As a self appointed historian on the career of one Tobias Sammet, I can honestly say that the cumulative reaction to Avantasia’s tenth(!) studio album, Here Be Dragons, matches the divisiveness that was achieved by 2006’s The Scarecrow (aka the rebirth of the project from a studio only situation to an ongoing touring concern). Honestly, in some ways it surpasses the furor around that album if only because the bulk of the tumult around it’s release was largely negative towards the single “Lost In Space”, while the reaction towards the rest of The Scarecrow and it’s companion EPs was fairly enthusiastic, glowing even (the title track and cuts such as “Promised Land” and “The Story Ain’t Over” are rightfully considered classics today). Conversely, the discussion around the new album centers entirely upon the album as a whole, with wildly differing opinions, and an array of talking points both positive and negative. This has all been further inflamed not only by Sammet on social media defending lead single “Creepshow”, the most decidedly Edguy sounding song ever to grace an Avantasia tracklist — but by his retaliatory lyrics towards vocal fans of his older power metal style on “Return to the Opera”, a bonus track that is ironically enough being lauded by nearly everyone everywhere as the best song on the album. Oi vey, lets unpack all this.
First off, my thoughts on the album itself are confusing even for me, because on one hand, I really do love a lot of these songs, and yet, I find myself frustrated with their lack of explosiveness in the guitar department and in the overwhelming presence of layered keyboard orchestrations. Lets start with the title track, because despite being the second track on the album, it does admittedly feel like the first actual Avantasia tune on the album (we’ll talk about “Creepshow” in a bit) with a guest vocalist duetting alongside Sammet (Geoff Tate in this case). The chorus here is magnificent, one of the best on the album, arguably one of the strongest in the band’s discography as a whole, but I find myself only perking up when I feel it about to strike again. With the exception of a singular riff progression that serves as a far ahead of time prechorus, the rest of the verses are weighed down with a string of lone chords that fill in the space behind Tate or Sammet in uninspiring fashion. Things pick up in the bridge midway through, with a brisk tempo and a combining of voices on a uplifting melody, but at the 5:56 mark we’re deposited once again into this meandering nothingness. Its just so damn frustrating to not give this awesome chorus a long runway to soar off from… it reminds me of the atmospheric nonsense that sat in the middle of “The Scarecrow” when there should’ve been a ripping, Europower guitar solo in it’s place. Despite it’s faults however, “Here Be Dragons” is quintessential Avantasia, a song I keep coming back to for its regality and dramatic pomp and splendor.
While the aforementioned title track might claim the album’s best chorus, the best guest vocalist pairing surprisingly winds up being Tommy Karevik on “The Witch”. Its not even that Sammet wrote a very Kamelot-ian or Seventh Wonder-ish tune here like he did for Roy Khan back in the day on “Twisted Mind”, its more that Karevik is a bit of a chameleon as a singer, finding a way to fit into any style or song structure and maximize his moment. Honestly, he probably doesn’t get enough credit for this, because I can’t recall ever hearing a bad guest spot from him ever (even on some of the Ayreon stuff where I didn’t particularly enjoy the songwriting). This is a crisp, confident, and incredibly addictive tune wisely chosen as a single that echoes shades of “Dying For An Angel”, and it was a shrewd decision to allow Karevik to handle the first verse on his own, thereby giving the song a very different feel from the rest of the album where Sammet is usually taking the lead on things. Similarly on “Bring on the Night”, ole’ Bob Catley kicks off this power ballad (what else with Catley?) with an immediate vocal melody lead-in on the intro, and while there’s a deliberately overproduced 80’s version of this tune as a bonus track, this original version has washes of mid-80s Magnum in spades, which is rather fitting in a way given that band’s ultimate curtain call earlier last year. Its one of the better Catley centric songs Tobias has penned, easily my favorite since the 2016 Song of the Year “Restless Heart and Obsidian Skies” off Ghostlights
Slightly less in my esteem but certainly strong songs in their own right are “The Moorlands at Twilight” with Michael Kiske (Ernie for you old school fans) making his triumphant return to the project, as well as “Phantasmagoria” with the warrior himself Ronnie Atkins. I enjoy both songs a great deal, particularly the latter where Atkins’ rough, jagged vocals are right in their element on a song that sits in that Hellfire Club-ish power metal meets hard rock pocket. Kiske’s song is a companion piece to “Wastelands” off The Wicked Symphony, with some uptempo Euro-power at work, except this time spliced in with some latter day Avantasia eccentricities to prevent it from being straight ahead power metal. And finally Adrienne Cowan gets a turn on an album after doing some stints as Avantasia’s backing vocalist on tour, and she sounds fantastic on “Avalon”, which thankfully deviates from Sammet’s propensity to relegate women guest vocalists in the past to power ballads. Cowan gets to utilize her throaty belting voice here, the kind she wielded so effortlessly on spectacular Seven Spires tunes such as “Succumb” and “In Sickness, In Health” (maybe Sammet got inspired after duetting with her on “Reach Out For the Light” in place of Kiske on tour). I think that “Against the Wind” is a decent song in it’s entirety (though H.E.A.T.’s Kenny Leckremo is lost as a guest vocal here), but it has the honor of having one of the best moments on the album, with Sammet addressing his critics for the first time on an Avantasia album directly, “If you don’t like what I do / then it’s not made for you”. Finally the Freddy Mercury/Queen tinged “Everybody’s Here Until the End” is a fine album closer, a semi power ballad with a deft chorus, although relegating Roy Khan to a mere spoken/sung passage in the middle seems like a waste of talent.
That leaves us album opener “Creepshow” and the decidedly metallic “Unleash the Kraken” as the final songs here to discuss, and they’re of particular interest in the sense that there are no guest vocalists on both tracks, just Sammet himself. So lets talk about the latter first, because I actually think its an awesome tune and reminds me a ton of something like “Under the Moon” from Hellfire Club, or given the balls to the wall nature of the chorus, “Nailed to the Wheel” from Mandrake, both songs from Edguy albums by the way if you didn’t catch that. I genuinely feel in listening to this tune that it could have fit into the tracklist of either of those albums, and that’s ironic given Sammet’s own insistence on not returning to his power metal roots. Then there’s the flashpoint song in all discussions about this album, “Creepshow”, which sounds like it could have been an Edguy b-side from the Space Police era. It is easily the most middling of all the songs on an otherwise strong Avantasia album. Repetitive, simplistic, and intended as such according to Sammet in its aim, as he explained: “It’s short and catchy, and it emphasizes a facet of my work that has taken a backseat in my music in recent years. It’s light-hearted and the opposite of melancholic. And it’s fresh, boisterous and unabashed – a straightforward kick-ass anthem.” He even admits to it sounding like something from the past, stating “…even though it may seem like a reminiscence of my earlier writing, I think we managed to turn the whole thing into a trademark Avantasia tune…“. Hmmm, I’m not sure how it sounds characteristically like Avantasia, given the lack of other voices — after all, even “Lost in Space” for all its simplified pop-rock sonics had Amanda Somerville adding her vocals into the mix.
So I get where fans are a little confused by this album and Sammet’s mixed messaging both from his running social media soapbox on Facebook and Instagram where he is often vocal about his chosen musical path and sticking to his guns (and real talk, I respect him for his stance at least, though I question his need to declare it all the time), and also from within the context of the album itself. Its not just those two songs sounding like old Edguy that are prompting this confusion either, its the reality that the intentional Metal Opera era throwback bonus track “Return to the Opera” is being declared by many fans as the album’s best song. I disagree… only slightly however, because this is a banger of an old school power metal cut, built on the same DNA that informed all those classic late 90s/early 2000s Edguy and Avantasia records that we all look back so fondly upon. The lyrics of this song are self-explanatory, a mea culpa to fans clamoring for the past and also a plea for them to shut up finally… and I’d be on Sammet’s side 100% if he weren’t so goddamned great at writing stuff like this. Seriously, I have replayed this bonus track over and over again just for the sheer joy it brings me, even though I realize its a bit a joke track. He has said in interviews recently (and even alludes to this within the lyrics of the song) that he enjoyed writing it, but if he had to write an entire album’s worth of songs just like it, it would be disheartening (or drive him to alcoholism given the “Betty Ford” references in the lyrics). I get that sentiment, but I’ll argue that the success in the ears of fans of “Return to the Opera” might work against his intentions in releasing it in the first place.
Thinking it all over, I find myself simultaneously thrilled by this album and frustrated with it. I love most of these songs for their melodies and some truly awesome guest vocal moments (Karevik is the MVP in this category), yet I wish it didn’t sound so pillowy soft in it’s production, and I wish some guests were utilized better such as Roy Khan. I think the heavily layered keyboards that adorn so much of this album end up stifling certain tunes that need a bit more space to breath and let the guitars or singular piano melodies rip (“Everybody’s Here Until the End” needs a bit more Meatloaf/Steinman sharpness and vigor for a start). I think the pendulum has swung too far into the direction of prog at times production wise, and there needs to be a little more Gamma Ray and a touch less Magnum in the overall approach during the mixing phase. And I’ll admit that Sammet’s dip back into older, both Metal Opera-ian and Edguy-ish styles on respective tracks has made me a little nostalgic. I long for more stuff like “Unleash the Kraken”, and really what that means is that I long for Edguy, something that’s not drenched in symphonics or theatrical drama like the past few Avantasia albums. It was a breath of fresh air, and I think many fans of both bands found themselves gratefully gulping it in and eagerly looking around for the next one. That its so brief is frustrating to some and bewildering to many. What exactly is Avantasia supposed to be… a Tobias Sammet solo vehicle, or a group project with a rotating cast of singers? He did well bringing in fresh voices to the mix this time in a substantive way, but maybe now its time to fully reimagine the sound of modern Avantasia into something else instead of repeating the formula of the past few albums.
