EDGUY front-man Tobias Sammet‘s AVANTASIA project will release its 9th album, “A Paranormal Evening With The Moonflower Society”, on October 21 via Nuclear Blast. The disc will be the follow-up to “Moonglow”, which came out in 2019. The official lyric video for the LP’s fourth single, “The Inmost Light”, featuring Michael Kiske can be seen below. The song sees both vocalists trading off their signature styles over a short, sharp attack of classic heavy metal that’s destined to be a hit live.
Tobias Sammet comments: “Michi Kiske is not only a good friend of more than 20 years, he has been with AVANTASIA right from the beginning. His singing inspires me when I compose songs, and while finalizing the writing for a duet with him it always ends up in a very powerful missile like “The Inmost Light”. The sound is in my DNA, it always was an important component of my songwriting and maybe that is the reason our voices form a strong unit together. It is always a challenge to work and sing with this kind of expert. You have to put a lot of effort into it in order to not secede. Michi‘s singing and the sound of early HELLOWEEN influenced my career. I wrote “The Inmost Light” in the wake of just throwing everything overboard which would not be essential. I wanted to deliver a short and tight rocket”.
“A Paranormal Evening With The Moonflower Society” was produced by Sammet with AVANTASIA guitar player Sascha Paeth. The cover artwork was created by Swedish illustrator Alexander Jansson.
Sammet previously stated about the new album: “From the first song ideas back in 2018 / 2019 to the production, orchestration, keyboards, arrangements, details, I have been personally involved so deeply in every little aspect and detail of this album that you can’t get an album any more personal or closer to my vision than this one. I had the time. Nothing else to do in the past two and a half years. It was a slow movement life with music and my Mysteryhausen studio serving as a portal to another world, full of music and quirky encounters with my muses keeping me sane and hopeful. I am super proud of the album — some of my best songs, some of my most emotional and extreme vocal performances, some of the strongest guest performances ever. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome and when you’ll hear it, you will know why.”
“A Paranormal Evening With The Moonflower Society” can be pre-ordered HERE in the following formats:
- Jewelcase CD
- CD-Digibook
- Earbook (ltd. to 5000 copies)
- 2 Picture- LP (ltd. to 2000 copies)
- Vinyl Box (Mailorder Edition, ltd. to 1800 copies)
- 2 LP
- Black Vinyl
- Moonstone Vinyl (ltd. to 3500 copies)
- Fluorescent Green Vinyl (ltd. to 500 copies)
- Baltic Blue/Ocean Green Cloudy Vinyl (ltd. to 300 copies)
- Inca Gold Vinyl (US only, ltd. to 700 copies)
- Marine Blue Vinyl (Band exclusive, ltd. to 300 copies)
- Cardinal Red/Graphite Splatter Vinyl (Band exclusive, ltd. to 500 copies)
- Fluorescent Orange Vinyl (EMP exclusive, ltd. to 300 copies)
- Silver Vinyl (FNAC exclusive, ltd. to 300 copies)
“A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society” Album Artwork
1. Welcome to the Shadows
2. The Wicked Rule the Night
3. Kill the Pain Away
4. The Inmost Light
5. Misplaced among the Angels
6. I Tame the Storm
7. Paper Plane
8. The Moonflower Society
9. Rhyme and Reason
10. Scars
11. Arabesque
“Moonglow” hit number one on the album charts in Germany and charted in 17 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas before AVANTASIA embarked on a ten-month tour of Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America.
Since its beginnings in 1999, AVANTASIA‘s past releases have featured international stars such as Alice Cooper, Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker (SCORPIONS),Sharon Den Adel (WITHIN TEMPTATION),Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer (KISS),Eric Martin (MR. BIG),SAXON‘s Biff Byford, TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider and many more.
AVANTASIA will make a dozen or so festival appearances this summer, starting on June 24 at Spain’s Rock Imperium.
