Avantasia – Lost In Space (Chapter 1 & 2)
Nuclear Blast Records

(4/5)

If you liked Avantasia’s EPs Lost in Space Chapter 1 and Lost in Space Chapter 2, you will love that they have been combined to create this aptly titled album Lost In Space (Chapter 1 & 2)! Featuring Edguy frontman Tobias Sammet as singer and bassist, Avantasia takes a slightly more Symphonic Metal approach to their music as opposed to the Power metal style of Edguy. Incorporated on this album is the help of many talented musicians and singers involving an all-star cast including producer Sascha Paeth on lead & rhythm guitars, Henjo Richter (Gamma Ray) on lead guitar, Michael Rodenberg (Aina and Kamelot) on keyboards, Eric Singer on drums and singing (KISS), Amanda Somerville singing (Aina), Jørn Lande singing (Masterplan and ARK), Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween), and Bob Catley (Magnum) singing. Together, all of these people recorded an amazing set of songs. Included in the tracks for this album are the regular version, and alternate version, and an extended version of the title track “Lost in Space” (Tracks 1, 11, and 12), “Lay All Your Love on Me” (ABBA cover also covered by Helloween) (Track 2), “Another Angel Down” (Track 3), and “Ride the Sky” (Lucifer’s Friend cover) (Track 6). All of these tracks add their own aspects to this great album and help make Avantasia an excellent Symphonic metal band. Overall, Lost In Space (Chapter 1 & 2) is a great album and a great addition to your Metal arsenal!

Therion – Live Gothic [2CD/DVD]
Nuclear Blast Records

(4/5)

Swedish Symphonic metal band Therion has just gone live…again! This is actually the band’s second live album and is entitled Live Gothic. Although I have not been known in the past to have much Symphonic metal in my arsenal of music, this 2 CD/DVD release is definitely one I’ll be experiencing for quite some time! One great aspect of this release is the fact that a DVD was released along with the 2 live CDs to give you a better overall experience of the entire set. Overall, it’s definitely a great buy for previous Therion fans or for Symphonic metal fans period. Having a history of changing line-ups quite often, Therion is a hard band to name who is actually IN the band, but for this performance, the band consists of Christofer Johnsson (guitars, keyboards, and organs), Kristian Niemann (lead/rhythm guitars and keyboards), Johan Niemann (bass, guitar, and acoustic guitar), and Petter Karlsson (drums, guitar, keyboards, solo/choral vocals, and percussion) as well as the four solo/choral singers Lori Lewis, Katarina Lilja, Snowy Shaw, and Mats Levén. Out of the four singers, I have to say I prefer the guys voices. I had never heard Therion before, but I recognized Mats Levén’s voice from At Vance’s album Chained and Snowy Shaw’s lower singing really caught my attention as well as his physical appearance on the DVD. As far as the entire album goes, I have to say that no one song is more important to me than any of the others because of the fluidity of the performance, but I do really like the songs “Der Mitternachtslöwe” (Track 1) and “Schwarzalbenheim” (Track 2) as my top 2 favorites. All in all, this Live Gothic is a great buy and I recommend it to Symphonic metal fans everywhere!