AVANTASIA: New Album Listening Session Announced

Starting tomorrow (Thursday, March 11),you will be able to stream the two new albums from EDGUY frontman Tobias Sammet's AVANTASIA project — "The Wicked Symphony" and "Angel Of Babylon" — at TobiasSammet.com (free sign-up required).

For more information, go to this location.

AVANTASIA will celebrate its comeback this spring with a new epic masterpiece, to be released on April 3, 2010 as regular CDs, two separate double picture vinyls, and as a beautiful collector's edition with an AVANTASIA picture book. The deluxe box set will feature two CDs in two digibooks with impressive booklets, codes for online content (like bonus tracks, etc.) and the AVANTASIA book "The Wicked Trilogy", including many never-before-seen photos from the tour and from photo sessions, etc. An exclusive interview, liner notes, and a biography will also be included. All the album versions will be released simultaneously on April 3, so no one will be forced to buy everything piece by piece; instead everyone will be able to choose a version of his/her choice right from the release date.

"The Wicked Symphony" and "Angel Of Babylon" are the continuation of the trilogy that began with the 2008 album "The Scarecrow".

The cover artwork for the two CDs (see below) was created by Thomas Ewerhard, who also worked on EDGUY's "Hellfire Club" and AVANTASIA's "The Scarecrow" albums.

"The Wicked Symphony" track listing:

01. The Wicked Symphony
02. Wastelands
03. Scales Of Justice
04. Dying For An Angel
05. Blizzard On A Broken Mirror
06. Runaway Train
07. Crestfallen
08. Forever Is A Long Time
09. Black Wings
10. States Of Matter
11. The Edge

"Angel Of Babylon" track listing:

01. Angel Of Babylon
02. Stargazers
03. Your Love Is Evil
04. Death Is Just A Feeling
05. Rat Race
06. Down In The Dark
07. Blowing Out The Flame
08. Symphony Of Life
09. Alone I Remember
10. Promised Land 2
11. Journey To Arcadia

Tobias has confirmed the following musicians to be part of the forthcoming AVANTASIA opus:

* Klaus Meine (SCORPIONS)
* Tim "Ripper" Owens (JUDAS PRIEST, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, ICED EARTH)
* Eric Singer (KISS, ALICE COOPER)
* Michael Kiske (HELLOWEEN)
* Jorn Lande (MASTERPLAN, ARK, MILLENIUM)
* Bob Catley (MAGNUM)
* Sascha Paeth
* Felix Bohnke (EDGUY)
* Alex Holzwarth (RHAPSODY, SIEGES EVEN)
* Russell Allen (SYMPHONY X)
* Jens Johansson (STRATOVARIUS, DIO, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN)
* André Matos (ANGRA, SHAAMAN, VIPER)
* Bruce Kulick (KISS, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD)
* Cloudy Yang
* Oliver Hartmann (AT VANCE, HARTMANN)
* Jon Oliva (JON OLIVA'S PAIN, TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, SAVATAGE)

"Dying For An Angel" audio stream (featuring Klaus Meine):

Regarding his decision to release the next AVANTASIA chapter in two separate CDs, Tobias said, "I have always given my very best, but this new chapter in AVANTASIA's history is too much and too ambitious to be just a regular album. I have worked on it for years now, and it has become even more than two albums!

"I knew that story would be spread out over two albums back then when we started working on it in 2006, 'cause we had written a real rock opera of over 20 songs even back then. But since then, we kept composing, and out came even bigger and better material.

"Looking at the music industry today with all the CD burning and downloading, I guess in the near future many of us traditional rock and metal bands won't be able to spend such a production budget. I am afraid I won't be able to afford so many guests and such a big production with orchestration and a choir and all that. That's why this production takes so much time; it may be the last big epic I will be able to afford, and I want it to be the biggest piece I have worked on so far."

Kiske has appeared on every AVANTASIA album so far, including the first two full-length releases, "The Metal Opera" (2001) and "The Metal Opera Pt. II" (2002).

On the topic of the new AVANTASIA album's musical direction, Sammet recently stated, "We've got quite many songs, and it ranges from epic ballads to metal opera. From pop to hard rock to folk to speed metal. My best friend, who co-wrote the story of 'The Metal Opera' back then, just listened to some of the tracks and he said that it will blow people away and enchant AVANTASIA fans and it will surely piss people off . . . It's just enchanting music. And these days honest and good music is kind of offending to some, that's pretty sick, isn't it? But as long as I get goose bumps hearing majestic music, I do not really care if I am fashionable or not."

The most recent album from AVANTASIA, "The Scarecrow", was one of the 20 best-selling albums in whole Europe during the fourth week of January 2008, according to a press release.

"The Scarecrow" was released on January 25, 2008 as a standard CD as well as rare picture (double) vinyl. It features a long list of guest musicians, including Bob Catley, ex-MASTERPLAN frontman Jorn Lande, ex-HELLOWEEN singer Michael Kiske, Alice Cooper, KISS drummer Eric Singer, SCORPIONS guitarist Rudolf Schenker and GAMMA RAY's Kai Hansen. The album produced a Top 10 German hit single, "Lost In Space", and entered the national charts in 15 countries, with the CD landing in the Top 10 in four countries.