Timo Tolkki Avalon 2014

This website was created so that fans could follow the progress of Timo Tolkki and the making of his new album, including writing and recording sessions and special cameos from the musicians and singers involved, from the new website www.avalonopera.com.

The content is from the site's 2014 archived pages.

Welcome to the website of AVALON II. It is created for promotion of the sequel for the successful first part of the New Metal Opera: “The Land Of New Hope”. We will carefully document the entire process of making of the album from start to finish and you can enjoy them by watching the carefully crafted video blogs. We will reveal the cast one by one in the upcoming months and frequently update the making of video blogs.

Please help us building a community around AVALON through likings in our Social Media circles and spreading the word. We do this out of love towards music and the very heart of it is Timo Tolkki’s 25 year career. We hope you like what we have done with this page and our Social Media. We would like to invite you to participate in making this album with us and helping us creating that. We value your support tremendously. Above all, enjoy the experience like we are doing. This is going to be a hell of a journey and we have surprises for you that you cannot even imagine at this point.

"I had the privilege of watching this band rehearse their live set in June 2014 and was blown away by their technical chops as well as their arrangements. Super tight, super on key and perfectly engaged with one another. My friend Niles was handling the sound duties for the rehearsal so I really got a front row seat. Some promoter was trying to get the band to wear their Batman branded shirts and hoodies, so it was a blast to see them all in Batman T shirts (the hoodies were too warm). I spoke with the promoter who repped the online retailer MoonAtMidnight and he gave me what he considered the best Batman t shirt in the store - a full color Batman Begins shirt. When the band's manager arrived, he had the band remove all their Batman apparel and scolded the promoter for intruding on sacred ground, so I guess those products will never get on stage. But the band will definitely succeed whatever they're wearing, which will probably be more appropriate anyway." Neville Lorde

ABOUT

Timo Tolkki’s Avalon was born in the Autumn of 2012. The debut album “The Land of New Hope” was released in May 2013 by Frontiers Records and had high chart entries in 7 countries.

The album features performances by numerous internationally acclaimed singers and musicians such as Michael Kiske, Elize Ryd, Russell Allen, Sharon Den Adel, Tony Kakko, Alex Holzwarth, Jens Johansson, Derek Sherenian and of course Timo Tolkki himself.

Although Avalon has been described by the media as a Metal Opera, it really is a vehicle for Timo Tolkki to express his music in various formats using high quality musicians. Avalon is formatized in the sense that for example in a live situation, anyone of the vocalists could sing in the live show. It doesn’t have a permanent line up except Tolkki.

Metal Operas have become very popular and Avalon is certainly not the first to introduce this. Since the 70′s there has been numerous Rock Operas until Savatage composed “Streets-A Rock Opera” in the 90′s. There were other projects such as Aina, Ayreon, Consortium Project and in between 1990-2000 David DeFeis of American band Virgin Steele composed and released 3 Metal Operas based on Greek Mythology. Based on this concept of having many singers and musicians and calling it a “Metal Opera” was Avantasia, a project of German based musician Tobias Sammet.

Avalon sees itself as a continuation to the evolution of all these, hence the title “The New Metal Opera” but it is really based on Timo Tolkki’s songwriting skills as one of the forefathers of Melodic Power Metal with his band Stratovarius with whom he perfected the style by composing many Power Metal anthems between 1995-2003, playing over 2000 shows all over the world, winning a Finnish Grammy and selling more than 2 million copies between those years. With a touch of more Symphonic and grandiose sound including a lot of dynamics from ballads to fast paced songs, that is the style of Timo Tolkki’s Avalon.

The name comes from the film “The Mists of Avalon”, which tells the story of King Arthur. The film describes Avalon as a place likened to “heaven” that normal mortals cannot see and it is divided by mist. It is one of Timo Tolkki’s favourite films.

The future of Avalon looks promising and Tolkki is looking forward to all the musical stories he is able to tell with it and its possibilities and also live touring has been considered due to high demand from the fans and promoters.

A new album will be released in 2014.

Frontiers Press-Release

After the success of Timo Tolkki’s Avalon debut album “The Land of New Hope” which entered the top 100 album charts in 7 European countries (including a glowing Top 10 entry in Tolkki’s home country Finland), Timo Tolkki has started working on a sequel to his first Metal Opera, slated for a 2014 release on Frontiers Records.

Fans can follow the progress of the making of the album, including writing and recording sessions and special cameos from the musicians and singers involved, from the new website www.avalonopera.com.

The entire cast of musicians will be revealed one by one in separate video blogs. Fans will be able to interact and take part to different phases of the production through the website and in the social media pages.

The confirmed cast of musicians/singers is once again full of internationally acclaimed artists, with some interesting twists and surprises. It will surely guarantee another masterpiece from one of the forefathers of Symphonic Melodic Power Metal.

The first singer from the cast is Simone Simons of Epica. Please click her picture for more info. She is one of the leading ladies in the Female Voices category in the World, however she is not singing the main role on AVALON II, whichis a working title for the album. The final name will be revealed later.

To date, Timo Tolkki has sold over 2 million records in his career, has won a Finnish Grammy and has been chosen by the readers of the American Guitar World magazine to TOP 100 as “the Fastest Guitar Player in the World” and “the Most influential Metal Guitar Player in the World”. He has released 20 albums in his career and toured the world for over 3000 shows in 52 countries.

Stay tuned for more info soon !

THE CAST

Timo Tolkki is proud to present the cast for the forthcoming Avalon II album. The cast members are being announced step by step, if you want to be among the first ones to hear the news, it is a good idea to follow Timo Tolkki’s Avalon. Be sure to check out the profiles and enjoy the exclusive videogreetings made by the musicians!

Floor Jansen is the main vocalist on Avalon II, the album and European tour planned for May 2014

The Nightwish/ReVamp singer Floor Jansen will appear in the leading role on the next album of Timo Tolkki’s Avalon Metal Opera.

Jansen is the main vocalist on the album and sings lead vocals on the first single and promotional video. The release date for both single and the video is planned for March. The recordings are currently taking place in East Sound Studios in Helsinki, Finland. Jansen joins the cast that already includes Epica singer Simone Simons and the reunion of the early Stratovarius. Lineup: Tuomo Lassila on drums (the founder of Stratovarius) and Antti Ikonen on keyboards (the original keyboard player of Stratovarius).

A European Tour is also planned for May 2014, to coincide with the release of the album. More details on the live lineup and dates will be revealed later.

Timo Tolkki comments straight from the studio: “I am right now recording probably the best vocalist I have worked with in my whole career. This has been a jaw dropping experience and I thought I have already seen it all. Floor has proven me wrong. For example in the 10 minute title track of the album, she delivers in my opinion the best vocals of her career so far. This song is probably the biggest sounding of my whole career and Floor simply makes it an astonishing, almost breathtaking experience! We are both surprised of how amazing this has turned out to be and both very happy to hear how amazing it sounds.”

Timo Tolkki comments straight from the studio: “I am right now recording probably the best vocalist I have worked with in my whole career. This has been a jaw dropping experience and I thought I have already seen it all. Floor has proven me wrong. For example in the 10 minute title track of the album, she delivers in my opinion the best vocals of her career so far. This song is probably the biggest sounding of my whole career and Floor simply makes it an astonishing, almost breathtaking experience! We are both surprised of how amazing this has turned out to be and both very happy to hear how amazing it sounds.”

Nov 23

Keyboardist Antti Ikonen joins Avalon line up and the Recordings of the new Avalon album start

The original keyboard player of Stratovarius Antti Ikonen has joined the line up of Avalon. He played all keyboards on the classic Stratovarius albums such as “Fright Night”, “Twilight Time”, “Dreamspace” and “Fourth Dimension”.

The recordings of the new Avalon album will start on the 25th of November on East Sounds Studios in Helsinki Finland with drum recordings and Timo, Tuomo and Antti reuniting in studio together for the first since 1995. The new album will feature 11 tracks with a released slated during 2014 on Frontiers Records.

The guys are in great spirits and Timo Tolkki states:

“It is incredibly refreshing to create and play new music with his old friends and that the spirit and the atmosphere has been absolutely great and positive!”

Oct 30

Become Part of Avalon Family

Send us your picture, name, city and country and we include it to a special FANS section of avalonopera.com. Your photo and info will be part of a mosaic like fans formation and you will become a part of the growing Avalon family.

Update: We have created a simple solution for you to share the pictures – just use the contact form below! Please, be patient as the pictures are uploaded in stag

Oct 28

Tuomo Lassila joins in the Avalon 2 line up

Tuomo Lassila, the founder of the legendary Finnish Power Metal band Stratovarius, will join his old bandmate Timo Tolkki for the recording of the drums and percussion parts on the second album of Tolkki’s Avalon Metal Opera.

Oct 07

First singer for Avalon II revealed

The first singer from the cast is Simone Simons of Epica. You can find more info after clicking Simone’s picture on The Cast page. She is one of the leading ladies in the Female Voices category in the World, however she is not singing the main role on AVALON II, which is a working title for the album. The final name will be revealed later.

AvalonOpera.com