{"id":5918,"date":"2011-04-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=5918"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:53:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:53:58","slug":"album-review-avantasia-angel-of-babylon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=5918","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Avantasia – Angel of Babylon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Avantasia – Angel of Babylon<\/strong>
\n Release date: April 3, 2010<\/strong>
\n Highlights: Stargazers, Angel of Babylon, Down In The Dark, Death Is Just A Feeling, Alone I Remember, Journey To Arcadia<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2009 and 2010, Edguy singer\/leader Tobias Sammet did what most bands cannot do in their lifetime: releasing two amazing masterpieces back to back in less than a year. Avantasia is symphonic rock opera created by Sammet who released \u201cThe Wicked Symphony\u201d and \u201cAngel of Babylon\u201d to complete \u201cThe Wicked Trilogy,\u201d a conceptual story that started with 2008\u2019s \u201cThe Scarecrow.\u201d Concept albums are hard to pull off much less doing one that spans over three albums. Tobias and Co. manage to not only pull this off but to keep it entertaining, engaging and exciting the whole time.<\/p>\n

Once again, Sammet has brought his vision to life with a cast of characters that show just what powerful friends this guy has. I love that while being such an ambitious project, it lacks any presence of ego or pretentiousness. Sammet almost at times plays the guest to his own party as he really lets his friends shine and deliver face melting performances. His presence is definitely known and heard but he doesn\u2019t hog the spotlight by any means. Just like its predecessor \u201cThe Wicked Symphony,\u201d \u201cAngel From Babylon\u201d once again features some of the greatest lead vocalists in metal music today. Act III of the trilogy kicks off with a band with \u201cStargazers\u201d featuring Michael Kiske (Helloween), Jorn Lande (Jorn) and Russell Allen (Symphony X). Right away I knew this album would live up to its amazing predecessor.<\/p>\n

The conceptual aspect of \u201cAngel of Babylon\u201d seems to never get in the way of this actually being a great album. The concept as a whole is a great one but the songs stand up on their own outside of the concept. Jorn Lande appears on 6 of the twelve songs but really shines bright on \u201cDown in the Dark\u201d which has to be one of my favorites. Russell Allen shows just why his is one of the best metal singers out here on \u201cJourney To Arcadia.\u201d He shows the depth and versatility of his voice as he sings this song that sounds very inspired by Jim Steinman\/Meatloaf\u2019s \u201cBat Out Of Hell\u201d era. My personal highlight is the show stopping performance by Savatage\/Pain\u2019s Jon Olivia on the song \u201cDeath Is Just A Feeling.\u201d His demented, twisted performance on this track bears resemblance to that of Alice Cooper which fit the song perfectly. The only true weak moment of this amazing album is the Cloudy Yang sung track \u201cThe Symphony of Life.\u201d This song lacked the dynamics and drive of the other songs so this one just seemed to be the sore thumb here. A totally forgettable song on a truly amazing and unforgettable album.<\/p>\n

Tobias Sammet has closed out his \u201cWicked Trilogy\u201d with a huge bang as \u201cAngel of Babylon\u201d is a triumphant curtain closing to an epic trilogy. It\u2019s kind of like the Star Wars of metal music minus the really annoying Ewoks. The only thing cooler than watching someones dreams and imagination come to life is to have it do so in a way that is musically stunning. lyrically engaging and fun to listen to. One might listen to these songs and call them cheesy but that\u2019s one perspective of it. Music doesn\u2019t always have to be serious. Sometimes it is just necessary to be swept away into someones own fantasy and to leave all of life\u2019s little troubles behind for just a bit. Tobias Sammet has created a fantasy world and has welcomed us all into it with open arms. The doors are open. All you have to do is step inside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Avantasia – Angel of Babylon Release date: April 3, 2010 Highlights: Stargazers, Angel of Babylon, Down In The Dark, Death Is Just A Feeling, Alone I Remember, Journey To Arcadia In 2009 and 2010, Edguy singer\/leader Tobias Sammet did what most bands cannot do in their lifetime: releasing two amazing masterpieces back to back in less than a year. Avantasia is symphonic rock opera created by Sammet who released \u201cThe Wicked Symphony\u201d and \u201cAngel of Babylon\u201d to complete \u201cThe Wicked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,277],"tags":[501,585],"class_list":["post-5918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-music-news","tag-avantasia","tag-tobias-sammet"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19853,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions\/19853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}