Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release date: February 15, 2019
Production: Sascha Paeth & Tobias Sammet
Album length: 66.45 min
Genre: Symphonic Power Metal
“Moonglow” is the eighth studio album from Avantasia, a project built on a fusion of classical music and heavy metal, or more precisely, European power metal. So here we have the eighth chapter of the metal opera, straight from the pen of the creative engine and visionary behind it all, wonder-musician, composer and arranger Tobias Sammet, who everybody also knows as the most visible figure of German power metallers Edguy. After “Ghostlight”, the previous Avantasia album, Sammet fell into a deeper creative crisis. Luckily, this time he wasn’t up against the clock, so the ideas could come the natural way, without being forced. Sammet was actually putting ideas together mainly for a solo studio album, but later discovered that the material taking shape was in fact very similar to what he normally writes for Avantasia.
Because with this project, Sammet has made it big commercially. Ultra musical catchiness and bombastic accessibility, fusing operatic symphonic flourishes with metal phrasing, all of it constantly surrounded by a crowd of prominent guest vocalists. A combination that was bound to bear fruit in the long run. In fact, the project’s name has outgrown Edguy, and in recent years Sammet has really been focusing on Avantasia first and foremost, while Edguy are left somewhat on the sidelines, which also shows in the band’s less interesting studio releases. Avantasia has racked up success in Europe and the US alike, and the doors are wide open. Sammet knows this all too well, so he’s striking while the iron is hot.
This release also carries a fantasy concept, just like its predecessors. This time Sammet puts a creature at the center of the story who struggles to cope with the real world and finds refuge in the cover of shadows under the moon’s glow. What does the moon draw out of us? At levels we fear and block off with rationalism. Something we carry inside us but consciously resist, because it can’t be proven empirically. And yet it guides us. It’s part of us, part of the universe. Part of the universal truth that humanity ran away from long ago and is slowly sinking into collective doom. Along with nature, which is dying globally because of us. Enough “preaching”, back to the album. The opening kick-in-the-teeth catalyst “Ghost in the Moon” puts things in their place fast. It’s a typical power metal charge decked out with symphonic arrangements and the cocky, charismatic vocals of Tobias Sammet, who of course takes part in all the other songs too as lead vocalist.
As always, this album features a heap of guests, among them Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) and, for the first time, Candice Night (Blackmore’s Night). If the first song feels tried and tested and very typical for the project, it’s the songs that follow in sequence that confirm Sammet has recharged a bit creatively and freshened up the compositions in the arrangements too. The next one especially, Book Of Shallows, lifts the album up to atmospheric triumph, with a combination of four guest vocal heavyweights (Mille Petrozza, Hansi Kürsch, Jorn Lande Ronnie Atkins) plus Tobias of course, delivering lightning-quick atmospheric shifts as the track unfolds, and precisely because of how the lead vocal lines are handed around, it brings one of the more thrilling and gripping moments of the whole album. That moment and the high mood-driven vibrancy are held, if not outright boosted, by the fantastic title track that follows, where Sammet shares lead vocals in a bravura combination with the exceptional Candice Night. Some folk sound inevitably creeps into the song and arrangement, especially the chorus melody, but that’s pretty much obligatory whenever Candice Night is involved. Track four, The Raven Child, is the longest and most dynamic composition on the album. Call it a proper epic symphonic suite, where Sammet has once again tapped Kürsch and, as if made to order, breathed a Blind Guardian-style arrangement into the song, which shows especially in the first part of this otherwise very successful epic. It’s followed by the shorter and, in the chorus, unbelievably catchy Starlight, where good old Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids) joins Sammet on vocal duties.
Sadly, the album loses its spark from here on, and really all the songs lined up after Starlight feel a lot more predictable, played out and cliché compared to the first half of “Moonglow”. When Michael Kiske (Helloween) steps in on Requiem For A Dream, we get yet another typical confirmation of what European power metal can do. The elements of Helloween’s music are all present in this song. Sammet has once again set Kiske up in a frame where he sounds 100% Helloween-esque, and the singer doesn’t even get the chance to pick a different move. A recipe that has lit up once more, but Sammet no longer surprises with it! For most of the album Sammet has thoughtfully slotted lead vocalists into individual compositions and so (mostly effectively) coaxed out exactly the elements that their vocal characteristics bring to the music of their home bands. That’s why you’ll recognize them pretty quickly as the songs develop. The less interesting moments of this release are the tracks from the middle toward the tail end (Lavender, Alchemy, Invincible and The Piper At The Gates Of Down), which unfortunately takes the wind out of the album’s opening momentum.
In places the album is pleasantly varied, with compositional touches that stray from the primary fusion of opera and power metal. Nothing new for the project, or even for Edguy’s music, but still. In all that generic sameness, a very welcome addition! Sammet sounds fresh again on the project’s new release, even if it still holds a few things back. The songs have noticeable touches of melodic rock (Starlight), even AOR (bonus track Heart), folk (Moonglow) and even world music. Tacked onto the end is a fun cover of the eighties pop hit Maniac, which Sammet “rescues” vocally together with Mr. Big vocalist Eric Martin. All in all, the mission is more or less accomplished. Twenty to twenty-five minutes are a bit boring and chewed over, which might even have you hunting for the “skip” button, but the album as a whole keeps all the project’s credibility and in fact delivers a few fun highlights in the first half, boasting more compositional freshness than you’d expect from a new release.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 8.0 / 10
Track list:
01. Ghost In The Moon
02. Book Of Shallows
03. Moonglow
04. The Raven Child
05. Starlight
06. Invincible
07. Alchemy
08. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
09. Lavender
10. Requiem For A Dream
11. Maniac
12. Heart (bonus track)
Lineup:
Tobias Sammet – vocals, keyboards, bass guitar
Sascha Paeth – guitar, bass guitar, mixing
Michael Rodenberg – keyboards, piano, orchestration, mastering
Felix Bohnke – drums
Guest vocalists and musicians
Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids)
Jørn Lande (Jorn)
Eric Martin (Mr. Big)
Geoff Tate (ex-Queensrÿche)
Michael Kiske (Helloween)
Bob Catley (Magnum)
Candice Night (Blackmore’s Night)
Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian)
Mille Petrozza (Kreator)
Nadia Birkenstock – harp
Oliver Hartmann – guitar solo on track no. 4, backing vocals
Herbie Langhans – backing vocals
Billy King – backing vocals
Bridget Fogle – backing vocals
Lerato Sebele – backing vocals
Alvin Le-Bass – backing vocals
Stokely Van Daal – backing vocals
