Fairyland

Clearly candidates for the "most un-metallic heavy metal band name ever conceived" competition, France's Fairyland specialize in epic, fantasy-laced, keyboard-driven, progressive/symphonic-minded power metal of the sort made popular by Italy's Rhapsody and Germany's Avantasia, among others. First conceived of in 1998 by multi-instrumentalist Willdric Lievin, Fairyland gradually accumulated collaborators Anthony Parker (guitar) and Philippe Giordana (keyboards) in the next few years, but only got around to recording their debut album, Of Wars in Osyrhia, in 2003 -- when they at...