AVANTASIA — The Wicked Symphony (review)

AVANTASIA — The Wicked Symphony album cover

Album · 2010 · Heavy Metal

4/5 · 2010-11-08
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Avantasia’s continuation of 2008's The Scarecrow can be seen as going two ways before hearing it. The first would be for it to have the same sound as The Scarecrow, seeing that it is a continuation of the story, or the second way would be something different. Many fans seemed to want something closer in sound to the project's first two releases, The Metal Opera Parts I & II. What The Wicked Symphony and its partner Angel of Babylon come across as however is something in between, closer to the Metal Opera’s than The Scarecrow was, but with some elements of that album thrown into the mix for good measure. It’s a pretty good result, and Tobias Sammet has some great vocalists with him on this album.

Opening with the 9 and a half minute title track that Sammet described this as an epic vocal battle between himself, Jorn Lande and Russell Allen, the album is off to a strong start. The results are exactly what Sammet promised. These are three of the best voices in metal and if I may be so blunt, is a much better union of the voices of Allen and Lande than any of the Allen/Lande albums to date managed.

The album does not lose its quality as we continue through, with the much shorter track Wastelands coming after the title track and will probably become a fan favourite due to the presence of Michael Kiske, an Avantasia regular, and then a personal favourite from the album, Scales of Justice, which is the only track to feature the voice of Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens. His voice and Sammet’s compliment each other’s very well. The song feels much faster and heavier than much Avantasia material, it really feels as if it was written with Owens in mind. As such it wouldn’t have sounded out of place on an Owens era Iced Earth album. These one song per guest singer songs are much more common on The Wicked Symphony than on previous albums, with only Jorn Lande, Russell Allen and Michael Kiske singing on more than one song. Lande is the most common guest singer on the album, singing on four tracks, The Wicked Symphony, Runaway Train, Crestfallen and Forever is a Long Time.

Lead single Dying for an Angel follows. It’s one of the more commercially inclined songs from The Wicked Symphony but not to the scale of Carry Me Over or Lost in Space from The Scarecrow.

Runaway Train is another long song. There are several longer songs between the two 2010 Avantasia albums, though nothing as long as The Seven Angels from The Metal Opera Part II or even The Scarecrow from the album of the same name. This is The Wicked Symphony’s second and final long song. Piano led with some excellent vocals from Lande it soon gets heavier. To be honest the chorus section isn’t too special but another piano section, this time with the vocals of Bob Catley, followed by an excellent guitar solo makes up for it. Crestfallen, at about half Runaway Train’s length is a much better track and another favourite of mine. It features some of Sammet’s best vocals on the album and the presence of Jorn lande is another bonus. The line “And you’ll fall away from heaven” comes across as extremely epic. I’m not entirely sure what to make of Sammet’s contribution to the chorus, it sounds as if he is attempting some growl vocals, coming across more as a shriek. Maybe this is for story affect, I can’t tell, because unfortunately, like its predecessor The Wicked Symphony doesn’t come across as a concept piece in a musical sense. It’s just good songs. This certainly isn’t a problem, since many find concept albums hard to digest. With The Wicked Symphony it’s very easy to take tracks at random and enjoy it.

Nearing to the end of the album is another favourite of mine, Black Wings, which features someone who is probably the most unknown vocalist on the album, though Avantasia fans should remember him from The Metal Operas, Ralf Zdiarstek.

If anything though The Wicked Symphony is somewhat anticlimactic. I’m not fond of closing track The Edge at all. All in all a pretty good symphonic power metal album though.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)