GEOFF TATE To Guest On Next AVANTASIA Album, 'Moonglow'

Former QUEENSRŸCHE and current OPERATION: MINDCRIME singer Geoff Tate has revealed that he will make a guest appearance on "Moonglow", the next album from EDGUY frontman Tobias Sammet's AVANTASIA project. The disc, which is currently being recorded in Germany, will arrive in January 2019 via Nuclear Blast. A world tour in support of the disc will launch at the end of March in Germany.

Tate previously guested on AVANTASIA's seventh album, "Ghostlights", which was released in 2016. Geoff could be heard in the song "Seduction Of Decay", which was described at the time by Sammet as "a seven-and-a-half minute-monster." Tate was also one of the guest vocalists for AVANTASIA at several European shows last summer, including Rock Fest Barcelona, where QUEENSRŸCHE also appeared on the bill.

During a brand new interview with Metal Underground, Geoff described the experience of working with AVANTASIA as "incredible. [They are] a really talented group of musicians and [there is] a wonderful kind of family vibe that they have," he said. "And Tobi is an incredible leader of that whole… 'madness camp,' I'll call it. [Laughs] And he's just a pleasure to work with.

"I'm going to Germany after this [OPERATION: MINDCRIME European] tour to work on the next record with him," Tate continued. "So that'll be fun. He's very excited about it. He hasn't played me anything yet. He said, 'I'm waiting for you to get here, and then I will spring it on you.' [Laughs] So I'm on pins and needles in anticipation, waiting."

Tate said that he was confident AVANTASIA's new album would live up to people's expectations, but he added that he was curious as to what the record would sound like. "It'll be good, yeah — I have no doubt about that — but what's it gonna be?" he said.

Geoff went on to say that he "really enjoyed working with" Tobias at last year's AVANTASIA shows. "It was really wonderful to step into that, 'cause I didn't really have any rehearsal with him — just did soundcheck with him and did the ['Seduction Of Decay'] song [live]," he said. "And then Tobi asked me to do some other parts of the show. So I was backstage learning what to do and the lyrics, writing them on my hand, you know. And that was kind of unnerving, but very fun and challenging.

"For years and years and years, I never ever sat in with any band or played any other music other than my own," he revealed. "So it was very difficult for me to just… I'd be out somewhere and somebody would go, 'Hey, come up and sing a song with us.' 'What? I can't possibly do that.' I had to actually force myself to do it in order to get comfortable with it, 'cause it kept happening to me so much. And then I've had a lot of wonderful experiences and invitations from really great bands and musicians to sit in with them and do songs and things like that, so I'm much more comfortable with that now. But before, it was just, like, 'Oh my God!' I would feel myself getting sick from nerves. But not anymore — I'm used to it now."

Sammet recently said that "Moonglow" would be "the most lavish album of my career, the biggest, most colorful thing and the best and most unreasonable luxury I have ever created in my life."