MYSTOPERA is an ambitious visionary project from composer/violinist Meike Katrin Stein and singer/songwriter Markus Engelfried.  On August 1, 2025, they release their debut album, a metal opera entitled Das Lied Der Steinernen Engel, via Metalville Records. If you’re thinking about opera as in lavish scenery and costumes with the libretto belted out by a heavyset woman wearing horns, then maybe you need to stop watching so many old cartoons. (Or maybe that’s just me). The type of opera MYSTOPERA has composed is more Folk Metal with a heavy infusion of Power Metal threaded with a Viking narrative and filled with “mysticism, suspense, and devotion.” And to tell their tale, they enlisted the talents of guest musicians and artists from SCHANDMAUL, PRIMAL FEAR, CORVUS CORAX, HARPYIE, MR. HURLEY, and the PULVERAFFEN as well as the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. So, yeah, “epic” kind of captures it.

Das Lied Der Steinernen Engel (trans: The Song of the Stone Angels) comprises 12 tracks with a run time right of about an hour. True to form its operatic form it kicks off with a proper overture before launching into its saga. What exactly that saga is all about, I really don’t know. It’s all in German. But I can guess the shape of the story from the song titles, and I can sense some of the nuance from the music. Here’s what I’m sensing: An epic adventure of the Pagan Viking sort with a sea voyage, lots of fighting and maybe a funeral, then more sea voyaging and even more fighting follow by something about honor and death and then maybe some furious vengeance and some sort of heroic ending.

Musically, there’s no guessing necessary. It’s hard to bring that much talent in and not come up with something great. Even though this is more of a ‘full listen, linear’ album than a suffle track album, if I had to pick standout tracks I’d go with “Schearze Flammen” (trans: black flames) because I’m a sucker for the clean, soprano female vocals which in this instance are performed by Alina Lesnik; “Land in Sicht” (trans: land in sight) for the killer solo as well as vocals from Ralf Scheepers; “Herrscher de Meeres” (trans: rules of the sea) because it’s like all the songs wrapped up in one ; and “Die Welt soll Brennen” (trans: this world shall burn) for its forthright urgency. It also features the vocals of Katja Moslehner and Aello.   

MYSTOPERA will be performing at Wacken this year. For those that will be there in person, I’m sure it will be a hell of a show. For the rest of us mortals, at least we have the studio album version . . . and hopefully we’ll get some video footage on YouTube to share the love.