The Wicked Symphony & Angel of Babylon - Double Album Deluxe Edition

I've always been of the thinking that metal is not about how violent it can be. I think that metal, as all music, is bound to drive the listener into a wide range of emotions. Along the decades, it has managed to fulfill such a task, say, with thrash metal; listener felt anger, for example. Now, the listener’s emotions should always go along the genre that is being listened. Tobias Sammet is a genius. He has the capacity to create and mix diverse types of music into just one song and he does it in such an outstanding way that he can do it along a full album without losing his grip to what he is doing. Along with this, in Avantasia he has the cache of bringing over a group of outstanding, well-recognized musicians in metal and gets them to play his masterful creations in the best way possible. Going a bit back, if you mix different genres that drive emotions into several songs piled up in an album played by insanely talented musicians what do you think you will get? I can answer that: "The Wicked Symphony" and "Angel of Babylon", is - for sure - the answer.

I did review both of the albums previously, but didn't think about reviewing the deluxe edition only after several months of listening to both of them. These two albums are of the ones that you either hate or love, and if you love them, then they will surely grow on you even more. At first instance, the listener might not understand what is going on with the music, as it is really varied. The difference among songs may be titanic. Even the difference in one song may be quite thrilling. On one moment you could be listening to an average Edguy-type song and suddenly be listening to a really odd, eerie song. For reference, I'm talking about "Your Love is Evil" and "Death is Just a Feeling", from "Angel of Babylon". One thing that is certain: you will enjoy both albums equally. They are really similar in structure and you can find basically the same elements on both albums. Sammet did know what he was doing. He experimented a bit with some songs, mixing in hard rock and even punk rock elements into them, while in others he focused on the symphonies and choir arrangements (along with Miro), or in making some classic-type power metal songs. At times he even mixes the genres, hard rock with power metal and such, take as guide "Forever is a Long Time" or "Alone I Remember" for the mentioned case. Other songs are totally oriented to power metal, and others are longer-than-average, kind of epic songs, like the openers in each of the albums. Besides these mentioned, there are also the ballads, which truly grabbed me by the ears when I heard them.

The range of the guest musicians is incredible. Among the legends in here we have Tim "Ripper" Owens, Jens Johansson and even Klaus Meine. We have a series of newcomers that really help with their performances, like Russel Allen, who takes a huge role on a vocal duel in the openers for both albums against Sammet and Jorn Lande, who sang in almost all the songs in both albums. There are also some veterans, like Andre Matos who did an stellar performance on "Blizzard on a Broken Mirror", or Michael Kiske who had chance of singing in four songs. Just like in "The Scarecrow", we have Jon Oliva singing an odd song, "Death is Just a Feeling" which is, well, just odd in the beginning, but it is definitely a beautiful song and totally worth paying attention to.

The musical sections, both rhythmic and solos are really an important part. The percussive section of the album, led by none other than Eric Singer is plainly amazing. I wouldn't say it's creative, but truly adequate. Besides this, they play a really big role, since they not only set the base for all, but also are a guide to raises or downfalls in how one feels during the songs in both albums. Singer is often replaced by Alex Holzwarth or Felix Bonkhe, both truly skilled drummers, as well. The rhythmic sections by the guitar, bass, keyboards, orchestrations, etc, are very nice. They are performed in such a way they are not repetitive but don't make you disoriented. They help making the songs much catchier and are not unoriginal at all. The mix really helps the bass stands out (after all, Sammet wouldn't like to be turned down, would he?), but it doesn't overshadows the guitar. The composition of the rhythmic parts is wonderful. As for the keyboards, the usage of organ patches is frequent, you can listen to it in "Forever is a Long Time", "Runaway Train" and “The Edge" from "The Wicked Symphony" or in "Alone I Remember" if going to "Angel of Baylon". The choirs sections are vital, as they help the lead vocals to proclaim much more authority and catch the attention much more, since they accent the vocals and sometimes even carry on with the lyrics by themselves. The guitars can be whether on a nicely distorted, not too heavy manner or simply clean, as for the ballads or slower parts, in such a way that they can even be confused to acoustic. There is a lot to say about the solos. The main guitarist is no other than the legendary Sascha Paeth. He does a splendid work on his own, as he really knows how to stand out when he needs to but not stepping out of what is coherent in the songs. Sascha is replaced several times throughout both albums by Bruce Kulick (from Kiss, needless to say), Oliver Hartman or Avantiasia’s veteran Henjo Richter. I must say all of the work is spectacular, although it is very hard to identify each of their styles when playing for people that are not fans of their bands, just as me.

Lyrically, these albums are among the best I’ve heard. Sammet chose to create concepts album with really opened structures so that the listener could interpret the lyrics freely. This was truly a wise choice. The lyrics, when written this way, help the listener to feel identified with what is going on in the story and catch much more the attention, as well as to give the lyrics the desired meaning. They are helped since the very beginning by the huge variety of singers in both albums. The singers help, with their voices, to add the emotions needed or to represent their characters, for example in “Scales of Justice” Tim “Ripper” Owens, known for his aggressive and grunt voice is the one to represent The Fury.

Ok, you are probably bored by now so I’ll just end this. This boxed set is an excellent compilation of the latest releases by Avantasia, which I with no doubt consider to be Tobias Sammet’s masterpiece, his best work, and it would be really, really hard to be topped. It has everything music needs in here, and I wouldn’t hesitate in getting it or the albums by separate, no matter how, this is truly a must for everyone that has feelings.

In the middle ages, a practitioner of a craft would undergo three stages: apprenticeship, journeyman (an artist who would travel the world in honing of his craft) and finally master. Tobi passed the apprentice stage long ago (playing songs heavily similar to his musical elders in an effort to develop a musical personality of his own), and with this release has finally broken out of the journeyman stage: this is Tobias Sammet’s masterpiece.

At its heart, this is classic Sammet: you’ve got the close focus on memorable melody, songwriting that at time hovers somewhere in that enjoyable, but amorphous realm between power metal, traditional and AOR, and as is the case with every Avantasia record, monolithic vocal work from all sides by a myriad from the A-lists of Sammet’s chosen styles.

As they’re the aspect of the record(s) that people will be drawn to first and foremost, the vocals deserve special mention: once again, Sammet puts forth songwriting that places each singer within their musical “comfort zone”, yet it always benefits the album as a whole, never pandering. Once again, Kiske is placed primarily within a classic power metal framework in Wastelands, the spiritual successor to so many double bass-fueled chargers from his Helloween days, but with beefier production and some of the best vibrato Kiske has ever put forth. He even gets a chance to stretch his smooth lower range towards the end of the colossal Runaway Train. Ripper Owens, meanwhile, dwarfs Tobi on Scales Of Justice with his wild screeching presence, a track that draws heavily on an Iced Earth-style riffing base (despite Tobi’s vocalized disdain for Schaffer’s riffs), but that’s not a bash against Sammet – when you get into a shrieking contest with the Ripper, all anyone will end up with is a bruised windpipe and a bruised ego.

To cover all vocalists in detail would be a review in itself, but the story of the albums also becomes a musical factor: as the protagonist sinks deeper into temptation, The Wicked Symphony presents the darkest and most intense part of the trilogy, while as he begins to break from the influence of Jorn’s Mephistopheles-like presence in the Angel Of Babylon album, the mood gradually, yet drastically shifts into a more up-tempo one, in a more classic hard rock framework. We work from the intense, cinematic title track of The Wicked Symphony, which at parts sounds vaguely similar to the heavier, darker moments of perhaps Tarot, all the way to Angel Of Babylon’s closer Journey To Arcadia, with Bob Catley’s sensitive vocal over the prog-rock framework, with even surprising hints of subtle, yet extremely moving gospel influence and some of Sammet’s most passionate and ranged singing ever. Out of the dark and into the light.

That said, I do think that Tobi’s skills as a songwriter shine through more prominently on the more ambitious The Wicked Symphony, where tracks like Runaway Train – in which Bob Catley, Jorn, Tobi and Kiske sing over a sprawling, epic ballad worthy of the best of Meat Loaf – and the downright cinematic title track show Sammet at what is, so far in his career, the absolute peak of his powers. The humbler numbers bear mention as well: the arena-friendly Forever Is A Long Time and the wonderful, even transcendent-sounding rocker States Of Matter will take an industrial drill to get out of your head.

It’s not that this release breaks borders; it would be more accurate to say that it simply doesn’t care about them. Even though you can attempt to slot each song into a certain genre – the brooding Black Wings into a gothic metal slot, and the aforementioned Wastelands into its classic power metal place, for example – but each song merely feeds the mood that’s required of it in context with the story.

Granted, while there are moments that one might regard as “safe”, there are also moments which are borderline unclassifiable: of note being the chorus of Crestfallen, which features some very…unique harsh vocals laid around the doomiest moment of Tobi’s entire career (“And you’ll fall away from Heaven…”). Yet, somehow, it works, fitting the schizophrenic mood of the lyrics themselves.

Sammet’s often deservedly lauded lyricism is in top form here as well: perverted twists on religious allusions (“Pray the wine my will to take”, “No sign of wings / as you turn your back on me”) further accentuate his character’s descent into deluded grandiose insanity.

Weak points? If they exist, they’re few. I do think that The Edge and Blowing Out The Flame aren’t as strong as Sammet’s usual ballad fare, though their moods – The Edge as forlornly angry, and Blowing Out The Flame as a rather calm, melancholy number – do suit their respective albums very well. I was surprised to find how little a role Andre Matos plays, in how his one song, Blizzard On A Broken Mirror, is so Sammet-centric, whereas Tobi usually allots one-time singers on The Wicked Trilogy to have the lion’s share of a song to themselves (Alice Cooper, Ripper, etc). But it’s a fine song with an interestingly tense mood none the less.

Granted, as a whole, I enjoy The Wicked Symphony more than Angel Of Babylon, but the albums truly were made for each other; one completes its counterpart, in a way. The deluxe set itself is marvelous; the glossy digipaks inside perfectly compliment the box in which they’re encased, and the bonus book is very interesting and informative. They match the production of the actual albums: Paeth’s mixing and producing on these two albums matches The Scarecrow before them in their three-dimensional, balanced, but most of all organic soundscape.

Sammet has, essentially, written a trilogy of albums about himself, transposed and dramatized into a period piece. Such a move would often be considered amazingly egotistical at face value [and let’s face it, Tobi is no stranger to those criticisms], yet it’s pulled off here: this is a man who’s splayed himself wide open for the world to see, bleeding out an accumulated career’s worth of musical passion. If you at all enjoy Edguy, Meat Loaf, or – really – any of the bands from which this myriad of musicians comes, get this for what is so far the magnum opus of the Ed Guy’s career.

There are many reasons why we love music as both art and as an integral part of our lives, and every so often, an album comes along to remind us why; these are some of those albums. Listen to them.

You know, I finally figured out why I like Tobias Sammet’s music so much. It’s true that his music just happens to have a lot of things I find appealing, from huge choruses to rocking tempos and attitude-filled aggression, but it’s something else, too – it’s this kind of theatrical, big-mac-and-cheese kind of instant gratification, combined with a deep, honest emotional sensibility that I find really endearing. Sammet frankly improves with every album he puts out, and this new duo of albums is possibly the most advanced, creative work he has ever partaken in, at that. People can harp all they want about the Metal Opera albums, but they were child’s play compared to this. Child’s play.

For those who don’t know, these two albums are a continuation of the concept followed on The Scarecrow. It’s a very vague, metaphorical story that Tobias refuses to elaborate on too much, saying that explanation would kind of ruin the impact of it all. It is a Faustian tale that centers around a boy who yearns for fame and gives into the temptations and wills of many lucrative metal singers guesting on these albums. On one hand, he has a love interest who he pursues but will not take him, and on the other, he is faced with a long road of drugs, drinking, fame and glory – it’s all done very subtly, and it allows the listener to interpret it however they want. Say what you will about the story, but it’s vague enough and the lyrics delivered with enough emotional intensity that it’s easy to relate to on a song-by-song basis. It does that really well.

But I mostly listen to this stuff for the huge, wide-spread creativity and the big, hymn-wide choruses, the attitude, and the airy, cinematic pomp it usually has about it. There is subtlety to be found, but really the appeal is all in the over the top and theatrical leanings that fuel this combination of power metal, hard rock and everything else Sammet has decided to throw in. It is purely and simply a joy to listen to on every level. It is air tight, sounding mature and confident with every note, every melody and every articulate vocal line. Nothing else gives me quite the thrill this does, not quite the exact rush of energy and anticipation. It is not unconventional in structure, but it is huge and wide-ranging in mood. Accessible and easy to listen to? Sure, but the articulation with which all of this is done is almost unrivaled.

Aside from that…these two albums just feel different from one another, although not so much as to seem like they were written by different bands. They complement one another really well. The Wicked Symphony is more dark and conceptual, with heavier songs and more tragic moments, whilst Angel of Babylon is lighter, more varied in tempo and carries a host of songs that seem to have nothing to do with each other. On further spins, though, it makes a lot of sense, and you get to really appreciate the sort of photographic, one-shot emotions each song puts forth in its quest to wrap the story up. It’s a lot of fun and really kills to walk, work out to or put on while doing pretty much anything. It’s a masterclass in easy listening enjoyment if there ever was one.

Names like Jorn Lande, Russel Allen, Klaus Meine, Jon Oliva and Michael Kiske pop up on the various songs here, as well as musical guest spots from people like Bruce Kulick from KISS, Oliver Hartmann from At Vance, Henjo Richter from Gamma Ray, Jens Johansson from Stratovarius and more...it's a goddamn jamboree, really.

Since I don’t want to drag this out forever, I’ll just skim over both albums briefly. From The Wicked Symphony, well, how can you go wrong with the booming choirs of the title track? The Power Metal storm of “Wastelands,” or the pummeling “Scales of Justice”? But it’s “Blizzard on a Broken Mirror” that really brings home the crown, with its searing, frigid Kamelot-esque melody and tempo giving Andre Matos’ light croon a lot of breadth in which to thrive. It’s a really cool song, a lot more subtle than we’re used to for Tobias. Just everything about it is wonderful, and it’s followed up with another great song in “Runaway Train,” carried with delicate pianos and booming theatrical extravagance. The chorus is big and it has a lot of ear-catching moments for your listening pleasure. Very cool song. And how can any metal fan deny the straight up kick-ass songs like “Black Wings,” “States of Matter” or the crawling “Crestfallen”? It’s pretty hard to.

Angel of Babylon is a little more lush with melody, as it packs the astounding title track, soaring through the speakers with density and weight like we’ve never heard before out of this band – no doubt due to Jens Johansson’s keyboard dexterity. The chorus is wonderful, the vocals are huge and grand and there’s just…nothing wrong with it. It is a perfect power metal song in every way. Hats off to Avantasia just for this alone; what a magnificent piece! The album also packs the wandering, spacey epic “Stargazers,” the traditional smash “Your Love is Evil,” the teeth-kicking duo of “Rat Race” and “Down in the Dark,” the hard rockin’ “Alone I Remember”…there’s simply a lot of really enjoyable, fun songs on this thing! Of special mention is Jon Oliva’s appearance as an attic ghost who sounds like a child molester in “Death is Just a Feeling,” with its Broadway-styled showmanship. That’s pretty fucking cool.

So yeah, both of these new Avantasia albums are ones I really enjoy. This is just pure, unadulterated entertainment. Nothing really wrong with them, just a ton of fun and a ton of ambition shooting for the stars and higher. Tobias still has a ton of energy left over, and I can only imagine what he’ll do next. This box-set is worth purchasing if you like this band or even just rock music in general. So go get it, and take some long walks with these albums playing back to back. Let them sink in and just enjoy the experience. Enthralling, hugely entertaining and essential. I sure won’t be putting these albums out of my music rotation any time soon.