Sammet’s entire repertoire. This album includes hard rock, glam metal, power metal, symphonic metal, and even heavy metal. This demonstrates that Avantasia is very difficult to pigeonhole into a single style. This makes perfect sense, since the variety of guest artists is so wide, and many of them belong to different styles.

The journey begins with “Creepshow”, which is an invitation to be part of this journey called Here Be Dragons. It is a joyful invitation to be part of this crew, because there are many mysteries and adventures to explore. At times, it’s a song reminiscent of hits by Def Leppard or Bon Jovi, but in a version that plays with humor or horror, a new facet of Avantasia.

The journey truly begins with “Here Be Dragons”, and the entire crew on board, ready to find mysteries at sea. The captain of this song is Geoff Tate, one of the great legends of metal vocals. It starts out as a slower song, even a ballad, but as it progresses, it takes on more progressive and symphonic overtones, with two choruses that showcase the vocal technique and feelings of a legend of Tate’s caliber. This is the longest song on the album, and possibly the most complex composition on the entire album.

On the third track, power metal arrives with a bang, led by Kiske. With “Moorland At Twilight”, we find ourselves in a song that never fails on Avantasia albums: the classic fast, power metal song led by Kiske. I find it a song with very interesting rhythm changes, which at times reminds me of rhythms tested on Edguy‘s Age Of The Joker, more than 10 years ago.

The journey continues, and now we find Tommy Karevik making his triumphant debut on Avantasia with possibly the best song on the album, “The Witch”. It’s a more modern power metal song, with sounds rarely tested before on Avantasia records, and with a sound that plays a bit with pop, without overusing that resource as much as on “Creepshow”. It’s a very enjoyable, cheerful song with just enough mysticism to leave you wanting to listen to this song on repeat.

We’ve reached the halfway point of the journey, and this is where the album slows down a bit from its bombastic beginning. With “Phantasmagoria”, we’re probably revisiting spaces that Avantasia has already covered with Atkins, which seems to me a misuse of this fantastic vocalist, who has already proven he can sing on beautiful songs like “Paper Plane”. This song seems to me like a new version of “Invoke The Machine”, a fast-paced, speed metal song, but one that lacks Avantasia‘s magic and harmony.

“Bring On The Night” is a clear tribute to Magnum, and who better to create this song than Sammet, and who better to perform it than Bob Catley himself. This probably won’t be a song that will transcend fans, nor one that will be performed live, but it is a song that captures the magic of Avantasia and Magnum, and pays a well-deserved tribute to a band that was very influential to Sammet.

The journey continues, and Sammet transforms into a true Kraken, showing us that he can blend magic, melody, and a whole lot of metal on a single album. “Unleash The Kraken” is probably the heaviest song Sammet has released with Avantasia, and he even allows Felix Bonkhe to show off on the drums as if he were playing in a thrash metal band. It’s a fantastic song, where Sammet also shows us his entire vocal repertoire, although there’s a feeling this song could have been even more powerful if it had featured a more robust voice, like Mille Petrozza, who already delighted us on Moonglow.

One of the most anticipated moments was Adrienne Cowen’s official debut on an Avantasia record. We’ve heard her live for many years, even allowing herself to sing “Reach Out For The Light”. This time, she stars on “Avalon”, a song that showcases a more modern Avantasia, with plenty of vocal play and emulating the arrival, the dream of traveling to a fantastic place. The song is one of the album’s highlights; it was worth the wait for Adrienne, and it will surely be a great classic in the future.

With “Against The Wind”, returns the true power metal that made us fall in love with Avantasia and its metal opera in the first place. Here we also have a guest participating in the project for the first time, Kenny Leckremo of H.E.A.T, who are better known for playing hard rock, but even so, Leckremo’s strength and energy fit perfectly with Avantasia, and in “Against The Wind” we can enjoy it so much. This song emulates reaching your destination at all costs, regardless of the difficulties that may arise along the way.

The album ends with a powerful power ballad, sung by a great legend of the genre, Roy Khan himself, who returns to Avantasia after 17 years of waiting. It’s a classic Sammet ballad, elevated by all the emotion Khan brings to this song. I think it’s a great way to end the album, as it bids farewell to the entire crew and travelers who have decided to travel Here Be Dragons with Avantasia.

There’s also a bonus track, a great gift from Sammet for fans of operatic metal, striking a great balance between his signature humor, classic power metal, and elements typical of his first two albums. If you are an old school fan and Edguy fan, “Return To The Opera” is made for you.

In short, Here Be Dragons is an easy-to-listen album; it emulates a journey, and each song represents something different within it. Listening to it in one go or individually is always a good option. It could have been a more impressive album if we had had another long, epic song like “Here Be Dragons”. Jorn Lande’s presence was also missed and there are a couple of moments in which more vocalists could have been included. Sammet is always asked to do more, being one of the most talented songwriters in the metal world, and perhaps this album could have been even better, who knows? In any case, this is a fantastic job, the same as every Avantasia work in the past.

You did it again Toby! Thanks!