The Mystery of Time

The Mystery of Time
Studio album by Avantasia
Released 26 April 2013
Recorded June 2012 - January 2013
Genre Progressive metal, symphonic metal, hard rock, power metal
Length 62:00
Label Nuclear Blast
Producer Sascha Paeth and Tobias Sammet
Avantasia chronology
The Wicked Symphony/Angel of Babylon
(2010)		 The Mystery of Time
(2013)		 Ghostlights
(2016)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Metal Blast [1]
Time For Metal - Magazin [2]
Metal Traveller [3]

The Mystery of Time is the sixth full-length album by Tobias Sammet's rock opera project Avantasia. The album was released on 26 April 2013.[4] This is the first Avantasia release to feature the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg (the same orchestra that performed on Edguy's album Hellfire Club). The cover artwork was painted by Rodney Matthews.[5][6]

The Mystery Of Time scored high positions in several international music charts and even enabled Avantasia to enter the US Billboard charts for the very first time.[7]

When asked to compare the album to Avantasia's previous efforts, guitarist and producer Sascha Paeth described it as follows:[8]

“ It is a more 'fantastic' production, based a little bit more on orchestra work and keyboards. It's more like a film score, to underline the whole story, the rock opera aspect, which was a choice on this one and I think it works out fine. Also, this gives the album a face of its own. ”

Track listing

Limited editions of the album include a second CD with instrumental versions of all the tracks on the album, with the exception of the two limited edition bonus tracks.

All songs written and composed by Tobias Sammet. 

No. TitleGuest Vocalist Length
1. "Spectres"  Joe Lynn Turner 6:09
2. "The Watchmakers' Dream"  Joe Lynn Turner 4:14
3. "Black Orchid"  Biff Byford 6:52
4. "Where Clock Hands Freeze"  Michael Kiske 4:35
5. "Sleepwalking"  Cloudy Yang 3:52
6. "Savior in the Clockwork"  Joe Lynn Turner, Biff Byford, Michael Kiske 10:40
7. "Invoke the Machine"  Ronnie Atkins 5:30
8. "What's Left Of Me"  Eric Martin 5:07
9. "Dweller in a Dream"  Michael Kiske 4:45
10. "The Great Mystery"  Bob Catley, Joe Lynn Turner, Biff Byford 10:03
Limited Edition Bonus Tracks
No. Title Length
11. "The Cross And You"   4:14
12. "Death Is Just A Feeling (Alternative Version/Tobias Sammet)"   5:24

Story

The album booklet describes the story "So take the time to follow me into a small old English town during the Victorian era and join a young agnostic scientist by the name Aaron Blackwell as he is forced to explore the coherencies of time, God and science; torn between belief in his professional conviction, his spiritual intuition, love and a lodge of scientific occultists."[9]

Personnel

Special guests

Musicians

Vocalists

Charts

[10][11][12]

Chart Number
German Albums Chart 2
Swiss Albums Chart 5
England Rock Albums Chart 6
Finnish Albums Chart 9
Swedish Albums Chart 9
North America Billboard Chart 9
Austrian Albums Chart 11
Czech Albums Chart 12
Hungary Albums Chart[13] 15
Japanese Albums Chart 17
Norwegian Albums Chart 19
Spanish Albums Chart[14] 29
French Albums Chart 61
Belgian Ultratop (Wallonia) 70
Dutch Albums Chart 85
Belgian Ultratop (Flanders) 97

References

  1. ↑ "Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time". Metal Blast. 2013-04-05.
  2. ↑ "Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time Review". Time-For-Metal.eu (Germany). 2013-03-26.
  3. ↑ "Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time Review". Metal Traveller. 2013-04-08.
  4. ↑ "The Mystery Of Time". nuclearblast.de.
  5. ↑ "Tobias Sammet :: Avantasia :: Official Web". tobiassammet.com.
  6. ↑ "Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time - Listening Session". musikreviews.de.
  7. ↑ "Metal-Rules.com News, Interviews, Concert Reviews » AVANTASIA “THE MYSTERY OF TIME” DEBUTS AT #9 ON BILLBOARD “HEAT SEEKERS” CHART, #33 ON “HARD ROCK”". Metal-Rules.com News, Interviews, Concert Reviews.
  8. ↑ "Sascha Paeth (Avantasia) Interview @ PPM 2013". Metal Blast. Mons. 27 April 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2014. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  9. ↑ AVANTASIA - The Mystery Of Time (PRE-LISTENING), NuclearBlastEurope on YouTube
  10. ↑ "AVANTASIA AUF #2 IN DEN DEUTSCHEN ALBUMCHARTS!". Rock It!.
  11. ↑ "Tobias Sammet :: Avantasia :: Official Web". tobiassammet.com.
  12. ↑ http://www.ultratop.be/nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Tobias+Sammet%27s+Avantasia&titel=The+Mystery+Of+Time&cat=a
  13. ↑ "Top 40 album-, DVD- és válogatáslemez-lista – 2013. 14. hét" (in Hungarian). Mahasz. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  14. ↑ "TOP 100 ALBUMES" (PDF) (in Spanish). PROMUSICAE. Retrieved 2013-04-08.

External links

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