There are a lot of people who have been overly critical of every little thing that Timo Tolkki has chosen to do ever since leaving Stratovarius. Honestly I have been a huge fan of practically everything he's ever done. In the realm of metal I am convinced Tolkki is one of the most well rounded musicians out there considering he is a guitar virtuoso, plays bass, does occasional vocals, produces, mixes, and masters most of his own material.
When originally announcing that he was working on a metal opera as Timo Tolkki's Avalon I was extremely excited, especially after seeing the all-star lineup that would be singing on the debut album. Land of New Hope certainly did not disappoint and was definitely carried by the vocal work of the likes of Rob Rock, Russell Allen, Michael Kiske, etc, and although I have not always been the hugest fan of Elize Ryd, I will admit that I greatly enjoyed her contributions to the album. After only a year later I was surprised to see that Tolkki was already working on and practically finished with the follow up to it, considering he has been known in the past for scrapping band ideas after a short amount of time like he did with only three Revolution Renaissance albums and only one from the once highly anticipated Symfonia.
Slowly he began to reveal the guests on his new album Angels of the Apocalypse and one by one I began to get slightly more disappointed in his choices. Four more female vocalists, including Ryd once again, and three male vocalists that I feel are beginning to get to the point of being past their prime left me to begin to doubt if this album would come even close to touching the debut. Keeping an open mind that this is still an album written and performed by Timo Tolkki - I still had very high hopes for it, especially considering the original keyboardist and drummer of Stratovarius were announced that they would be playing on the entire album.
With the opening full length track “Jerusalem is Falling” you can easily tell that Fabio Lione of Rhapsody of Fire is in top form, but then again he guests on virtually everyone's albums and always brings his ‘A’ game. The song is very well orchestrated and the addition of Antti Ikonen on keyboards is very well noted. However I feel like I've heard this idea somewhere before. It sounds very similar in parts to the Revolution Renaissance track Eden is Burning only with a different vocalist. The guitar solo in the track is very strong though, which is really nice considering the lack of complexity of some of the solos was one of my only complaints about the debut album; a slight lack of originality aside, it’s still a very good track.
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Adam Philips, HMS
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