The Land of New Hope by Timo Tolkki's Avalon

The Land of New Hope is the first full-length album by Timo Tolkki's metal opera project Avalon. The album was released on May 17, 2013 in Europe and May 21, 2013 in the US.According to Tolkki "I sort of rediscovered myself musically in the process of making this album. I wrote the story first and started composing the music after that. My aim was to write memorable songs with good melodies that would support the story...On this album you will find a lot of different dynamics...with some songs that are fully orchestrated and sound very very big."Tolkki plans to release a trilogy about this concept, and The Land of New Hope is the end of the storySeveral heavy metal singers were invited to play the characters of the story of the album, with female vocalist Elize Ryd (Amaranthe) and vocalist Rob Rock (Impellitteri) appearing to be the main characters and singing on most of the songs. The remaining vocalists performing on the album were Michael Kiske (Unisonic, ex-Helloween), Russell Allen (Symphony X, Allen-Lande), Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation) and Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica). The artwork was created by Stanis W. Decker and will be released in 2 versions - regular cd and deluxe edition with a 30-minute documentary plus a promotional videoclip for the song "Enshrined in My Memory".