Nuclear Blast Americ
2008
The Scarecrow
About This Album
After causing quite a stir in the heavy metal community with Avantasia's ambitious, two-album, guest star-packed Metal Opera in the early 2000s, vocalist Tobias Sammet publicly retired the Avantasia name and retreated to the creature comforts of his primary creative outlet, German power metal favorites Edguy. But then a pair of EPs titled Lost in Space, Vols. 1 & 2 emerged in 2007 bearing the Avantasia brand, and it didn't take much longer for Sammet's change of heart to produce yet another full Avantasia album in 2008's The Scarecrow. Though not as thematically intertwined as the preceding operas, The Scarecrow's credits certainly keep with the tradition of bursting at the seams with famous guest musicians (among them Kiss' Eric Singer, Magnum's Bob Catley, Gamma Ray's Kai Hansen, Jorn Lande, Michael Kiske, Amanda Somerville, etc.), and a few more so famous one can hardly believe their participation (the Scorpions' Rudolf Schenker and none other than Alice Cooper). That being said, The Scarecrow is indubitably Sammet's baby, and his songwriting signature dominates Avantasia, even though it affords him with the opportunity to frequently step out from the restrictive power metal umbrella he's carried most of his professional career.
Track List (try tracks 4 and 8)

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