3) Avantasia – The Scarecrow Saga (2008-2010)
Tracks to try ... (how do I pick just three!?!?) Another Angel Down (The Scarecrow),
The Wicked Symphony (The Wicked Symphony), Journey to Arcadia (Angel of Babylon)
If I can do a five album pentalogy as a single entry, than I can sure-as-shit do a trilogy as a single entry. I like to think that “The Wicked Trilogy” would’ve been a better name for these three albums, but it is The Scarecrow Saga. It was actually the DTF member Scard that first mentioned Avantasia to me, at a meetup before DTF’s ADTOE show in Toronto in Oct '12. I even wrote the name of the band down to check them out. Alas, I completely forgot. Thankfully, a few weeks later, Nick rolled them on WPaPU (Toy Master specifically), and I thought ‘wow, these guys sound like Alice Cooper, but way proggier!’.
(for those that don’t know, Alice Cooper is the lead vocalist on that song). Well, that was enough to go and check them out, and upon hearing that the title track from The Wicked Symphony was a vocal three-way with Allen and Lande, well – schwing! – gotta get this one.
While these albums are loosely based on a concept, the story is not nearly as tight or interwoven as the previous multi-album ‘alogy’ I wrote about just three entries ago. From the booklet of The Scarecrow, Tobias offers the following introduction to the storyline “The Scarecrow is a tragic story of a lonesome creature, emotionally isolated from his environment and suffering from a distorted sensory perception. His feelings for the love of his life unrequited, he sets off on a journey exploring the left-hand path, striving for inner peace, sloughing his way to approval and eventually facing temptation at the inner depths of the human soul.” What follows on the three albums is breath-taking. Guest musicians that truly are prog household names - Khan, Lande, Allen, Catley, Somerville, Kiske, Andre Matos – along with legendary rock household names – Cooper, Owens, Meine, Olivia – all who have a character driven reason for their vocals and participation. Layer in musical contributions from Eric Singer (Kiss, Alice Cooper), Oliver Hartman, Jens Johansson (Stratovarious, Star One), Simon Oberender (Beyond the Bridge), Alex Holzwarth (Rhapsody, Sieges Even, Blind Guardian) and Sascha Paeth... well, wow. The Scarecrow is packed with 11 beastly tracks, and doesn’t disappoint for a single, solitary second. The follow up double album combination nearly equals it. I wouldn’t say there’s ‘filler’ in either The Wicked Symphony or Angel of Babylon, but those weren’t able to sustain the sheer awesomeness that The Scarecrow did.
Those that followed my first top 50 know of the love I gave to Arjen’s projects (two Star One and two Ayreon made that list), largely because of the vocal and musical diversity he delivers with such a wide range of talent. Well, the honors in that department go to Tobias Sammet this time around. Where Arjen writes grandiose stories spanning multiple albums, and Ayreon tends to be a keyboard led style of prog, Tobias does the same but in a prog-symphonic-power metal way. In case you hadn’t figured it out after 47 entries, that’s the kind of music that I’ve been most attracted to over the last few years.
Before we get into the top 2, I have a related honorable mention for The Scarecrow Saga, and this is going to be as long as (perhaps longer than) some of the earlier entries. It’s kinda cheating to get another entry in, but it can’t go unmentioned.
2.5) Avantasia - The Flying Opera (2011)
Track to try -
Promised Land(this really should be ranked 3.5, but I had to get the writeup on the above three stated first)
Around The World in 20 Days ... hitting Europe, Asia and South America in 2008. Fuck Europeans, Asians, and South Americans! Actually, fuck North Americans for not appreciating metal enough to bring the best acts here for shows/tours. What I would do to see Avantasia (cost effectively). Filmed over two shows (Wacken Open Air Festival, and Czech Monsters of Rock), this is an absolutely essential DVD to any metal collection. It’s flawless... absolutely flawless. Tobias is on fire and a fantastic front man; Jorn owns the stage and slays his performances; Matos is a beast; Catley is almost preacher-like in his delivery; Kai Hansen fills in for Alice Cooper amazingly; Somerville provides so much passion and is beyond brilliant in a backing role - and you know it’s a monster cast of vocalists when Amanda Somerville is your BACKING vocalist (along with Cloudy Yang). Musically, Hartman and Paeth form the musical dynamic duo on guitars, and Felix Bohnke is a monster on the skins... dripping with sweat the entire time. You know when a live performance is so good that it’s borderline painful to listen to the studio version of a song... yeah, that’s what it’s like with all 16 tracks on this one. There isn’t a single track here that I would rather hear the studio version. I’ll still listen to the studio albums, but can’t do so without visualizing the performances from the DVD, or wishing deep down that I was listening to the live version. As I said, this is as essential to my DVD collection – as much as Score, LSFNY, Rush in Rio, End of An Era, How The West Was Won, Operation:Livecrime and Live On Earth.
Topic: Jingle.boy's Top 50v2 - Stick a fork in this .... It's done! (Read 47943 times)