Top 10 Avantasia Songs

Avantasia is the brainchild and side project  of Edguy's frontman Tobias Sammet. Under the description metal opera Sammet gathers guest vocalists and musicians to record and tour with the core of the band that is Avantasia. This allows for a wide variety of material, from hard rock and heavy metal to ballads and epic 10-minute songs. With a bunch of great singers to assist Sammet there's a lot of great songs to choose from. SO, here's my pick of the greatest Avantasia songs!

1. The Wicked Symphony (w/ Jorn Lande, Russell Allen) - an epic hard-rocker with a lot of power, two world-class rock singers and a super chorus. Great fun and great talent, which is what this project is all about!

2. Down In The Dark (w/ Jorn Lande) - Jorn Lande is the star in this one with his powerful vocal abilities. Jorn's vocals on this track is actually freakishly amazing, as any hard rock fan could tell.

3. Your Love Is Evil - A track for Tobias Sammet alone, and the man does not disappoint. Great singing and just a very cool rock song, no epicness just simple, fun rock!

4. Forever Is A Long Time (w/ Jorn Lande) - Another outlandish vocal performance from Jorn Lande. This is pure power. The collaboration between Lande and Sammet works perfect on this one.

5. The Scarecrow (w/ Jorn Lande) - Another great epic song about being a little different. It's a perfect metal epic with great vocals. When the song climaxes after the (a bit too long) instrumental break, I have my own ear-climax. Metal!!

6. Shelter From The Rain (w/ Michael Kiske, Bob Catley) - Michael Kiske has a very special voice which fits this track perfectly. An up-tempo metal song with an insane chorus vibrato from Kiske. After the first chorus, you'll want to hear the next one immediately because it's bone-chilling!

7. Stargazers (w/ Jorn Lande, Russell Allen, Michael Kiske) - Another long great epic that has a lot of diversity thanks to the four(!) different singers. Russell Allen is back once again with his perfect rock voice and even though he doesn't have that many lines he really stands out.

8.  Twisted Mind (w/ Roy Khan) - A powerful hard-rocker with a very mean-spirited intro and a guitar riff that melts faces. It's a very 'evil' song and I love it! The only thing I don't really like is the break in the middle, before the guitar solo, which is a bit too long. Other than that, both devil horns up!

9. Alone I Remember (w/ Jorn Lande) - As always a great vocal performance from both Sammet and Lande in a classic hard rock song with a great chorus that gets stuck immediately. But what makes this song one to remember is Bruce Kulick's guitar brilliance in the beginning of the song.

10. Dying For An Angel (w/ Klaus Meine) - A German metal opera with the singer from the Scorpions? That ought to work. And it does because Klaus Meine really lifts this song with his instantly recognizable voice. Great rock song, so… Vorwärts Deutschland!

-  -  - Almost made it -  -  -

Lost In Space - Tobias Sammets only obvious attempt at making a hit-single. Nothing wrong with that because I really like the song. It's not as hard as much of the other Avantasia material. But this is one of Tobi's best vocal performances ever in my opinion.

Angel of Babylon (w/ Jorn Lande) - A powerful title track that's just outside of the list because it's not Lande's best performance. He's relying solely on power here, with no real versatility.

Where Clock Hands Freeze (w/ Michael Kiske) - magical singing from Michael Kiske and the only song from the new album Mystery of Time. 

The Answer - New Single: Spectacular

The Answer has released the first single from their upcoming album New Horizon. The music video for the song is great, but it was actually shut down by Youtube at first for containing nudity (which is obviously not cool!). The song itself is great, very good song. Catchy and nice guitar work, and to top it off singer Cormac Neeson has a really cool voice!

Original video of Spectacular.

This is the clean version, in case the other one gets shut down.

Real music of the week (32)

Europe - Always The Pretenders

Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators - Standing In The Sun

Volbeat - My Body

Allman Brothers - Midnight Rider

Jackopierce - Promise of Summer

Simon & Garfunkel - Richard Cory

Stone Sour - Absolute Zero

The Mowgli's - San Francisco

Top 10 BEATLES Songs

10. Can't Buy Me Love

9. All My Loving

8. Help

7. Yesterday

6. Let It Be

5. Ticket To Ride

4. Twist And Shout

3. Hey Jude

2. Eight Days A Week

1. I've Just Seen A Face

Twitter: ReallyMusicBlog

Soundtrack: Summer '13

I've been putting together a personalized playlist for the summer. It works during the day on the beach, it works  around the table with your friends and it works in the sunset with something pretty beside you!

It's different from your average summer playlist in the sense that it almost completely lacks new, popular radio hits and it lacks any club/house music. It's just real music; up-tempo, slow songs, rock songs, ballads, acoustics. It's just a great playlist filled with artists and bands that you don't necessarily listen to, or even know about. 65 tracks (so far), each with a little something special and with a bit of a story. 

Here's a couple of examples on what you might find:

Sister Hazel / Editors / The Smiths / Eric Hutchinson / Gaslight Anthem / Jackopierce / NeedToBreathe / Marshall Crenshaw / Volbeat / Jason Isbell / The 1975 / Tom Petty / Temptations / Bruce Springsteen /

Click the link, sit back in the sun, have a beer and enjoy life!

Summer '13 on Spotify

Bråvalla Festival - Setlists and Reviews

Volbeat
Hallelujah Goat +++
A New Day ++
Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood ++++
Pearl Heart ++++
Heaven Nor Hell ++++
Sad Man's Tongue +++
Lola Montez ++++
Fallen ++++
16 Dollars +++
Maybelline I Hofteholder ++++
Mary Ann's Place ++++
Dead But Rising +++
The Garden's Tale ++++
The Hangman's Body Count +++
Still Counting +++
Doc Holliday +++
Cape Of Our Hero +++++
The Mirror and The Ripper +++
Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza +++

Airbourne
Ready To Rock ++++
Chewin' The Fat +++

Diamonds In The Rough ++++

Back In The Game +++

Raise The Flag +++

Blonde, Bad and Beautiful ++++

Cheap Wine & Cheaper Women ++++
Black Dog Barking ++++
No Way But The Hard Way ++++
Live It Up ++++
Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast +++
Runnin' Wild +++++

Green Day
99 Revolutions ++
Know Your Enemy +++
Stay The Night ++
Stop When the Red Lights Flash ++
Letterbomb +++
Oh Love ++
Holiday ++++
Boulevard of Broken Dreams +++
Stray Heart ++
Murder City +++
Waiting ++
Burnout ++++
Hitchin' A Ride +++
When I Come Around +++
St Jimmy +++
Longview ++++
Basket Case ++++
She ++
King For A Day +++
Minority ++++
American Idiot ++++
Jesus of Suburbia +++++
Brutal Love ++

Rammstein
Ich Tu Dir Weh ++++
Wollt Ihr Dass Bett in Flammen Sehen ++
Keine Lust +++
Sehnsucht +++
Asche zu Asche +++
Feuer Frei ++++
Mein Teil +++
Ohne Dich +++
Wiener Blut ++
Du Riechst So Gut +++
Benzin ++++
Links 2-3-4 ++
Du Hast +++++
Bück Dich +++
Ich Will ++++
Mein Herz Brennt +++
Sonne ++++
Pussy ++++

In Flames
Sounds of A Playground Fading ++++
Where the Dead Ships Dwell ++++
Pinball Map ++
Trigger +++
The Hive ++
Cloud Connected ++++
Ropes ++++
Fear Is The Weakness ++++
The Quiet Place ++++
All For Me +++
The Mirror's Truth ++
Deliver Us ++++
Take This Life ++++
My Sweet Shadow +++

Stone Sour
Gone Sovereign +++
Absolute Zero ++++
Mission Statement ++
Made of Scars +++
Do Me A Favor +++
RU486 ++
Say You'll Haunt Me ++++
Bother +++
Through Glass +++
Children of the Grave ++++
Get Inside +++
30/30-150 ++++

Gaslight Antem
Handwritten ++++
The '59 Sound ++++
Biloxi Parish +++
American Slang ++++
1930 +++
Bonzo Goes To Bitburg (Ramones) ++
45 ++++
The Queen of Lower Chelsea +++
Astro Zombies (Misfits) ++
Here Comes My Man ++
Boomboxes and Dictionaries +++
Too Much Blood +++
The Backseat ++++

Bråvalla Festival 2013 - Summary

Just returned from three days at the brand new Bråvalla Festival in Sweden. The artists are a mix of rock, metal and house with more focus on the rock and metal acts. As it should be!

Camped in a caravan, walked through the mud, rocked out in the rain, ate bad food, looked at the ladies - and of course the beer. Beer for breakfast, beer for lunch, beer for dinner and beer for midnight snack. All in all, a rather classic swedish festival behavior!

So which bands did I see?
*Rammstein
*Green Day
*Volbeat
*In Flames
*Airbourne
*Stone Sour
*Gaslight Anthem
*Hoffmaestro
*Rival Sons
*Danko Jones (partial)
*Ron Pope (partial)
*Editors (partial)
*Bullet For My Valentine (partial)
*Eldkvarn (partial)
*Johnossi (partial)
*Ghost (partial)
*Timbuktu (partial)
*The Sounds (partial)
*Mando Diao (partial)
*Thåström (partial)
*Avicii (partial)
*Armin van Buuren (partial)

Biggest surprise? AIRBOURNE
Personal favorite? VOLBEAT
Biggest crowd? RAMMSTEIN
Most fun show? GREEN DAY
Biggest disappointment? MANDO DIAO
Personal reflections? I don't understand House, having a problem even calling it music. Avicii / van Buuren = press play, wave your hand awkwardly, people go crazy. I just don't get it!

Notes from the road
- Airbourne delivered a full throttle rock show from start to finish. One hour of complete balls-to-the-wall riff-driven rock. No ballads, no filler. Great frontman, great music. A joy for any rock-lover and the single most positive surprise. They really gave 110% and were soaking with sweat after like 2 songs. They really got the crowd going and I was having a ball in the front, rocking out in the rain. The rain actually made the show even better, how can any band even make that happen? Huge fan.

- Volbeat was as great live as I had heard before. A great setlist with many of my favorite songs and the band looked to be in fine form. Considering the songs and performance this was probably my favorite moment of the festival. Best song, a bit surprising, Cape of Our Hero.

- Rammstein was also a big surprise. I knew the show would be great, and I knew the music would be half-good/half-bad. But to see the huge spectacle of the show completely overshadow some of the not-so-great songs and making every song awesome to watch, that was a surprise! Because we look with the eyes as well, right?!

- Green Day is one of the few bands I've seen before. The show was very similar, but a bit too long with a bit too many new songs. The crowd didn't really get it on the new songs, and went crazy on the old ones. It was an up and down show, but we had a blast in the crowd in the front rows!

- In Flames delivered a strong set with a lot of songs from the latest album, which is my personal favorite, so I was very happy with that. Powerful performance as usual and great crowd. I really missed Only For The Weak - the only thing missing to make it a perfect metal show.

- Stone Sour was also a surprise. They've got a bunch of good songs, but I was surprised at how well they came out live. Cory Taylor was a better singer than I thought, and a great frontman at that. Fun to have seen them, and I need to start listening to them more.

- Gaslight Anthem started out their set with a bunch of their best songs like Handwritten, 45 and The '59 Sound. Great so far, but after that the show could only go downwards. It wasn't bad at all, but maybe they should have saved some for the finale. Need to listen to these guys more as well!

- Rival Sons is a band I have never heard or seen before and I'm really glad I went out to see them because it was great. Very good songs and a great live sound, and it struck me at how cool it would be to see them at a hot and sweaty club gig. Will listen more!