Epica - "The Obsessive Devotion"

Don't you ever blind me, don't be a foolish thief.

Rating: 7/10

This is the second song I have posted from this album and I am extremely mixed on this one. The first half of the song I absolutely love, one of my favorite songs, but the in the second half it really goes downhill for me. Something about the lyrics in the beginning are just beautiful to me. I feel having read through the lyrics that this song is about a person going through the five stages of grief, if you read the lyrics, the first two lyrical sections cover denial, the third anger, the next section is bargaining, and the rest of the song is acceptance. Quite an amazing song and I consider the first part of the song to be one of Epica's best. The album for me is fairly good, but the only two stand out songs are this and Never Enough which my review of can be found here. That actually sums up Epica as a band fairly well for me. Most of their songs are fairly good with a few absolute gems which are some of my favorite songs.

Avantasia - "Spectres"

Wide open minds will divine without reason, cold is the night as you're braving the gale

Rating: 9/10

This is the best track from Avantasia's 2013 album The Mystery of Time, which, as normal with Avantasia, is quite an exceptional album. Also as is normal with Avantasia, all the songs on the album are good, but none of them stand out to me as incredible. This song in particular I like because of the transitions between fast instrument focused sections and slower vocal focused sections. I am very impressed with this song and this album in general and it definitely is one of my top metal albums of the year.

Kamelot - "When the Lights are Down"

'cause when the lights are down, there's no more to say.

Rating: 6/10

A fairly nice power/symphonic metal song and part of a very interesting set of three concept albums ((Karma, Epica (not the band), and The Black Halo) loosely based on the German play Goethe's Faust. Overall the song is one of my favorite songs by Kamelot, but isn't really one of my favorite songs in general. It has very nice guitar intro and the backing is generally quite good, but I don't really get pulled in by the lyrics, and as such it isn't quite as it could be. Still a nice song though.