Avantasia: A Relatively Normal Evening With Tobias Sammet
Over the last couple of decades, Tobias Sammet has barely stopped for breath. As the ringmaster for the metal circus that is AVANTASIA, as well as frontman of cult act EDGUY, Sammet has put his blood, sweat and tears in to the canon of power metal – usually, with a beaming smile on his face and wisecrack or three to boot. His latest offering is An Evening With The Moonflower Society; a classic AVANTASIA record through and through, but imbued with a notably more introspective tone.
“When I was young, the pace I was setting myself was really close to lethal,” Sammet shares. “I was writing an album every year, doing promotion, a world tour every year. At some point, I felt so invincible, I started to do two albums a year!” Sammet is jovial about the experience, but it must have been gruelling. “Between 2006 to 2011, I think I did six or seven albums and five or six world tours. It was getting insane, and that evoked expectations that were hard to cope with.”
Something had to change for Sammet, especially as AVANTASIA showed no signs of stopping. “After Ghostlights, I said, ‘no, I’m not going to do a full EDGUY album and tour now.’ And I took all the time in the world to finish Moonglow. In 2018, I didn’t play a single show – that was the first year in probably 20 I didn’t play.” It takes conviction to know when to take a break, but Sammet is characteristically self-deprecating about the whole thing. “I tried to relax and recover, but had I known that there would be a little virus that would have meant 24 months without a show, I would’ve probably postponed my hiatus!” Sammet laughs.
When touching on the years of lockdown, Sammet is thoughtful of the hardships that we all endured. But he’s also appreciative of the space it allowed him to develop An Evening With The Moonflower Society, free of the weight of commitment. “It was the first time in 15 years nobody was saying, ‘when’s the next album? When are you coming to this place?’ I’ve got 19 albums and 12 world tours in 20 years – stop it!” Sammet chuckles at his mock-diva demands for peace, before reflecting. “I knew that if something would get postponed, or I would need another three months to rethink something, I could do that without being blamed.”
Having just kitted out a new home studio before the pandemic, Sammet was determined to make the most of the enforced solitude. The resultant An Evening With The Moonflower Society has all the pomp you’d expect of an AVANTASIA record, but feels more brooding and pensive. “I had to reach into myself a lot more. I think there were a lot of things hanging like a black cloud that I subconsciously and consciously had to get rid of.”
Sammet explains that it’s a deceivingly grounded record. “In brief, it deals with escapism, but not as a way to deny and defy reality.” Indeed, it feels like the album allowed Sammet to process the high-intensity trajectory of his career. “It’s a very, very personal album. It’s about expectations. And it’s about the challenge to be yourself in a world that constantly wants you to be somebody else.”
Song-writing aside, the ambiguity of lockdown also allowed Sammet to reacquaint himself with the finer details of recording and performing. Listening to the album, it’s noticeable how much more we hear of Sammet’s voice than usual, his powerful tones spanning lead parts, harmonies and backing vocals galore. “I have to say, I reconquered my joy of singing and – doing all these little things myself – my joy of music! And that was pretty much because I had time to enjoy it again.” In particular, Sammet reconnected with his vocal craft. “I worked over and over on so many passages because I had time to try out new things. I felt like Freddie Mercury – I was doing tracks of choirs of just my own voice.” The album is certainly one of the strongest performances of Sammet’s singing career, with cuts like Misplaced Amongst The Angels a testament to his vocal prowess.
Sammet is also hugely grateful and complimentary to the guests joining him on An Evening With The Moonflower Society, from AVANTASIA stalwarts like Ronnie Atkins to newcomers like Floor Jansen. However, he’s also quick to point out that it’s never about the names. “I want AVANTASIA to be about the songs, and I have a great army of singers that are there for that purpose – filling those songs with life in the best possible way.” Compared to typical ‘all-star’ projects, AVANTASIA is definitely more like a sprawling family of collaborators – it just happens to include some of the genre’s greatest talents. “It feels like a band! I mean, it’s still a dictatorship, that sounds bad,” Sammet laughs. “I’m a good king! But it feels like a band – everybody is on the same page.” That feeling extends to the live stage, where AVANTASIA returned this summer for a number of dates across the continent. “It was like a family reunion, it’s really lovely.”
With the album gestating during the uncertainty of lockdown, it’s not surprising that AVANTASIA’s music is more reflective than usual. Sammet is in a similar mood, taking a moment to consider how the expansive band has changed over the years. “The first two records were way less of an up-and-down rollercoaster ride. It was pretty much you turn it on, and then it’s 60 minutes of sewing-machine drums,” he laughs. “There’s nothing wrong with it! But they were a bit one dimensional. What makes mountains impressive is the valleys in-between – it’s the ups and downs. And I’m really happy with the rollercoaster ride that we’ve managed to create.”
The unpredictable journey across mountains and valleys is an apt analogy for Sammet’s career, and we are fortunate enough to be joining him atop a peak with AVANTASIA’s latest.
A Paranormal Evening With The Moonflower Society is set for release on October 21st via Nuclear Blast Records.
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