Special: The biggest disappointments in 2014!

Hey folks,

it's December, that means in the next few weeks you'll be flooded with ranking lists from various blogs and magazines and altough there are four weeks left til the new year kicks in I'd like to start with my first list. That's simply because I haven't so much time at the moment and there will be six more posts about my top 15 songs/albums of the year. So, to ensure that you'll get all these posts till the end of December I have to start now. Yeah and as always I'd like to start with the biggest disappointments of this year. Please keep in mind that this is a very personal and subjective ranking. If you'd like to read something that is objective as hell, then you have to read something different :) And now let's go!

CD-Review: Allen/Lande - "The Great Divide"

In 2005 Frontiers Records united Symphony X singer Russell Allen and ex-Masterplan fronter Jorn Lande for a project that should  become their most important effort on the Metal market: Allen/Lande. Under the leading hand of mastermind Magnus Karlsson they created with "The Battle" one of the best Melodic Metal albums in the last decade and two more strong records followed. Fans demanded a fourth album and they had to wait four long years. Finally "The Great Divide" hit the stores these days and it makes some things very different.

CD-Review: Timo Tolkki's Avalon - "Angels Of The Apocalypse"

Metal operas and allstar-projects are all the rage in recent years - everyone knows that. In 2013 former Stratovarious guitarist Timo Tolkki jumped on that train and founded a metal opera project called "Avalon". I had mixed feelings about this one: on the one hand it copied a lot from Avantasia, but on the other hand you've found some pretty good earworms and great singers on it. Now, only one year later, Timo Tolkki presents us his second part. I was wondering if the quality of the songs suffers from this short period of time.

CD-Review: Timo Tolkki's AVALON - "The Land Of New Hope"

Timo Tolkki - do I have to say something about this guy? I think lots of metalheads know him as the former guitar player of the power metal band Stratovarius. Over the years he has become some kind of cult-figure in the metal genre, so many people were excited when they heard of his new project Avalon, which is supposed to be a metal opera. Timo Tolkki gathered lots of guest musicians around him to take you on a journey into the land of new hope, but lots of things have a bitter aftertaste and I'll tell you why.

Timo Tolkki's AVALON - "The Land Of New Hope" hit the stores in May!

Former Stratovarius guitarist Timo Tolkki is doing another solo-project called AVALON. The album is called "The Land Of New Hope - The New Metal Opera" and will feature a conceptional story as well as lots of guest musicians.