Timo Tolkki's Avalon - Angels of the Apocalypse

I just found out Tolkki is coming up with a sequel to the really (surprisingly) good Land of New Hope.



Here's the new video for Design the Century:



Blabbermouth

The amazing cast of vocalists appearing this time includes NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen — who takes care of the lead vocals on the first single, "Design The Century" — along with Simone Simons (EPICA), Fabio Lione (RHAPSODY OF FIRE), David DeFeis (VIRGIN STEELE), Zachary Stevens (ex-SAVATAGE, CIRCLE II CIRCLE), plus Elize Ryd (AMARANTHE) — who appears again after contributing to the first album — and the stunning Chilean singer Caterina Nix

Track list:

Spoiler:

I pre-ordered immediately. Other fans?

Love me some Timo. Can't wait to hear this!

I was extremely annoyed with this guy. After his whole campaign he had going to make 2 albums that I put money towards and then he dropped them both to do this project. I kept my money with it to put towards the last album and I didn't get a thing. I emailed him numerous times and they were going to take care of it but in the end I got nothing and I vowed to never buy any of his crap again. Unfortunetly this album sounds like its going to be good and I might have to take back what I said, but I'm still annoyed. haha

I just gave this my first listen and I'm left underwhelmed. There's something really wrong with the mixing and mastering of this album. Just listen to that David DeFeis song...

The first Avalon album was perfect, what happened?

After two listens... I can find things I like here and there, there are some nice melodies and some of the singers put out good performances (despite the mix), but I'm still disappointed.

Sounds cool! Too bad CDs just don't fit into my budget right now. Otherwise, I'd be all over this (and of course, several other releases).

DallasBlack wrote:

Sounds cool! Too bad CDs just don't fit into my budget right now. Otherwise, I'd be all over this (and of course, several other releases).

I don't know if you read my post above, but I'm just going to advice you now to not even bother with this album. The bass sounds awful and the drums are thin and whoever mixed the vocals is either deaf or doesn't know how to operate the mixing board. Apparently according to credits that's Timo Tolkki himself. But since we've heard him produce top notch albums before, albums that sound good, there might be more to this.

This is demo quality. No excuses. Knowing Tolkki and his demeanor, maybe he just never finished this project because of whatever, but then the label just put this thing out unfinished?

That first Avalon album is still amazing and a must-have for metal fans. Great sound, great songs, Rob Rock, Russell Allen, Michael Kiske, Sharon den Adel, shred guitar, all metal... maybe it was too good to be true?

I sort of steered away from this project as I'd just gotten into Avantasia and couldn't help but notice a similarity between an album with "Tobias Sammet's Avantasia" as a scripted, gold logo and Michael Kiske on guest vocals and an album with "Timo Tolkki's Avalon" as a scripted logo with Michael Kiske on guest vocals. It just came off like bandwagon jumping, but maybe I read too much into it.

And what's the deal with Tolkki? I've seen some stuff about him being bipolar and flaking out on projects and the like, but I don't know how much is rumor mill, direct talk or whatever.

He was diagnosed as being bipolar. However, apparently he went to rehab and is reported to have it under control.

I sampled the album a few days ago. I was interested in it at first but like Lari said the mix is bad and the songs aren't even good. shame cause the old members of stratovarius are one the album.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

I sampled the album a few days ago. I was interested in it at first but like Lari said the mix is bad and the songs aren't even good. shame cause the old members of stratovarius are one the album.

That's not good news for the next Allen/Lande album. Let's just hope Timo steps up his game for that one (kind of wish Mangus was still doing it to be honest).

I gave it a few more spins, this time in the car. The lack of bottom end doesn't come across that bad sounding when in that environment. Maybe Tolkki mixed the album with terrible background noise disturbing his work?

I actually think he was going for that early Stratovarius sound. Kind of thin, but punchy. I could live with that. The songs themselves are 'okay'. Nothing quite as catchy as what the first album had, but it's pretty good for epic flower metal. At least the title track works quite well for me.

But the vocal mix is still poor and unacceptable.

"Epic flower metal?" Are you sure you didn't mean "epic flour metal?" I mean, there's a big difference between tunes for creating a tiered garden of man-eating plants and tunes for creating a cake you need to fight to the death before you can eat it.