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I liked Avaland’s debut, Theater of Sorcery, but I can’t say the follow-up, The Legend of the Storyteller, is as good. Adrien Gzagg’s band still plays power metal with a wide range of guest musicians and an even more diverse palette of influences woven into the songwriting. In addition to some typical power metal songs, Gzagg has worked in folk, symphonic, cinematic, and even electronic instrumentation and sensibilities across The Legend of the Storyteller. There are flutes and strings on "Secret Night" and glossy, electronic synths on "Madness of the Wise" to go along with more straight-ahead cuts like "Kingslayer." The vocal lines on "Lies" strike me as sounding like they were lifted from a Broadway show and, while some may not be bothered by that, I find them grating. Same goes for the chorus of voices on "Out of the Fog." None of the above are poorly done, so they may play to personal preference. The album sounds good, and everyone is hitting the notes they are supposed to but where the album stumbles is the songwriting, which is simply not very engaging. If you took random Rhapsody of Fire, Fairyland and Ancient Bards albums, mixed them up and removed anything remotely distinctive, you’d have The Legend of the Storyteller, a solid but generic album. It is so bland that I have a hard time remembering anything other than I didn’t like a couple of songs. Give it a whirl if power metal is your thing, but don’t be surprised if you listen a couple of times and it works its way to the back of your rotation.