As always, very large music !!! 1

With Tobias Sammet I sometimes wonder now what band the project or the real band! Is it Edguy or Avantasia. Actually, our music lovers this indeed be a damn as long as both bands publish high profile albums repeatedly.

The Mystery Of Time is no exception. Along with a whole bunch of well-known musicians and a symphony orchestra Sammet has again managed a good album. The Mystery Of Time reminds me more of the first albums of Avantasia for the dizygotic twins The Scarecrow and The Wicked Symphony.

As almost always, the singers are on The Mystery Of Time handpicked and Sammet has the skill to use them even in songs that fit almost perfectly to the respective votes. A good example is Biff Byfords singing in Black Orchid. Everything fits here. For the integration of Michael Kiske in The Mystery Of Time you have to be almost grateful. In songs like the fast "Where Clock Hands Freeze", the epic monumental work "Savior In The Clockwork" and hard "Dweller In A Dream", he shows why you still have to count him among the best singers in the hard sector. Have a nice contrast sets Pretty Maids singer Ronnie Atkins with his raspy voice in "Invoke The Machine", which is the heaviest song on the album.

A little too much kitsch lies in my opinion in the "Sleepwalking" ballad which is sung by Sammet and Cloudy Yang duet. But this is about the only gripe, which I can attach The Mystery Of Time.

The instrumental department plays big. Even if one sometimes thinks now Avantasia overdo it a bit with the bombast, they quickly learn that with every song a healthy skeleton of hard rock and metal shows through!

Toll!

Participating musicians
Tobias Sammet: Vocals, Guitar
Joe Lynn Turner: vocals (tracks 1, 2, 6, 10)
Biff Byford: vocals (tracks 3, 6, 10)
Michael Kiske: vocals (tracks 4, 6, 9)
Cloudy Yang: Voice (Track 5)
Ronnie Atkins: Vocals (Track 7)
Eric Martin: singing (track 8)
Bob Catley: Voice (Track 10)
Sascha Paeth: guitar, keyboards
Bruce Kulick: Guitar
Arjen Anthony Lucassen: Guitar
Oliver Hartmann: Guitar
Russell Gilbrook: Drums
Ferdy Doernberg: Hammond organ