Avantasia – "Here Be Dragons"

"Nonsense! There hasn't been a dragon in these parts for a thousand years"

Any seriously die-hard readers (and/or regular friends) of mine will know that it's virtually impossible for me to talk about Avantasia without also at least mentioning how awesome those two first "Metal Opera" albums are, and how, by extent, Avantasia isn't all they have been. And this in spite of having delivered often much more than solid, mountain-sized hard rock – which you'd have to be a cultural cripple to not appreciate as a bare minimum.

Well, I'm not the only one who feels this way. And perhaps, then, like-minded Avantasia fans have finally made mastermind and vocalist Tobias Sammet finally turn up that dragon dial a notch this time around?

Whatever the case, the 10th Avantasia LP is called "Here Be Dragons", and apart from featuring a dragon on the album cover, it also features the group's biggest concentration of dragon metal (i.e., power metal) since those two first masterpiece records. And yay for that.

However, it does take a while for things to get into gear. Opener "Creepshow" dangerously straddles the line between dumb and awesome, being centered around a neat little riff cadence, but superimposed by the lyric "Get up, get up, come on". Yes, that is the big hook in the opener here. The modulations from chorus to verse and back again are cool, and the whole thing does rock... But seriously, that fucking "Get up, get up, come on" focal point is just too fucking lame, and I am tired of having it running on a loop in my cochlea after every damn spin.

I find myself looking at that dragon on the cover, wondering what the whole deal is, and starting to chuckle a bit. I mean, is it the dragon that's urging us to "get up, get up, come on", or what's the deal here...? Hahah, look at that dumb, skinny bug-dragon. Dammit, if you wanna have a dragon on your album cover, take a glance towards Rhapsody (of Fire) or Twilight Force. Those guys know how to do it.

Kidding aside, the ensuing title track bites off much more than it can chew, composition-wise. The verse evolves in one little part after the other, all of them serving the functionality of a verse, but sounding different. The chorus is clearly defined, but everything in between the choruses sounds like it's been written in order to accommodate a huge amount of lyrics with no consistent meter rather than sing a fucking song. And then, Jesus Christ, both the chorus and the C-section start to do the same thing. Strong chorus; not a lot of rhyme or reason beyond that.

Anyway, that's when things start to pick up. "The Moorland at Twilight" is pure power, initially sounding like an uptempo version of Royal Hunt (Denmark's best-kept metal secret, for lack of a better-known reference), and eventually breaking out into a flamingly intense chorus with almost direct reference to "Another Angel Down" from "The Scarecrow" (2008). Not as fresh or inspired, but for those of us who've been dying for an ange... I mean, for Avantasia to sound this way, it's gratifying. Also "Unleash the Kraken" is pure power metal revived and invigorated with some of that stuff that's been making our species wanna start and end lives for millions of years. Sammet's blowtorch vocals belting out the title line are hypnotizingly potent.

Of course, this being an Avantasia album and all, a buncha other vocalists are all over the whole deal, as is to be expected. Can't go into detail with all of them, but some of them don't draw as much attention to themselves as might also be expected, either. Being a native Dane, though, I will use my author's privilege to at least mention "Phantasmagoria", featuring, once again, Pretty Maids vocalist Ronnie Atkins – Denmark's all-time finest metal singer. The song's lead theme is a direct carbon copy of that from the Maids' own "Pandemonium", which is kinda cute, and a bit cheap at the same time. But Atkins' tight-clenched hard rock squall is impeccable as always. And shit, again the chorus opening draws a straight line back to "Another Angel Down". Is this on purpose??

In spite of its bumpy beginnings and unimportant elements, "Here Be Dragons" manages to surpass its predecessor. Not by a whole lot, but still enough that it's noticeable.

Another old acquaintance in Avantasia-land – much older, in fact – also happily graces "Here Be Dragons". Former Magnum vocalist Bob Catley virtually gets a solo performance in "Bring on the Night", his stately pipes dominating a near-perfect split track: The verse and bridge sound like his former band, and the chorus sounds like every immense Avantasia refrain from the last 17 years – a banger like "Spectres" comes to mind. Since Magnum will never perform again, we'd better be damn grateful that Catley, 77 years old, still gets to have outings like this. And I'd be damned if I'm not getting a bit sentimental over that lyric of "Those heeding the melody / Celestial rhapsody / We keep the night light burning". If you get that reference, I will buy you a beer.

The easiest recognizable tune this time around is the infectious triplet-meter folk metal of "Avalon". Hear it once, and that one line of "CALLING YOU INTO THE DA-AAAWN LIGHT" will get stuck in your head forever. Adrienne Cowan's cute voice makes for the biggest stand-out, vocal-wise. However, it's also at this point that it occurs to me how neat and clean everything is here. I'm getting an unfortunate feeling that a lot of the band's listeners are also the kinds of people who are into all that sterile, polished pseudo-metal that's been coming out in these last two accursed decades.

Another detractor here is, as superior as these songs are when their choruses transcend this planet's tropospheric layers, their verses often leave a bit too much to be desired. It's far from the first time that an album in any genre displays this phenomenon, and it will not be the last. It's most apparent in "The Witch": Even after several spins, I couldn't recall its verse if my life depended on it, but it has this gargantuan force breaking open the heavens in an outburst of pure electric energy, and you'll wanna boom it out to the entire world from all of its rooftops:

SCRE-EEEEEAMS SOUND
IN THE WIND AND RAIN
STO-OOORM-BOUND
ON A DIM NOVEMBER DAY
AS SCRE-EEEEEAMS SOUND
AND THEY DRIVE ME INSANE
I-IIIIII KNOW! WHAT A BEAUTI-FUUUL DAAAY!

... And then, back to a verse that you'll never even hum to yourself if someone offered to pay you for it.

Overall, though, we're good here. Yes, in spite of its bumpy beginnings and unimportant elements, "Here Be Dragons" manages to surpass its predecessor, 2022's "A Paranormal Evening With the Moonflower Society". Not by a whole lot, but still enough that it's noticeable.

In fact, I might be a bit stingy, only dealing out a 4/6 rating this time around. But I know Sammet can still do much, much better than this. And yes, I'm thinking of those first two albums. Again.

Rating: 4 out of 6

Genre: Hard rock / power metal
Release date: 28/2/2025
Label: Napalm Records
Producer: Tobias Sammet + Sascha Paeth