The Enigma Birth

The Enigma Birth is the fourth and final full-length album by Timo Tolkki's Finnish metal opera project Avalon, released on June 18, 2021.

As with the previous effort, several heavy metal singers were invited to play the characters of the story of the album.

The album was announced on 14 April 2021 alongside a video for "Beauty and War" (featuring Raphael Mendes). On 27 of the same month, a video for "Master of Hell", also featuring Mendes, was released. On 10 May, Avalon released a video for "The Fire and the Sinner" (featuring Jake E and Brittney Slayes). On the day of the album's release, a lyric video for "Beautiful Lie" (featuring James LaBrie) was published.

According to Tolkki, he created a fourth part for the trilogy out of contractual obligations with Frontiers Records. In September, he wrote around 10 tracks for the album and the label picked about half for the final track list; the remaining songs were written by a team of unacquainted Italian songwriters. He also claimed he doesn't know most of the guests, who were all suggested by the label.

Critical reception
Writing for Metal.de, Jannik Kleemann praised the performances of the guest singers, called Tolkki "a good guitarist" that "can write good material", but said "the atmosphere of projects like Avantasia is clearly denser". Nevertheless, he concluded his review by saying that "what remains is a decent, symphonic power metal album".

Jonathan Smith, at Sonic Perspectives, said that "for an album that isn't that much of a stylistic enigma, it nevertheless provides an assortment of anthems so fun and varied that frequent replays are a virtual certainty" and ultimately called it "an album not to be missed".

Personnel
Per sources.

Instrumentalists
 * Timo Tolkki (ex-Stratovarius, Symfonia, Revolution Renaissance) – guitars
 * Aldo Lonobile (Secret Sphere) – guitars
 * Federico Maraucci – additional guitars
 * Andrea Arcangeli (Concept, DGM) – bass
 * Antonio Agate (Secret Sphere) – keyboards and orchestrations
 * Marco Lazzarini (Secret Sphere) – drums

Vocalists
 * James LaBrie (Dream Theater, MullMuzzler)
 * Jake E (ex-Amaranthe, Cyhra)
 * Marina La Torraca (Phantom Elite, Exit Eden)
 * Brittney Hayes (Unleash the Archers)
 * Raphael Mendes (Icon of Sin)
 * Fabio Lione (ex-Labyrinth, ex-Vision Divine, ex-Rhapsody of Fire, Turilli / Lione Rhapsody, Angra, Eternal Idol)
 * Caterina Nix (Chaos Magic)
 * PelleK

Production
 * Timo Tolkki & Aldo Lonobile - production