AVANTASIA (TOBIAS SAMMETS) The Mystery of Time (2013) CD

Tobias Sammet has always operated on a scale that most power metal bands can only dream about. The man built a revolving-door supergroup out of sheer force of will, and by 2013 he was pulling in Michael Kiske, Biff Byford, Joe Lynn Turner, and Bob Catley for a record loosely themed around the life of nineteenth-century occultist John Dee. As you do.

The Mystery of Time leans harder into the orchestral and progressive side of the Avantasia formula, with the kind of sweeping arrangements and guest-stacked vocal runs that make symphonic power metal feel genuinely cinematic rather than just loud. Tracks like Sleepwalking and The Watchmakers' Dream are Sammet at his most indulgent in the best possible way. If you got into this world through Blind Guardian's concept records or Kamelot's darker orchestral turns, this one fits right alongside them. German symphonic power metal at full, unapologetic wingspan.

CD. 2013 pressing. Germany.

Fans of: Blind Guardian, Dark Moor, Kamelot, Rhapsody of Fire