Label: Rockshot Records
Release date: April 2, 2021
Production: Adrien G. Gzagg
Album length: 62.56 min
Genre: Power Metal
Rating: 8.0/10
Nice to see that in these strange times someone’s still up for a little magic and fairy-tale storytelling. Power metal. This time from Grenoble, France. The band: Avaland. The debut: “Theater of Sorcery.” Behind it all is the driving force of twenty-two-year-old vocalist and main composer Adrien G. Gzagg. What’s more, for someone so young and fresh-faced, he’s flying high, because he dreamed up the band’s debut very ambitiously. A concept metal opera in the spirit of the good old days, when more than twenty years ago acts like Avantasia were serving up similar stories and popularizing power metal.
In fact, that first paragraph gave you all the essential info on what to expect from this release. The songs are, of course, textbook, cliché power metal, but propped up and decked out with neoclassical flourishes that give it a distinctly symphonic touch. As it should be, since this is a metal opera concept. Luckily, you can tell right away that this isn’t a band of Germanic-Scandinavian or Italian origin, because the album hasn’t gone through excessive polishing and keeps a good dose of raw production and the bristling swing of a guitar-riff whirlwind, which brings an important dark element to the record. And that element balances the flow of events really well and stops the album from being taken over by random outbursts of saccharine pathos, which is a common staple in this kind of power metal. “Theater of Sorcery” is a pleasingly scowling production job, where the guitar lines spit out serious swagger and bite, even though the album, thanks to the keyboard arrangements, carries an element of baroque frills.
The album is definitely full of pomp and bombast. Since it’s a concept and since we dropped the word Avantasia in the first paragraph, the real link to it is the crowd of guest singers, to whom young Adrien G. Gzagg handed out vocal roles based on the characters of the concept itself, with its endless mysteries, magic, and the fairy-tale beyond of brave warriors and wicked creatures. To get Zak Stevens (Savatage, Circle II Cirlcle, Archon Angel) and Ralf Sheppers (Primal Fear) on your album, or at least win these two singers over, you have to show talent. There are also singers Heli Andrea (Mobius) and Madie (Nightmare), plus the rest of the male vocals, represented by Fabrice Emmanuelson (Rising Steel, Ellipsis), Tunisian Zaher Zorgati (Myrath), and Jeff Kanji (Seasons of Silence).
So what pulls this release out of the gray of already-heard mediocrity? Really well-built songs, often with very distinctive and catchy choruses, and a good feel for gradually building up moods, as well as a bunch of sudden mood swings. With the guest-singer garrison guaranteeing an extra-high level of dynamic storytelling – no need to waste time on their talents and contributions –, the really important feeling the album gives off is that it’s first and foremost the album of a band, not a project.
“Theater Of Sorcery” is a very ambitious first step into the world of music that could easily be the soundtrack to the video game Soulcalibur, since we’re on the subject of variations on the word Avalon. In the songwriting you can feel melodies that the likes of Kamelot once picked out long ago. The chorus of the third track, Let The Wind Blow, ties into the ultra-musical bombast that’s often deliberately overdone these days, and sounds like something Beast In Black forgot to record. Some of you may have connected this story with the French symphonic power metal band Adagio, led by guitarist Stephan Forte, and that’s spot on. The man himself contributed one of the guitar solos on this Avaland debut. Besides him, there are a few more guest guitar soloists on the album. 63 minutes is honestly a lot of time, and the album says everything it has to say way before the end. The songs are mostly laid-back mid-tempo, which gives them plenty of room to build dramatic theater. And there’s plenty of that. Despite the proven qualities, you have to keep in mind how extremely predictable the release is, so it’ll first and foremost be snapped up by die-hard power metal fans. As said. “Theater of Sorcery” is a boldly laid cornerstone in the career of a young band. A compact and exemplarily polished musical document.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Theater Of Sorcery
2. Gypsum Flower
3. Let the Wind Blow
4. Storyteller
5. Escape To Paradise
6. Holy Kingdom Of Fools
7. Never Let Me Walk Alone
8. Deja Vu
9. I’ll Be Ready For Your Love
10. War Of Minds
11. Rise From The Ashes
Lineup:
Adrien G. Gzagg – vocals, keyboards, orchestrations
Christophe Feutrier – guitar
Lucas Martinez – guitar
Camille Souffron – bass
Leo Mouchonnay – drums
Vocal characters:
Adrien G. Gzagg – Adam Wilstorm
Zaher Zorgati (Myrath) – Adam’s Inner Voice
Jeff Kanji – Jacob Reiser, Adam’s Best Friend
Heli Andrea (Mobius/OLANE) – Solveig Elweiss, Adam’s Beloved
Emmanuelson (Rising Steel/Ellipsis) – The Master Of Sorcery
Zak Stevens (ex-Savatage/TSO/Archon Angel) – The Storyteller, appearing from the past
Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear/ex-Gamma Ray) – Aloïsius Jestens, King Of Avaland
Madie (Nightmare/Faith In Agony) – The Guardian Angel
Guest guitarists:
Ricky Marx – guitar solo on track no. 1
Stephan Forte – guitar solo on track no. 2
Ayman Mockdad – guitar solo on track no. 7
Virgile – guitar solo on track no. 8
