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AVANTASIA's TOBIAS SAMMET On Deaths Of OZZY OSBOURNE And ACE FREHLEY: 'It Feels Like A Part Of My Childhood Leaves With Them'
#AVANTASIA #TOBIASSAMMET #OnDeathsOf #interview #Blabbermouth #metal #music
sariashAvantasia - Farewell (feat. Amanda Somerville) @ Wacken Open Air Festival, Germany on August 1st, 2008
youtube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwUPM65TnKw
#Music #Metal #PowerMetal #Avantasia #TobiasSammet #AmandaSomerville
Avantasia - Farewell (Amanda Somerville) [The Flying Opera 2011]
Noticias Rock CLAvantasia Arrasa el Coliseo; Hidalgo Abre la Noche con Arte Puro | vía #iRock
#avantasia #conciertos #internacional #livereviewinternacional #metal #teatrocoliseo #thefanlab
EtzelDisfrutando del nuevo album de #Heat, "Welcome to the future", que es como escuchar peak Europe y Bon Jovi en pleno 2025.
Desde el concierto de #Avantasia del viernes pasado, soy fans de la voz de Kenny Leckremo 
Avantasia regresa con su majestuoso “Here Be DragonsWorld Tour” | vía #iRock
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AVANTASIA's TOBIAS SAMMET Doesn't 'Get' Bands Who Are 'Wearing Masks' These Days: 'It Looks Almost Like A Masquerade'
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Rock and Blog⚡️ ¡Sube el volumen y alza la espada!
Estas son las 10 canciones más legendarias del power metal: Helloween, Blind Guardian, Rhapsody, Stratovarius, Avantasia y más.
#PowerMetal #Helloween #BlindGuardian #Rhapsody #Avantasia #DragonForce #Stratovarius #HammerFall #GammaRay #MetalMelodico
Angry Metal GuyCea Serin – The World Outside Review
By Mystikus Hugebeard
The game of finding the right words to describe your music is one that all bands must play. Do you tow the line, allowing a reader’s mind to fill in the blanks with something easy like “heavy metal” or “black metal?” Or will you stand out from the crowd with a challenging label, and risk confusion? Thus do we arrive at today’s topic, the Louisiana two-piece Cea Serin1. In some circles, the enigmatic term “mercurial metal” has been coined to described Cea Serin. A tricky turn of phrase that could indeed mean anything! However, I’ve become an expert metal translator after my time spent with Cea Serin. My team of expert analysts have helped me decode that into human language. The direct translation: the Proggiest Prog to ever Prog. Rejoice and/or mourn, depending on your taste for prog, because it’s prog time, baby!
Ah, all in good fun Cea Serin, you proggy boys, you! Anyone who listens to even a moment of The World Beyond would easily clock it as competently written and engaging prog. To steal a term I hadn’t heard before Dolphin Whisperer said it2, Cea Serin play comfy jam prog. Cea Serin aren’t quite as twisting or noodling as Haken or Dream Theater, but more riff-forward in the spirit of Vanden Plas and Threshold. The riffs are often aggressive and straightforward, though there’s plenty of complexity in the sinew binding them together to reward active listening. Supporting these comfy jams are two damn good musicians. Rory Faciane’s work on the kit is precise and expressive, and Jay Lamm, who also effectively covers the keyboards, bass, and rhythm guitar, is a thoroughly talented vocalist. His growls get the job done, but his cleans are a soaring delight. He reminds me a fair bit of Avantasia’s Tobias Sammet but with a deeper heft.
Cea Serin earnestly boasts all the trademarks, cliches, strengths and weaknesses, whatever-you’d-call-them of progressive metal. Gargantuan in scope, The World Beyond is 70 minutes spread across six tracks, none of which fall below the 10 minute mark. Each song builds and maintains a fun sense of momentum; an emotive verse drifts into a righteous chorus (“The Rose on the Ruin”), mournful pianos grow into shredding guitars (“All the Light that Shines”), or a keyboard solo shifts into violins and then into a bass solo (“Until the Dark Responds”). In fact, the ludicrous abundance of shredding solos across The World Beyond are easily the album’s strongest aspect, especially how they glide across the riffs from one to the next with such gleeful abandon. These long, winding sequences are all across the album, but they’re particularly memorable in “Until the Dark Responds” and “The Rose on the Ruin.” A whopping eight different musicians are credited as providing solos, and they do excellent work, always keeping me excited for the next bout of wild guitar-work (or violin, in “Until the Dark Responds”).
Since The World Beyond leans so heavily into its progressive nature, so too does it carry the genres downsides. There are standout moments here and there—soaring choruses in “Where None Shall Follow” and “When the Wretched and the Brave Align,” or the slick shredding introducing “All the Light that Shines”—but truthfully, if someone selected any song at random and started playing it somewhere in the middle, it would be difficult to determine exactly which song is playing. Riffs can begin to blur and blend across the album. There are few real surprises or meaningful shake-ups to song structure, and attention can waver by the end. “All the Light that Shines” especially begins to feel long as it barrels through its movements without any falling action since it leads directly into the following song. The momentum is often exciting, but with consecutive songs of such length, more strongly defined peaks and valleys would not go amiss.
Depending on your appetite for capital-P Prog, however, nothing is really a deal-breaker. The World Beyond is, through and through, just plain fun. The World Beyond is best consumed as whole, surrendering to the journey and losing yourself in the swirl of solos and riffs. Cea Serin are talented musicians who’ve crafted a kickass album that’s sure to appeal to any fan of comfy jam prog, and I look forward to their next album.
Rating: Good!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: FLAC
Label: Generation Prog Records
Websites: bandcamp | facebook
Releases Worldwide: September 12th, 2025
#2025 #30 #Avantasia #CeaSerin #DreamTheater #GenerationProgRecords #Haken #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #TheWorldBeyond #Threshold #VandenPlas
Dans Musicbox#nowplaying the recent album "Here be Dragons" by the band #avantasia from #germany
#powermetal #metal #heavymetal #epic #tobiassammett #albumsof2025
Personal Rating: 8 / 10
Recommended Tracks: "Creepshow", "Bring on the Night", "The Moorlands at Twilight", "The Witch", "Against the Wind", "Unleash the Kraken", "Here be Dragons", "Avalon"
Helloween – Giants and Monsters Review
By Steel Druhm
Steel was there 3000 years ago when Helloween dropped their debut EP in 1985 A.D. It was a rough, oddball dose of high-energy metal full of goofy charm. It wasn’t until their Walls of Jericho debut hit later that same year that jaws were really put on the floor. It was fast, frantic, over-the-top, and most importantly, insanely hooky. In a time when Metallica and Slayer were burning America down with angry macho man thrash, these crazy Krauts showed that metal could be fast, fun, and tongue-in-cheek. The Keeper albums cemented Helloween as a major force and defined the parameters of what would become Euro-power metal, and the rest is metal history. The band had ups and downs in the decades that followed, losing founder Kai Hansen and vocal titan Michael Kiske along the way. 2021s self-titled release had the novel concept of reuniting the band with Hansen and Kiske, and along with current frontman Andi Deris, they delivered a 3-pronged vocal attack. It worked way better than expected, and Helloween was a fun romp that flashed moments of long-forgotten power glory. Because I’m a cynical, jaded ape, I honestly didn’t expect the 3-way pumpkin bump to continue beyond a one-album stand, but here we are a few years later with Giants and Monsters, and all 3 vocalists are still hanging around. But can lightning strike the pumpKings twice?
Strangely enough, yes! Giants and Monsters is a strange collection of styles, and it’s only a power metal album about 30% of the time. It plays out more like an Avantasia album than something you’d expect from Helloween, but it works nonetheless. There’s a looseness to the writing, suggesting that the group has become more comfortable working together, and as a result, you get a wide-ranging set of songs covering everything from classic power metal to hair metal and stadium rock. Opener “Giants on the Run” is the perfect introduction as it’s stylistically close to the classic Kiske-era Helloween. It’s got that power metal energy and cheesy, cheery charm. The Pumpkin Pi Boys kill it vocally, and there’s a satisfying chorus. Kai has an especially cool vocal segment, and there’s even a spot where someone (probably Kai) does a dramatically raspy King Diamond-esque thing. “Savior of the World” lets Michael Kiske do his thing on a power-centric song that reeks of the Keepers era and has that big, soaring chorus Helloweenies live for. It’s hard charging and gourd, clean fun. After this happily familiar opening salvo, the band toys with hair rock in the vein of Kissin’ Dynamite (“A Little is a Little Too Much”) and dramatic power balladery (“Into the Sun”), and things just keep coming up plumpkin pumpkin!
There are some big standouts that really make the case for this power trio thing being the serum the band needed. “We Can Be Gods” is a super sticky power rocker that sits between Keepers and the Deris age. “Hand of God” is the progeny of albums like Better Than Raw and The Dark Ride, and it dabbles in Gothy-electronica before clubbing with you a winning chorus. “Universe (Gravity of Hearts)” is an 8-minute power metal bomb dropped at just the right time. The proven formula of soaring vocals over speedy riffs and pounding drums still holds up when the writing is sound, and here it works an iron charm. They make a similar statement on the 8-minute closer “Majestic,” blending their power metal roots with 80s-centric anthemic heavy metal. The guitar work across this track is stellar, and all 3 singers prove their worth. There are no duds present, and every song has its weird charms and endearing quirks. At 52 minutes, Giants and Monsters avoids feeling long despite the presence of multiple 8-minute epics. That’s no easy feat, but these tricky calabash wranglers pull it off with smart track ordering and a great ebb and flow.
On an album with 3 notable vocalists, the big star is the diverse and consistently sharp songcrafting. The absence of throwaway tracks is a win, and the way the album rolls from strength to strength is impressive for a band this long in the tooth. Naturally, Michael Kiske impresses, though he doesn’t often employ his roof-raising, higher-register wails. Andi Deris carries a lot of water and does a great job. His voice is tailor-made for the more rock-centric moments, but he shows his versatility. Some of my favorite moments belong to Kai Hansen, probably due to chronic nostalgia for the early days of Helloween. He can’t do the crazy things he once did vocally, but it’s very comforting hearing him, and he picks his spots well. Guitarists Michael “Ingo” Weikath, Sascha Gerstner, and Mr. Hansen travel through genres and styles, creating a captivating tapestry of leads and harmonies. The solo work across the board is impressive, and they show some balls and grit on the faster cuts.
I expected Giants and Monsters to be a comedown from Helloween, but Giants is actually a stronger, more refined album overall. Maybe the age of the Great Pumpkin really has come back around. Two strong albums back-to-back don’t lie, so something is up in the patch. The power of 3 has bound them and, in the darkness, ripened them. May their newfound youth be fertile and enduring.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 234 kbps
Label: Reigning Phoenix
Websites: helloween.org | facebook.com/helloweenofficial | instagram.com/helloweenofficial
Releases Worldwide: August 29th, 2025
#2025 #35 #Aug25 #Avantasia #GermanMetal #GiantsAndMonsters #HeavyMetal #Helloween #PowerMetal #ReigningPhoenixMusic #Review #Reviews