Search - Aina :: Days of Rising Doom: The Metal Opera

Avantasia is WAY better!

Missy Hoppe | Cincinnati, Ohio; USA | 04/08/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Before I review this disc, I need to make it clear that I only purchased it because I read that Michael Kiske and Tobias Sammet sang on it. These two guys are my all-time favorite singers, but I'm especially partial to Tobias Sammmet, so try to collect absolutely anything I can find that he's been involved with.

Anyway, with that being said, I simply can't get into the Aina project. Many of the prior reviews have already expressed my feelings to an extent, so I won't go into tremendous detail. Except for the singers I mentioned above, I just didn't care for any of the vocalists on this disc. Also, for me at least, none of the songs were at all memorable, especially when compared to the material in the Avantasia project.

The Aina story didn't make all that much sense to me either, and it seems as if whoever wrote the songs was trying to force the story to be told in the lyrics, and there were simply too many words to make the songs sound good; not sure if that makes sense, but I think what I'm trying to say is that none of these songs are particularly easy to sing along with.

Bottom line, this disc was a pretty big disappointment for me. I think that the singers did their best to make the songs sound good, but not even great singers can do much with wordy, easily forgetable songs."

Pretty much Movie/Broadway material

L. McKee | Yreka, CA | 07/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, so I got this album and was thinking "Man Oh man!, a metal opera!" so I popped it in and listened. The intro of piano and strings caught my attention, and after finding the lyrics to the album, I was hooked. Now this album, I admit, would not be for the super metal fans who want non-stop fast tunage.



This, if you could open your mind a little further, would proove worthy of Broadway prodution, or even a movie. Songs such as "Naschtok Is Born" and "Flight of Torek" are very well composed metal tunes. While on the Broadway/opera side of things there must be slow songs, such as "Silver Maiden" and "Lalae Amêr" (which I personally am appreciative because of the language that had to be made up for it) And a very noticable Broadway-like song , "Oriana's Wrath" and if you say it's not then you must have not heard what a Broadway show sounds like



NOTE AGAIN: this is NOT for the metal fan looking for non-stop fast paced insanity



This is more for the metal fan who can appreciate it like a good fantasy novel, except in metal opera form.



As for the music and vocals, it pretty much blew me away. Every guest in this epic has phenomenal voice, especialy Thomas Rettke, particularly in the song "Naschtok is Born". Glenn Hughes also did very well in "Talon's Last Hope". As for the music section, Robert Hunecke-Rizzo did a terrific job. And the composition of the stings is spectacular, thank you Miro!



The story and lyrics (written by Amanda Somerville) is entrancing, though also I give probs to it because of its originality. The fictional language used and the names and storyline are marvelous. And finally, a gigantic thanks to Sascha Paeth for producing this awesome piece of meatal-opera history.



All in all, I'm eagerly awaiting to hear if this is going to make it to Broadway or film. If you enjoy Broadway and are at least somewhat a power-metal fan, this would make a fabulous collection to your music library. A must buy"