Album Review: Avantasia - A Paranormal Evening With The Moonflower Society

Creativity is an interesting, and unexplainable, phenomenon. For years, Tobias Sammet was cranking out albums with both Avantasia and Edguy at an amazing clip. Songs were pouring out of him, and it seemed like every year we were getting a new record that had plenty of amazing song on them. Tobi was the reason I came to melodic metal, and he was the center of that universe for several years. But as time has gone on, and Tobi has slowed his productivity to focus on Avantasia being the best it can be, I have actually been having a harder time staying interested. For every "Ghostlights", which felt like a return to the days when I was giddy over this stuff, there is a "The Mystery Of Time", which leaves me utterly cold.

With another three year build to this record, you would think all the time Tobi has spent in the studio hard at work at this record would ensure a nearly classic experience. That would surely be the hope.

The album follows familiar form with Tobi taking the opening song, full of dramatic swells and big choirs. The tone is a bit darker than something like "Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose", tamping down some of the scope and cheese factor that sometimes comes across, given Tobi's affection for Meat Loaf. It brings us back into the world of Avantasia. We are jarred from our comfort right after, as Ralf Sheepers is the guest on "The Wicked Rule The Night", shrieking his way through the verses in perhaps the single worst vocal performance on an Avantasia track over these twenty years. I absolutely hate everything about those vocals, and they completely ruin what would have been a solid, if unremarkable, song in the heavier style.

"Kill The Pain Away" features Floor Jansen delivering a rapid-fire hook that certainly picks up the energy. The only thing is that at less than four minutes, it almost feels as if the song is racing to the conclusion when there is more it still needs to say. I think there was room to expand it and make the track even more grand. Conversely, I'm glad "The Inmost Light" is kept to a minimum. A vehicle for Michael Kiske, it's Tobi's power metal by-the-numbers inclusion that seems to pop up once on every album. Given the stories and tones these albums take, they don't always fit in stylistically, but at least this one is short.

Pacing is the main theme of the album. With a ten minute closing track, everything else feels shorter than usual in order to fit into a reasonable running time. The aforementioned opener usually would have been another minute or two longer, as would the power metal outing. There are four tracks under four minutes on the record, and three more in the four minute slot. Tobi's vision is usually wider than that, and more time gives the guests more room to make their presence known. That struggles to happen here. On "Paper Plane", Ronnie Atkins barely gets two lines to himself before the song is thrown back into a shared chorus. It almost feels superfluous to have the song labelled as 'featuring Ronnie Atkins', when the song wouldn't have really been any different if Tobi took the whole thing to himself.

The other issue to talk about is that Tobi has been making these albums with Sascha Paeth long enough now, and has the same core of guests who appear on every album, that the spark of having all of these guests is getting lost. The original "Metal Opera" pair sounded nothing like "The Scarecrow" trilogy, which sounded nothing like "The Mystery Of Time". But this record makes four Avantasia albums in a row that have all been built from the same sound, so perhaps it's no wonder they are failing to excite me in the same manner. Even with Edguy, Tobi was always doing something that sounded a little bit different, setting each album apart from all the others. Avantasia is so much a brand now that he is adhering to the sounds and structures that work, sometimes to the detriment of malaise.

Look, I'm holding Tobi to a higher standard than most, because I know what he is capable of, and because of what his music has meant to me. In more objective terms, "A Paranormal Evening With The Moonflower Society" is a darn good record. There are Tobi's trademark hooks all over the place, and few can write metal on a par with him. That being said, in his canon this doesn't rise to the top. A middle-of-the-road Avantasia album is still a highlight of the metal year, but it's also a bit of a disappointment. I know nothing is going to hit me the way "The Metal Opera Pt II" did when I was finding my way in this world, but "Ghostlights" showed Tobi can still hit that nerve. This record is more of a dull tingle running down my arm than a jolt of electricity.

I'm not sure any of this helps explain the record.