Angels of the Apocalypse

Constancy has never been the strength of legendary power metal guitar hero Timo Tolkki who has created some of the genre’s best and worst releases. After many years of personal problems, Timo Tolkki came back with a trendy metal opera project in three parts to jump on the bandwagon. The first chapter “The Land Of New Hope” was actually a good album. It wasn’t anything extraordinary but an enjoyable symphonic power metal output. I was really looking forward for the second part for another reason though. Timo Tolkki brought back keyboarder Antti Ikonen and drummer Tuomo Lassila who played on the first four Stratovarius albums. Many song titles of the new releases were also closely connected to my favourite European power metal album “Dreamspace”. In addition to this, the guest singers seemed promising with Nightwish’s Floor Janse, Epica’s Simon Simons and Virgin Steele’s David DeFeis among other. Everything seemed promising and I was ready to praise this album but it comes along as a huge disappointment. This record is maybe even the worst album Timo Tolkki ever wrote and may beat Stratovarius’ “Elements Part I” and Revolution Renaissance’s “New Era” that had at least one or two decent songs here and there.

“Angels of the Apocalypse” is so bad that I almost don’t know where to start. Let’s simply give an overall impression first. Whoever was responsible for the production of the album should be fired or quit his job immediately. The vocalists sound extremely thin, the artificially sounding orchestral passages are too loud and the sound samples are either too loud or almost inaudible from one moment to the other.

The song writing of this record is lackluster and sound like a very bad rehash of several other metal opera projects and power metal records. Most of the songs have no dynamics at all and just drag along. The vocals and instrumental parts mostly don’t fit together. The extremely weak orchestral passages are overused and kill any potential epic atmosphere. Apart of the forced single “Design The Century” which sounds like a weak copy of the previous single “Enshrined In My Memory”, no single song has a catchy chorus or hook in the entire album.

The musicianship on this record is also extremely weak. The keyboarder overuses the orchestral passages, the bass guitar has no shining moments at all, the drum play is ordinary and the guitar solos sound old-fashioned and worn-out apart of a few exceptions.

The vocalists are extremely weak. Floor Jansen almost sounds shy and out of breath and David DeFeis seems to miss every single note to only name a few disappointing guest singers.

The songs go from bad to worse. The dull vocals only introduction “Song for Eden” is a total bummer and worst possible start to an album. The vocals and instrumental parts in the lyrically worn-out “Rise of the Fourth Reich” are a dishonour to both Stratovarius’ “4th Reich” and “Götterdämmerung (Zenith of Power)”. The George W. Bush sample adds the cherry on the cake. “Stargate Atlantis” has the most awful keyboard sound I have heard in years and I listen to a lot of low budget underground stuff. The ballads “You’ll Bleed Forever” and “High Above Me” are boring and completely forgettable lullabies of the worst kind. The epic title song “Angels of the Apocalypse” is way too calm and includes too many breaks. It never ever gets dynamical or original and it’s at least nine minutes and seven seconds too long.

I really tried to find a good song on the record but none of them completely convinces me. Three tracks may partially convince. The classic power metal opener “Jerusalem Is Falling” has a few good guitar solos. “Neon Sirens” is a good rock song with an acceptable vocal performance. "Design the Century" is weak but has a catchy chorus. That’s it. This album has three tracks that are at best partially okay while the rest is more or less an abomination.

I’m sorry to say this as I really respect many works of Timo Tolkki and have followed him over all these years and always encouraged him to carry on with his music but this album is his worst ever in my opinion. The production is horrible, the musicianship is weak, the guest vocalists can’t shine, the song writing is bad, the lyrics are redundant, well, even the album title is stereotypical and exchangeable. Even if you liked the first part of the trilogy and even if you are a faithful collector, do yourself a favor and stay away from this forever.