Avantasia

In the spring of 1999, during Edguy's Theater of Salvation tour, Tobias Sammet had the idea of making a metal opera concept album involving several musicians. After the end of the tour, he began collaborating with Michael Kiske, Andre Matos, Kai Hansen, Rob Rock, David Defeis, Sharon den Adel, Bob Catley and Oliver Hartmann to record the album. At this stage, the project included four members, namely Sammet on keyboards, Henjo Richter on guitar, Markus Grosskopf on bass and Alex Holzwarth on drums. In 2001, a self-titled single and a first studio album, The Metal Opera, were released. The project went on hiatus after the release of The Metal Opera Part II in September 2002.