- A - Anastacia, Avantasia

As soon as I picked out Anouk for mention I rewound to the voice of Anastacia and couldn't resist giving a name check to the debut album Not That Kind and the best with hits I'm Outta Love and Not That Kind.

I'm not going to linger on the rest of the catalogue, nothing wrong with any of the later albums but they aren't quite as strong as this one.

Avantasia slip into the recommendations despite being a fairly recent addition to the collection. They get a mention as at the time of writing I'm still waiting for the latest masterpiece to arrive Avantasia - The Flying Opera, Around The World In 20 Days (2xDVD + 2xCD) [2008].

My only other introduction to the band is The Wicked Symphony & Angel Of Babylon available individually or as a box set. Not a million miles away from Ayreon in style and calibre of guests, Avantasia is vocalist Tobias Sammet of Edguy plus Kiss drummer Eric Singer (so that's a pretty good start) followed by appearences from Klaus Meine (Scorpions), Tim Owens (ex-Judas Priest) Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween) Bruce Kulick (ex-Kiss) and Bob Catley (Magnum) amongst others. Over The Top definitely, essential listening same again.

That pretty much rounds up the A's although I may come back to Anvil, Accept, Adverts, Almighty, Angel, Angelfish, Anthrax and Antiproduct.