Tag Archives: Avantasia

Hellsinki Metal Festival Has Booked Avantasia, Hammerfall, Kreator, Satyricon, Insomnium, Doro, Blackbraid and More for 2024

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Hellsinki Metal Festival has announced their first bands for the 2024 event! The fest takes place on August 9th & 10th in Helsinki@! The first announcement includes Avantasia, Hammerfall, Kreator, Satyricon, Insomnium, Doro, Blackbraid and many more! Hellsinki Metal Festival, organized for the first time this year, found its own place on the Finnish festival grounds on the second weekend of August in 2023. More than 11,000 visitors were able to enjoy a bold and versatile lineup of performers, which also included several bands that rarely visit Finland. The official aftermovie of this year’s event can be viewed here.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Delain – Dark Waters

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Dark Waters (Napalm Records), the seventh record by Dutch group Delain is met with quite a few lineup changes – a new vocalist and bassist in Diana Leah and Ludovico Cioffi, and the return of the long-term guitarist and drummer Ronald Landa and Sander Zoer. People may have come and gone but the symphonic quintet’s sound is still the same – operatic metal with liberal amounts of bombast and pomp. Continue reading →


STAFF PICKS: Ghost Cult Senior Editor Steve Tovey’s Top Albums of 2022

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Less waffle, more riffs. Favourite, not “best”. Here’s my Top 25 for you all (ranking is fairly nominal, and often based on gut at the point of submission). Lorna Shore ripped my head off, too, but I’ve only listened to it twice as I didn’t get to it at the point of release. That’s my one main omission (I think).Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Visions of Atlantis – Pirates

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If you’re looking for a metal album about pirates this summer that you can listen to guilt free (what? I meant now that we’re all mature enough to not worry about calling things like this a guilty pleasure… honest guv!), you need look no further than Visions of Atlantis’ eighth full-length album, the rather bluntly and descriptively titled Pirates (Napalm Records). 

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PODCAST: Episode 119: Thomas Youngblood of Kamelot 

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Ghost Cult caught up with Thomas Youngblood of Kamelot recently to discuss their brand new live album/concert DVD and Blu-ray Kamelot – I Am The Empire – Live From The 013,  out now via Napalm Records (review here). Thomas talked about the new live album, the production and planning that went into the concerts, the specialness of the 013 Poppodium venue in Tilburg, working with guests such as Elize Ryd of Amaranthe, Lauren Hart of Once HumNetheran, German string quartet Eklipse, Charlotte Wessels of Delain and Alissa White Gluz of Arch Enemy, Avantasia guitarist Sascha Paeth, writing materials with guests in mind, performing with a children’s choir, which included his son,  how he has been spending the pandemic, and plans for new Kamelot music. Purchase the live album set at this link and listen to our chat. Continue reading →


REVIEW: Kamelot – I Am The Empire – Live From The 013

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Ah, gigs. Remember them? Well,  I Am The Empire – Live From The 013 (Napalm Records), the new live release by veteran power metal act Kamelot is a welcome reminder of what live entertainment looked like in a pre-Covid world. 

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GHOST CULT’S ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Steve Tovey: Top 20 of 2019

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2019 seems an odd year for me to be writing a post about my albums of year, and to have so many albums I want to name-check or mention. See, early in the year I stepped down from my role within Ghost Cult – nothing the Cult did wrong, just a question of life and balance. Stepping back from direct exposure to every rock, metal or alternative release should have meant I had fewer albums to care about, but, actually, it’s afforded me more time with each of the albums that I have connected with.Continue reading →


Ghost Cult’s Album of the Year 2019 – Part 1 (75-41)

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Carcass with Surgical Steel (Nuclear Blast) in 2013, Behemoth and The Satanist (Metal Blade) in 2014, Ghost in 2015 and 2018 with Meliora and Prequelle (both Loma Vista), Magma (Roadrunner) by Gojira in 2016, and 2017’s Emperor of Sand (Mastodon – Reprise) is our legacy. Those incredible, scene-enhancing, ear-destroying releases are the standard-bearers by which Ghost Cult‘s albums of the year are to be judged. These are the albums of our times; and following another sensation year of great alternative, rock, and metal, the pantheon cries out for more, for another slab of wax, another Album of the Year to join them… the very best of 2019.

With a fully democratic poll of the views and votes of the length and breadth of Team Ghost Cult (including our photographers, reviewers, newshounds, podcast and YouTube contributors) taken, with no editorial steer or amendment, we present to you Part 1 (75-41) of the Official Ghost Cult Albums of the Year for 2019, for your vulgar delectation…Continue reading →


André Matos, Former Lead Singer of Angra and Viper, Dead at Age 47

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André Matos, the former lead singer of the Brazilian metal bands Angra and Viper, has died unexpectedly at the age of 47. His death was confirmed by ex-Angra drummer Ricardo Confessori, who wrote on his Facebook page: “It is with deep pain in our hearts that we say goodbye to André once again, this time definitively.” André performed last Sunday (June 2) at the Espaço das Américas in São Paulo with Shaman and also made a guest appearance with the show’s headliners, Avantasia. Tobias Sammet wrote on his Facebook page: “I am devastated by the tragic news about the passing of my friend André Matos whom I shared the stage with only five days ago. I am in shock. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. Rest in peace, André Matos.” We send our deepest sympathies for Matos’ family, friends, and fans at this time.Continue reading →