What's Avantasia?
A Kingdom of Fantasy
2023
Recorded 10-18-2023 between 5:25 and 5:29 PM EDT
Comments: If you didn't know, now you know.

Avantasia
"Avantasia" / The Metal Opera (the song was first released as a single before becoming the ninth track on Avantasia's debut album)
2001
Recorded 10-18-2023 between 5:30 and 5:32 PM EDT
Song Meaning: Tobias Sammet plays Gabriel, the protagonist, who sings the verses, and Michael Kiske plays Lugaid, an ally of his, who sings the pre-chorus. (Gabriel and the voices in his head sing the chorus.) According to Genius, in the song, they realize that the Pope will soon have all of the Seven Seals needed to destroy the kingdom of Avantasia, and so they must find a way to enter the tower after being delayed by bandits. Lugaid comes up with the idea to have Gabriel enter through his imagination and stop the delivery of the Seventh Seal.
Comments: Use your imagination!

The Moonflower Society
A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society
2022
Recorded 10-20-2023 between 4:33 and 4:35 PM EDT
Song Meaning: In this song, the protagonist (of Moonflower Society and Moonglow) meets the Moonflower Society, a group of mystical creatures that appear at night in a field of moonflowers when they bloom.
Comments: The second verse is a delight.
Single Version

The Wicked Rule the Night
A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society
2022
Recorded 10-20-2023 between 4:39 and 4:41 PM EDT
Song Meaning: It's about a evil hunt in the night for someone (possibly the protagonist), and how "the wicked rule the night."
Comments: As soon as I get to the bridge, I'm like, "Oh, now it's getting good."
Single Version

Ghost in the Moon
Moonglow
2019
Recorded 10-22-2023 between 11:27 and 11:33 AM EDT
Song Meaning: This is the opening track to Moonglow, and thus the entire Moonglow Saga (Moonglow and Moonflower Society). The albums tell a story about a nocturnal creature journeying out from the shelter of the darkness to explore the world. This song depicts their journey out of the darkness.
Comments: Of the Avantasia songs I've heard (which isn't a lot compared to their entire discography), this and "The Great Mystery" (closing track of The Mystery of Time) are the musical-like ones. It was kinda hard, since I have trouble singing as high as Tobias sings on the original song without having a voice crack, but I think I did good. (We're not gonna talk about how I screwed up singing "They chase you into dawn / To a silken bed of quicksand.")
Single Version

The Toy Master
The Scarecrow
2008
Recorded 10-22-2023 between 11:43 and 11:46 AM EDT
Song Meaning: Tobias Sammet plays the Scarecrow, who enters an abandoned toy factory, where the Toy Master, played by the (amazing) Alice Cooper, is a running a drug dealing operation. Taking Mephistopheles' advice, the Scarecrow starts to become addicted...
Comments: Alice Cooper singing symphonic metal with Tobias Sammet is what we call a masterpiece. This is what we call someone attempting to recreate that masterpiece, and doing a good job (hopefully).

The Scarecrow
The Scarecrow
2008
Recorded 10-22-2023 between 11:57 AM and 12:02 PM EDT
Song Meaning: This is the second track on The Scarecrow, as well as the second song of the Wicked Trilogy (The Scarecrow, The Wicked Symphony, and Angel of Babylon), and it sees Mephistopheles (Jørn Lande) persuading the Scarecrow (Tobias Sammet), who is lamenting about his poor love life, to follow his way.
Comments: My voice hurts after that. Simply put, as good of a song as this is, Jørn's voice is not the funnest to recreate. Oh crap, I gotta do it again in the next song! And two singers whose voices I barely know! Sheet!

Let the Storm Descend Upon You
Ghostlights
2016
Recorded 10-30-2023 between 5:32 and 5:38 PM EDT
Song Meaning: It's hard to understand the lyrics, but we do know that this is a continuation of the Ghostlights Saga, which began with The Mystery of Time. In the song, Tobi plays Aaron Blackwell, an Agnostic scientist in Victorian era England, and Jørn plays Temptation, presumably a personification. Ronnie Atkins plays the Magician, and Robert Mason is Scientist I. The Ghostlights album follows these four on their journey to align the personalities of the world, only to realize that it's just another form of subjugation. Genius suggests that some parts of the song are about looking ahead, and that the lyrics mostly discuss "trusting your senses rather than that you can grasp with science" and "being doubtful of what is real and what is imagined."
Comments: My impressions of Jørn's voice and Ronnie's voices sound similar, but I tried to make Jørn's sound more gravelly (which worked really well with my scratchy throat today). The same thing occurs with my impressions of Tobi and Robert's, but I tried to make Tobi's softer and Robert's more operatic. I really love singing this song, especially the "I am he who's always been" verse. (Hah, I'm listening to the recording to review as I write this and that part came on just as I wrote the sentence.) You can tell how much they put into this to make it sound awesome, and they succeeded. When you consider the fact that this is the second track on Ghostlights, it's sure to get anyone hooked on the rest of it.
Single Version

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I hope you liked this blog! Go ahead and let me know your favorite song in the comments! I've already got the next two blogs outlined, by the way. December's is gonna be Gloryhammer-themed, and after that, I'm gonna get to work on an Iron Maiden blog with 1-3 songs from each of their albums, plus medleys of the tracks from their two most recent ones.