Artist : Timo Tolkki’s Avalon

Album : Return to Eden

Release Date : 14-06-2019

Added : 07-09-2019

'Timo Tolkki' is a renowned guitarist of the metal scene and after a very long time with 'Stratovarius', he has participated in several projects including 'Chaos Magic' with 'Caterina Nix' (see here) which releases a new album the same day (next review). With his project 'Timo Tolkki's Avalon', June 2019 saw the release of 'Return to Eden'. Knowing the melodic talent of Timo, fans of melodic metal are filled. First of all, 'Return to Eden' offers us prestigious guests with 'Anneke Van Giersbergen', which gravitates in a lot of metal projects including 'Ayreon' (see the latest album here) and who has released a beautiful live (see here), the Italian 'Mariangela Demurtas' from 'Tristania' band, 'Todd Michael Hall' from the group 'Riot V', 'Zachary Stevens' from the groups 'Savatage' and 'Circle II Circle' and finally 'Eduard Hovinga' from 'Elegy' band. After the short instrumental introduction 'Enlighten', we embarked for melodic metal in all styles : the fast and powerful 'Promises' starts with a double pedal that pours all its heart and Todd who is like a fish in water, then, 'Return to Eden' continues in this direction but not so speed with a classic melodic line but terribly effective, and with 'Hear My Call' sees Anneke's appearance in a very beautiful interpretation and a composition close to 'Within Temptation' (first period) which catch immediately attention. The following is the image of this beginning with melodies accessible at first listen with the welcome ballad break 'Godsend' and a magnificent interpretation of Mariangela. In summary, thanks to a line-up of talented musicians and renowned singers, 'Timo Tolkki' releases a beautiful and very accessible album of melodic metal and, even if some will blame him for a certain ease (it is certainly also that makes it successful), 'Return to Eden' should fill all fans of melodic metal effective...

Line Up / Musicians

Timo Tolkki (Guitars, Bass, Keybords), Aldo Lonobile (Guitar), Santtu Lehtiniemi: Guitar, Andrea Buratto (Bass), Antonio Agate (Keybords, Piano), Giulio Capone (Keybords, Drums, Piano), Jami Huovinen (Drums) + Guests : Anneke van Giersbergen (Vocal), Mariangela Demurtas (Vocal), Eduard Hovinga (Vocal), Todd Michael Hall (Vocal), Zachary Stevens (Vocal)