07:08 - BoxCar Willy There's a lot of people here who would is agree with that, lex.
03:18 - LICH the new HIM album is quite impressive, i usent to listen to them much before tot, im inventing a drinking game, whenver ville sings about love you take a shot. i wish i was jokint.
Disc I 01. Spectres 02. The Watchmakers' Dream 03. Black Orchid 04. Where Clock Hands Freeze 05. Sleepwalking 06. Savior In The Clockwork 07. Invoke The Machine 08. What's Left Of Me 09. Dweller In A Dream 10. The Great Mystery 11. The Cross And You [bonus] 12. Death Is Just A Feeling [bonus][Tobias vocals only]
Disc II[deluxe edition bonus][instrumental version] 01. Spectres 02. The Watchmakers' Dream 03. Black Orchid 04. Where Clock Hands Freeze 05. Sleepwalking 06. Savior In The Clockwork 07. Invoke The Machine 08. What's Left Of Me 09. Dweller In A Dream 10. The Great Mystery
Choir: Cloudy Yang, Amanda Somerville, Oliver Hartmann, Robert Hunecke-Rizzo, Thomas Rettke, Tobias Sammet. -
Additional info Mixed at Gate Studio, Wolfsburg.
Mastered at Gate Studio, Wolfsburg.
Recorded at Vox-Klangstudio, Bendestorf, Germany & Gate Studio, Wolfsburg, Germany.
Eric Martin's vocals recorded at Pepperland Studios, San Rafael, California.
Biff Byford's vocals recorded at Brighton Acoustic Studios, Brighton, England.
Ronnie Atkins' vocals recorded at Hansen Studios, Ribe, Denmark.
Bob Catley's vocals recorded at Mad Hat's Studios, Wolverhampton, England.
Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg recorded at Scoring Stage, Potsdam, Germany.
Orchestra conductor: Günter Joseck. Design and layout: Thomas Ewerhard. Additional engineer: Ole Reitmeier. Mastering: Miro Rodenberg & Sascha Paeth. Mixing: Sascha Paeth. Orchestra: Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg. Cover painting: Rodney Matthews. Photography: Alex Kuehr. Live photography: Friso Gentsch. Producer: Sascha Paeth & Tobias Sammet. Recording: Sascha Paeth.
The limited edition hardcover book with a 28-pages booklet contains ten regular songs and two additional bonus tracks.
Would be awesome with Tommy Karevik, Elize Ryd, Kai Hansen, Bob Catley, Hansi Kürsh, Jon Oliva, Oliver Hartmann, David Defeis and Bruce Dickinson on this album!
I would add Simone Simons and Alessandro Conti.
Alessandro Conti could be nice, so would Simone Simons. But I prefer Elize Ryd over Simone Simons, and I think it could be awesome with Elize added to the Avantasia project. I also think it would be epic with Ronnie Atkins from Pretty Maids
Would be awesome with Tommy Karevik, Elize Ryd, Kai Hansen, Bob Catley, Hansi Kürsh, Jon Oliva, Oliver Hartmann, David Defeis and Bruce Dickinson on this album!
I would add Simone Simons and Alessandro Conti.
Alessandro Conti could be nice, so would Simone Simons. But I prefer Elize Ryd over Simone Simons, and I think it could be awesome with Elize added to the Avantasia project. I also think it would be epic with Ronnie Atkins from Pretty Maids
You're quite into Kamelot, aren't you? So am I... Waiting for Silverthorn!
No on his official page it says: Today we have breathtaking news for all AVANTASIANS: The new album will be called "AVANTASIA - THE MYSTERY OF TIME", and as previously reported is set for release in March.
If there's one guy who seriously needs to be on this for added epicness and massive quality-boost, and is way overdue at that, then it's hands fucking down; Hansi Kürsch. Bruce Dickinson could perhaps be the most exciting addition as a guest. Sammet is obviously very inspired by Maiden and I also think he once said Bruce was his favorite vocalist or something. Also, I would love to hear more of Russell Allen. His soaring highs in "States Of Matter" still give me goosebumps. At least two of these were mentioned earlier in this thread, as well as several other greats. Of those I definetely second Tommy Karevik.
Today we have breathtaking news for all AVANTASIANS: The new album will be called "AVANTASIA - THE MYSTERY OF TIME", and as previously reported is set for release in March.
Great! He sure as hell knows how to come up with epic-sounding titles.
I second both Hansi, Bruce and Tommy! And after seeing Tommy performing with Kamelot it would be nice having more from him! Karevik have proved to be an amazing singer and front man and has now climbed to my top 5 list of metal singers. Really looking forward to this album no matter what, Tobi is yet to disappoint me with Avantasia, he did in Edguy but Avantasia is still a project that feels like sugar in the ears
Yeah, good ideas about getting Dickinson on the project, dude that would kick the listeners ass. At times i thought he could add Andi Deris from Helloween, he can do well with low pitched, heavy vocals it should sound really good. Since Helloween fans are divided into Kiske fans and Deris fans, i think Tobi decided to stay for Kiske since the very beginning of Avantasia. He really is the part of Avantasia's success, that's a fact.... hope to hear him on the coming album as well!!!
I'm hoping for Joakim Brodén on this album. Now THAT would be a cool addition (and a nice contrast to all the high voices if he's playing a villainous role)! That said, Tommy Kavavek, Piet Sielck and the guys from Van Canto would also be cool to have on Avantasia.
This is much better than I anticipated, it actually sounds more like a "metal opera" than all of their albums save the first two. "Savior In The Clockwork" is sounding perfect to me at this stage. It's got nice bits of Virgin Steele like guitar riff crunch with symphonics. Quite a few heavier moments than usual actually. Very enjoyable.
It sounds like an awesome album so far. For me it pretty much sits comfortably somewhere between the Metal Operas and the Wicked Trilogy. A surprising amount of double-bass tracks. It's perhaps the Avantasia album where I'm the least intrigued about the singers involved, but even though I don't have an absolute favorite album of theirs, this one might just be their most "complete sounding" yet like some reviews were talking about. 4 fast-paced melodic Power kickers, 2 heavily symphonic Heavy Metal mid-tempos, 2 power-balladry tracks and to top it off there's 2 long epics and both reach above the 10-minute mark. Sammet has done it again because this is killer stuff!
It's a really good album. Just listening to it every day since last monday when I've got a copy thanks to a pal of mine who is working a local store where I live. ^^
Well, it's not exactly a return to the Metal Opera style, but there's less of a "rock" vibe with this one compared to the last 3 albums. When I heard the single "Sleepwalking", I was really worried that the album would be awful, but thankfully, that is easily the worst song on the album.
There's some great riffs on the album, like on "Invoke The Machine" and "Dweller In A Dream". With the latter song in particular, being a tremendous track overall.
"What's Left Of Me", the other ballad on the album is amazing, much better than "Sleepwalking" for sure! I love Eric Martin's voice, and he does great on that beautiful song.
My two fave songs are probably "Where Clock Hands Freeze", which is that irresistible combination of melodic speed metal and Michael Kiske's soaring voice, and the final track, the rock epic, "The Great Mystery", which is beyond awesome. There's probably less stand out moments on this album compared to the last 3, but it is a more consistent album, that's for sure.
Well, it's not exactly a return to the Metal Opera style, but there's less of a "rock" vibe with this one compared to the last 3 albums. When I heard the single "Sleepwalking", I was really worried that the album would be awful, but thankfully, that is easily the worst song on the album.
There's some great riffs on the album, like on "Invoke The Machine" and "Dweller In A Dream". With the latter song in particular, being a tremendous track overall.
"What's Left Of Me", the other ballad on the album is amazing, much better than "Sleepwalking" for sure! I love Eric Martin's voice, and he does great on that beautiful song.
My two fave songs are probably "Where Clock Hands Freeze", which is that irresistible combination of melodic speed metal and Michael Kiske's soaring voice, and the final track, the rock epic, "The Great Mystery", which is beyond awesome. There's probably less stand out moments on this album compared to the last 3, but it is a more consistent album, that's for sure.
Agreed with ya, definitely need time with this one but I'm enjoying it a lot. : )
Love the first half, like old school melo speed, the other half is less energic, slower, ballads and so on. Everything fine until invoke the machine, i generaly cut it here.
I think the other guys pull out some very fine performances too. Joe Lynn Turner surprised me in "The Watchmaker's Dream". I've heard some stuff he did with Rainbow ages ago and even though the last Sunstorm album was good, I didn't know he had that in him. Eric Martin's heartbroken delivery in "What's Left Of Me" is another highlight. Also, I love how Ronnie Atkins pulls out both the roughness ala Jørn Lande and the pure clean singing ala Roy Khan. That was totally awesome.
I love how Ronnie Atkins pulls out both the roughness ala Jørn Lande and the pure clean singing ala Roy Khan. That was totally awesome.
I can't help but feeling a bit disappointed about Jørn's absence. In some songs, I'found myself thinking "If just Jørn sang this...". This is, imho, the only blemish for this album. This said, Ronnie delivers some great vocals, as I expected (also Pretty Maids themselves are flourishing again these years)
I can't help but feeling a bit disappointed about Jørn's absence. In some songs, I'found myself thinking "If just Jørn sang this...". This is, imho, the only blemish for this album. This said, Ronnie delivers some great vocals, as I expected (also Pretty Maids themselves are flourishing again these years)
I agree, Jørn definetely brings with him quite a bit of power to the table. It would have been great with his presence as well. I don't know if it's true, but I read somewhere that Sammet actually asked Jørn if he'd like to perform on Invoke The Machine but apparently he had to turn it down due to being occupied with his Jorn band or something. I don't know, but either way it's not hard to picture that he'd also be great for that spot.
I have yet to give Motherland a proper listen, but it really does sound great.
EDIT: After listening some more, I think Motherland a great album and maybe even better than Pandemonium.
I have to say, sitting back and listening to the Scarecrow Trilogy recently, there were several tracks which I felt could have been left out of the trilogy either because they seem to just be taking up valuable time ("Symphony of Life" is a noticeable offender here) or because they just don't go anywhere ("Blowing Out The Flame", which I will concede is a nice ballad, is not especially memorable and could have been easily cut, since the basic idea of the song was much better conveyed in "Alone I Remember"). That said, I enjoyed those albums (although the fact they helped me to develop my taste in metal does mean that there is a little nostalgia value in them: I spent most of the summer of 2011 listening to all three of them while I was still getting into metal), so I was interested to see what direction this album took, especially since I caught up with the Metal Operas over the last summer (which I found highly overrated, but that's another discussion entirely...).
To say I was surprised would be an understatement. It seems that Tobi has decided to try to combine the two styles, although the Scarecrow Trilogy clearly is the more predominant style in the music, which results in a very interesting album to listen to. You can hear the power metal in the songs fighting to burst out of the music at you, but the hard rock influence holds that in check, which can be a deal breaker if you like power metal a la Keepers era Helloween, but is a winner for me because of the nostalgic feel it gives me from the Scarecrow Trilogy. However, I have to admit that this album does still have some issues which are carried over from the duo of albums that closed the trilogy: if you were to take out my four favourite songs from the album "Where Clock Hands Freeze", "Sleepwalking" (I know it's not metal, but I like it and I'm not so elitist as to claim that it's bad because it's not metal), "Invoke The Machine" and "Dweller In A Dream", there'd be nothing on here I'd particularly want to listen to (although the fact I've only been able to listen to it for about a week does mean there is some growing potential in the other songs). The guests are great on the album (I particularly enjoyed hearing Kiske on "Clock Hands" and Ronnie Atkins, just from "Invoke The Machine", has made me want to give Pretty Maids a listen just because of how good a job he did on the song: Biff didn't impress me that much, but I've been a bit skeptical about Saxon since I first heard them, so chalk that one up to me not particularly liking his voice). I think my only real issue that I want to point out is that the decision to have two songs over the ten minute mark will make it hard for those who aren't overly fond of longer tracks (like me) to particularly enjoy this album in it's entirety. I'll admit, they are good tracks if you don't have to focus on them too much (I found this out while playing TimeSplitters to it), but, when I focus on them, my interest rapidly starts to fade (although, again, only had this album for about a week).
All told, if you don't mind the two long songs, you're in for a great ride. If you have issues with them, there is enough to still enjoy the album, but not enough to make you love it. Definitely my favourite power metal album of 2013 so far and, as things currently stand, that's not massively likely to change (Masterplan looks set to disappoint, if the trailer for that album and what I've heard about the new vocalist is any indication, and the trailers for Matt Barlow's new band haven't exactly given me any high hopes either...).
Sorry for the long post: even I didn't think I'd ramble on as long as I did!
I have to say, sitting back and listening to the Scarecrow Trilogy recently, there were several tracks which I felt could have been left out of the trilogy either because they seem to just be taking up valuable time ("Symphony of Life" is a noticeable offender here) or because they just don't go anywhere ("Blowing Out The Flame", which I will concede is a nice ballad, is not especially memorable and could have been easily cut, since the basic idea of the song was much better conveyed in "Alone I Remember"). That said, I enjoyed those albums (although the fact they helped me to develop my taste in metal does mean that there is a little nostalgia value in them: I spent most of the summer of 2011 listening to all three of them while I was still getting into metal), so I was interested to see what direction this album took, especially since I caught up with the Metal Operas over the last summer (which I found highly overrated, but that's another discussion entirely...).
To say I was surprised would be an understatement. It seems that Tobi has decided to try to combine the two styles, although the Scarecrow Trilogy clearly is the more predominant style in the music, which results in a very interesting album to listen to. You can hear the power metal in the songs fighting to burst out of the music at you, but the hard rock influence holds that in check, which can be a deal breaker if you like power metal a la Keepers era Helloween, but is a winner for me because of the nostalgic feel it gives me from the Scarecrow Trilogy. However, I have to admit that this album does still have some issues which are carried over from the duo of albums that closed the trilogy: if you were to take out my four favourite songs from the album "Where Clock Hands Freeze", "Sleepwalking" (I know it's not metal, but I like it and I'm not so elitist as to claim that it's bad because it's not metal), "Invoke The Machine" and "Dweller In A Dream", there'd be nothing on here I'd particularly want to listen to (although the fact I've only been able to listen to it for about a week does mean there is some growing potential in the other songs). The guests are great on the album (I particularly enjoyed hearing Kiske on "Clock Hands" and Ronnie Atkins, just from "Invoke The Machine", has made me want to give Pretty Maids a listen just because of how good a job he did on the song: Biff didn't impress me that much, but I've been a bit skeptical about Saxon since I first heard them, so chalk that one up to me not particularly liking his voice). I think my only real issue that I want to point out is that the decision to have two songs over the ten minute mark will make it hard for those who aren't overly fond of longer tracks (like me) to particularly enjoy this album in it's entirety. I'll admit, they are good tracks if you don't have to focus on them too much (I found this out while playing TimeSplitters to it), but, when I focus on them, my interest rapidly starts to fade (although, again, only had this album for about a week).
All told, if you don't mind the two long songs, you're in for a great ride. If you have issues with them, there is enough to still enjoy the album, but not enough to make you love it. Definitely my favourite power metal album of 2013 so far and, as things currently stand, that's not massively likely to change (Masterplan looks set to disappoint, if the trailer for that album and what I've heard about the new vocalist is any indication, and the trailers for Matt Barlow's new band haven't exactly given me any high hopes either...).
Sorry for the long post: even I didn't think I'd ramble on as long as I did!
Helloween and Stratovarius new albums are better than this one...
I have to say, sitting back and listening to the Scarecrow Trilogy recently, there were several tracks which I felt could have been left out of the trilogy either because they seem to just be taking up valuable time ("Symphony of Life" is a noticeable offender here) or because they just don't go anywhere ("Blowing Out The Flame", which I will concede is a nice ballad, is not especially memorable and could have been easily cut, since the basic idea of the song was much better conveyed in "Alone I Remember"). That said, I enjoyed those albums (although the fact they helped me to develop my taste in metal does mean that there is a little nostalgia value in them: I spent most of the summer of 2011 listening to all three of them while I was still getting into metal), so I was interested to see what direction this album took, especially since I caught up with the Metal Operas over the last summer (which I found highly overrated, but that's another discussion entirely...).
To say I was surprised would be an understatement. It seems that Tobi has decided to try to combine the two styles, although the Scarecrow Trilogy clearly is the more predominant style in the music, which results in a very interesting album to listen to. You can hear the power metal in the songs fighting to burst out of the music at you, but the hard rock influence holds that in check, which can be a deal breaker if you like power metal a la Keepers era Helloween, but is a winner for me because of the nostalgic feel it gives me from the Scarecrow Trilogy. However, I have to admit that this album does still have some issues which are carried over from the duo of albums that closed the trilogy: if you were to take out my four favourite songs from the album "Where Clock Hands Freeze", "Sleepwalking" (I know it's not metal, but I like it and I'm not so elitist as to claim that it's bad because it's not metal), "Invoke The Machine" and "Dweller In A Dream", there'd be nothing on here I'd particularly want to listen to (although the fact I've only been able to listen to it for about a week does mean there is some growing potential in the other songs). The guests are great on the album (I particularly enjoyed hearing Kiske on "Clock Hands" and Ronnie Atkins, just from "Invoke The Machine", has made me want to give Pretty Maids a listen just because of how good a job he did on the song: Biff didn't impress me that much, but I've been a bit skeptical about Saxon since I first heard them, so chalk that one up to me not particularly liking his voice). I think my only real issue that I want to point out is that the decision to have two songs over the ten minute mark will make it hard for those who aren't overly fond of longer tracks (like me) to particularly enjoy this album in it's entirety. I'll admit, they are good tracks if you don't have to focus on them too much (I found this out while playing TimeSplitters to it), but, when I focus on them, my interest rapidly starts to fade (although, again, only had this album for about a week).
All told, if you don't mind the two long songs, you're in for a great ride. If you have issues with them, there is enough to still enjoy the album, but not enough to make you love it. Definitely my favourite power metal album of 2013 so far and, as things currently stand, that's not massively likely to change (Masterplan looks set to disappoint, if the trailer for that album and what I've heard about the new vocalist is any indication, and the trailers for Matt Barlow's new band haven't exactly given me any high hopes either...).
Sorry for the long post: even I didn't think I'd ramble on as long as I did!
Helloween and Stratovarius new albums are better than this one...
Honestly, I wasn't impressed by either of them. Helloween's album wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I vastly preferred 7 Sinners to it and Stratovarius have never been that interesting to me beyond a few songs, although I will admit I liked Nemesis more than all their other albums I've listened to. I'm surprised (and slightly relieved) that someone read that wall of text: I was tempted to go back and shorten it, since I wrote it all before I had to get a bus to college and felt I went on a bit too long, but didn't have time to cut it down.
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