Tobias Sammet's Avantasia.

Track by Track: "The Moorlands At Twilight" is a really rampant Speed Metal anthem with my lovely brother in Avantasia since the early days, Michael Kiske delivering a killer vocal performance. I guess that type of music is just in my DNA and even though it's a classic Avantasia song I think that the atmopshere is different to anything we've done before. I can hear some early Helloween influence in there, even though the song is very unique with its playful neo-classical elements and wild approach. Also, the lead guitars are extreme and quite virtuous: Sascha Paeth and Arne Wiegand have delivered an extensive, fast and hymnic axe battle that made my jaw drop. When "Power Metal" is done like that, I absolutely love it!

Track by Track: "Everybody's Here Until The End"! When the album was almost done I felt that we had a lot of furious and fast material, and I thought that I was still in need of a grand finale for an epic ending, something conciliatory and big, and I sat down on my piano and started to play a ballad which would eventually grow from a piano piece into a monumental power ballad. It's a very personal song but eventually I wanted a duet partner who would add more depth. And I reached out to an old acquaintance to the Avantasia family, the mighty Roy Khan (ex-Kamelot) to help me shape this song to an amazing finale of an enchanting album. I think it's one of the most moving and emotional, and yet biggest ballads I have ever done.

Track by Track: "Bring On The Night" was written on the evening of July 6th, 2024 within a few hours as a heartfelt tribute to Magnum and the late Tony Clarkin. I dive deeper into the background story in the Artbook version of the new album, but in brief words: the song came to me within minutes in an almost spiritual way, and I just had to capture it and turn it into an Avantasia tune. I wanted to do it justice and used the sounds and keyboards played on classic 80s Magnum records, and of course there would be only one singer in the world, who could sing that song with me, the undisputed king of magic, the storyteller on a storyteller's night: my dear friend and partner for 25 years now, Birmingham's finest: Mr. Bob Catley. It's such a wonderful song, anthemic, melancholic, quite a bit 80s... or better: timeless. This kind of approach and the magic you feel when a piece of music is given to you out of nowhere and it all comes together, those are the sacred moments in music that drive me. Bob had tears in his eyes when he sang it, and I was trying to hide mine behind my goggles when I was sitting next to him. It's just so beautiful. Bob, I love you for rocking my world and being the friend and inspiration you are, I can't wait until March to hit the road with you again!

Track by Track: "Against The Wind" is an anthemic powerful Speed Metal rocket with some quite unique phrasings, melancholic melodies and very unusual twists and turns. It combines very early Avantasia trademarks with new elements and yet it somehow reminds me of the carefreeness of my very early songs. Also lyrically I reflect on where I come from, which approach I once set out with and how to be true to yourself despite the headwind and outside expectations. My friend Kenny Leckremo of H.e.a.t. is a wonderful duet partner on this one, it's got some challenging vocal lines and I think the two of us do a pretty good job together, conveying the two extremes of the song: Power and emotion!

Track by Track: "Unleash The Kraken" has some of the heaviest and technically most demanding Metal guitars we've ever had in Avantasia. Old school, not modern! Sascha Paeth must be the eight-armed creature I conjure in the song. It's a real fast song and it's also got the highest and most extreme vocals I've ever come up with in my entire career. But despite its aggressive and angry elements, it's very melodic and hymnic. Unleash The Kraken is one of two songs on the album that I'm singing by myself, and maybe this and the rampant riffing, along with the impetuous take-no-prisoners attitude make the song somewhat remind me of the faster stuff on albums such as Hellfire Club, just a notch wilder. Again, what Sascha does on guitars is out of this world, just like a crossbreed of Jeff Waters, Paul Gilbert and a rampaging mammoth! In the artbook version of the album you can read a lot more about the backgrounds of the songs.