"Its a very good book that everyone should read... I want to support the author
and the release of this book is for a good reason (Parkinson-Community)."
In November the prestigious all-star project AVANTASIA will set off on a world tour, kicking off on the 30th of November at Z7, Pratteln, Switzerland. First guests for the tour have been confirmed. Besides Magnum-voice Bob Catley, the infamous Jorn Lande, Amanda Somerville, Olli Hartmann and main-man Tobias Sammet, legendary ex-Helloween vocalist Michael Kiske will hit the stage this time as well.
Tobias Sammet: I remember back in 1999 I did everything to get Michael Kiske involved in what was just an album project at the time, Avantasia's "Metal Opera". I was a happy boy in a toy store when I heard the tunes I had tailored for him, anthems like "Reach Out For The Light", "The Tower", "No Return" and he was an important corner stone for making Avantasia a classic amongst melodic Metal fans all over the world. I tried hard to convince Michael to enter the stage when Avantasia played their festival shows in 2008, but the time was not right. Now the stars have lined up and I am looking forward - as a representative of Avantasia and even more so as a fan to having Michael enter the stage to perform those kinds of classic Metal tracks for the first time in more than 17 years. I am looking forward to having Bob and Jorn, Amanda, Olli Hartmann, Sascha and Miro and all my fellow-Avantasians on stage again. Maybe we will have some more surprises, let's see. Let's reach out for the light!
The first dates have been confirmed, and more will be announced at tobiassammet.com in the coming days. Keep checking back to see if the Metal Opera will come to your town as well!
THE METAL OPERA COMES TO TOWN
30. Nov 2010 Switzerland - Pratteln, Z7 01. Dec 2010 Switzerland - Pratteln, Z7 03. Dec 2010 Germany - Lichtenfels, Stadthalle* 04. Dec 2010 Germany - Kaufbeuren, All Karthalle* 10. Dec 2010 Mexico - Mexico City, Circo Volador 15. Dec 2010 Argentina - Buenos Aires, venue tba 18. Dec 2010 Germany - Fulda, Esperantohalle* 19. Dec 2010 Germany - Essen, Grugahalle*
*Due to the fact that this is not a regular or annual tour but an extensive Avantasia-event and experience, the show start for Avantasia will begin promptly at 8:00PM.
Today, August 20th, is the release day of the Kiske/Somerville first digital-EP titled "Silence". Get the song now! This is the album version which is two minutes larger than the video clip.
Remember the album will be released on September 24th via Frontiers Records in a CD+DVD format with the two videoclips and a making off included (October 12 in the USA). The Japanese edition will be release on 27 October via King Records and include an acoustic version of "One Night Burning". You can order your CD+Dvd at Amazon or Frontiers.
To celebrate this release we've done an interview (mostly made up of questions from fans) with the singer Amanda Somerville (AVANTASIA, AINA), with the bassist, main composer and producer Mat Sinner (SINNER, PRIMAL FEAR), and of course Michael Kiske.
A few excerpts from the interview follow.
Mat Sinner: It's a singer's project and of course the main focus is on the vocals, but every little detail is important for a strong album. You need a strong foundation to make the vocals sound good. Overall I like the vibe of the vocal combination in 'Silence'. Sounding so authentic. Michael's voice in 'Don't Walk Away' sound killer and it's in a high range. Just great! Just to mention one great moment of Amanda's skills are the adlips on 'A Thousand Suns'. To be honest - I love each second of the vocals on the entire album!
About touring with this project:
Mat Sinner: If the album will receive a great feedback from the fans, we will sit together and discuss how we can this project on the stage and in our view how to present this album. That project is more like an opera, It’s too big for small clubs. We would need a stage where everyone would fit!
Michael Kiske: A tour for this project depends on the record’s response. We have to have the right feed back for it. We would want to do it right. It needs a great supporting to keep it going, live or on a new record.
Amanda Somerville: Touring and playing live is something that totally gets me going. I love it. So I would totally be game to play anything I've ever worked on live. Bring it on!! Now, if only the record companies would provide tour support... :-)
Also Michael spoke about Ronnie James Dio:
Michael Kiske: Ronnie Dio was the best Metal-Voice ever! When he sang as high as many others, it didn't sound that high because his voice was so freaking full!
He was born to sing. A very unique vocalist. I was just listening to Holy Diver gain and was moved by how good this record and his singing is. He was never as successful as he should have been. He was always very nice and friendly to us and NEVER sang one wrong tone! It made me really sad when I heard about his death, because he played a big role in my youth.
Friday August 13th, Amanda Somerville headlined the festival "Sirens Of Metal II" at Blondies, Detroit, MI, Usa where she played with Publik Parking, Maxine Petrucci, DesDemon and Kobra and the Lotus.
The line-up of the Amanda Somerville band was Paulo (Miles Beyond) on guitar, David Teggerdine on guitar, Mark Burnash (ex-Crop Circle) on bass, Scott Fisher (Crop Circle) on drums, Ashley Peacock (The Times) did a guest appearance on vocals, and Sander Gommands (ex-After Forever, HDK, Kiske/Somerville) did a guest appearance on guitar.
Amanda accompanied by Sander Gommans and Ashley Peacock (doing of "Kiske" part) played, for the first time, live two songs from the upcoming Kiske/Somerville album (September 24th via Frontiers Records), "Set Afire" and "A Thousand Suns".
Set-List:
01. Carnival 02. Set Afire (Kiske/Somerville) 03. Delilah 04. Mayday 05. Get Me 06. Bad Girl 07. A Thousand Suns (Kiske/Somerville) 08. Terrorist 09. Go 10. Out 11. Inner Whore
AVANTASIA will be out on tour in December 2010 and is the first headliner of Wacken Open Air Festival 2011 confirmed. AVANTASIA will play a best-of set.
Tobias Sammet wrote in his official site:
There has always been the desire to touring again, but of course there is always a risk. It requires a huge amount of time and energy, there are no figures based on experience, because I don't anybody who has taken an allstar Metal Opera on the road to play indoor venues. The stage production is abnormally expensive and you must not forget the many people who are involved and who come from different parts of the world. It requires a good timing. At some point we sat together and checked if and how we could possibly do it once again and we soon found out, that December 2010 would be the right period to do a real tour. I admit that four weeks are not really a long time frame, but it's better to do a short tour than no tour at all. And if we hadn't taken that chance, it would have never happened because we will come with a lot of musicians and vocalists and it's a nightmare to mind all our individual schedules with our main bands.
It was great to play Wacken or Sweden Rock Festival but playing a festival you only have so much time. You play ten songs and people have a party and everybody's got fun. But doing our own tour we can really create an atmosphere, we can play a lot longer and take people on a journey through the history of Avantasia. We can actually take people to the world of Avantasia itself. Fans can expect a bombastic concert experience. Many so called 'Metal Operas' have been released on albums recently, but Avantasia will bring it on stage and take fans around the globe with them.
You can't compare a normal band to what we are going to do. If all your favourite singers appear on one stage at the same night to take you on a musical journey, then this isn't just great, it's über-great!
Michael Kiske said in 2008 about touring with AVANTASIA:
Tobias offered me a lot of money to play on these shows with AVANTASIA, money I really need, but after 15 years without touring I'm not prepared to join in a metal tour. I have no problems singing on Tobias's albums, but I have to be careful with the way I return to the stage. It was really difficult to reject Tobias' offer, cause it was a very good offer... if I started to play with my own stuff then it would be different, perhaps I haven't a problem to make it.
I remember back in 1999 I did everything to get Michael Kiske involved in what was just an album project at the time, Avantasia's "Metal Opera". I was a happy boy in a toy store when I heard the tunes I had tailored for him, anthems like "Reach Out For The Light", "The Tower", "No Return" and he was an important corner stone for making Avantasia a classic amongst melodic Metal fans all over the world. I tried hard to convince Michael to enter the stage when Avantasia played their festival shows in 2008, but the time was not right. Now the stars have lined up and I am looking forward - as a representative of Avantasia and even more so as a fan to having Michael enter the stage to perform those kinds of classic Metal tracks for the first time in more than 17 years. I am looking forward to having Bob and Jorn, Amanda, Olli Hartmann, Sascha and Miro and all my fellow-Avantasians on stage again. Maybe we will have some more surprises, let's see. Let's reach out for the light!
