Here Be Dragons

Here Be Dragons is a 2025 work that AVANTASIA refined around rock-opera theatricality and the great elation of melodic/power metal. The songs have many scene changes, and symphonic thickness, hard guitar and lyrical parts appear alternately. Even after a long career, it is a record on which their creativity has not dimmed in the least. On “Creepshow,” “Here Be Dragons” and “Unleash The Kraken,” multiple voices ring like characters in a story, and the choruses push the whole work’s scale wide open at once. Songs like “The Witch,” “Avalon” and “Everybody's Here Until The End” breathe the band’s full playing too. While prioritizing drama, each song has a clear hook. It is a full, characteristically AVANTASIA record for those who seek both fantasy and a hard-rock feel at once.