GAMMA RAY drummer Michael Ehré is publishing a blog whilst the band are on their ‘Empire Of The Undead’ tour and has reported that vocalist Kai Hansen was unable to perform at their recent Aschaffenburg show due to serious throat problems. Michael stated:
“The show in Aschaffenburg yesterday was something really special. Kai had serious problems with his voice so we decided to invite some guest-singers to avoid canceling the show. Thanks to Tobi Sammet (Edguy), Fabio Leone (Rhapsody Of Fire,…) and Frank Beck (a friend of Dirk) for helping us out! It was fantastic!”
Photo: Henjo Richter, Dirk Sauer (Edguy), Tobias Sammet (Edguy), Dirk Schlächter, Kai Hansen (front), Frank Beck (back), Fabio Leone (Rhapsody Of Fire,…), & me (Michael Ehré) after the show in Aschaffenburg.
The band have recently released their latest album “Empire Of The Undead.” For more information and for the complete list of tour dates, check the official GAMMA RAY website at this location.
Source: Bravewords.com EDGUY frontman and AVANTASIA mastermind Tobias Sammet has checked in with an update on the new Edguy album:
“We have focused on what makes this band unique and recorded what we believe is going to be the strongest and heaviest album this band has ever recorded. We didn’t waste any time with updates or distractions. There is no doubt, that this album is going to be the album we’ll be measured against in the future. And it makes us proud to say that as a band that has been existing for over 22 years now, fully aware that the best is yet to come.“
The album is in the mixing process right now and will be out in April. Details will be revealed soon.
Metal Shock Finland‘s Blackdiamond recently spoke with Sammet about Avantasia and how the metal opera project’s popularity may or may not affect Edguy.
Sammet: “We won’t disband, we will go on. We are about to start working on a new album this fall. We will take all the time we need until we come up with something that makes sense. I don’t expect a new album to come out until spring or summer 2014.”
According to Blabbermouth.net, German melodic metallers EDGUY are working on material for the follow-up to 2011’s “Age Of The Joker” for a tentative 2014 release. The band’s mainman, Tobias Sammet, states: “We got about six songs now and they’re quite amazing! Traditional stuff!”
“Age Of The Joker” sold around 1,200 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD debuted at No. 21 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.
EDGUY‘s previous CD, “Tinnitus Sanctus”, opened with 600 units back in February 2009 to land at No. 88 on the Top New Artist Albums chart.
“Age Of The Joker” was released in Europe on August 29, 2011 via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD was recorded at Peppermint Park studio (SCORPIONS, PHIL COLLINS) in Hannover, which was previously described by the group as “a recording temple with a tremendously great-sounding room.” The album features 11 songs with a total running time of over one hour. The limited-edition digipack contains a bonus disc with six additional songs.
EDGUY / AVANTASIA vocalist Tobias Sammet has checked in with a brief update:
“Working on new material for Edguy right now. Different from Avantasia stuff, but if you think we became ‘pop’, wait and then SHUT UP!”
Metal Shock Finland’s Blackdiamond recently spoke with Sammet about Avantasia and how the metal opera project’s popularity may or may not affect Edguy.
Sammet: “We won’t disband, we will go on. We are about to start working on a new album this fall. We will take all the time we need until we come up with something that makes sense. I don’t expect a new album to come out until spring or summer 2014.”
EDGUY frontman Tobias Sammet has issued the following recap of the just-completed world tour from his AVANTASIA project:
“Friends, finally I have cooled down a little after this extensive AVANTASIA world tour. Finally I have found a few moments to write down my thoughts on the tour.
“I have been on several world tours — I must have played something like 700 concerts in my life — and I have to say: it’s never been so difficult to say goodbye after a tour.
“The Mystery World Tour was an amazing experience for me. Never before an AVANTASIA tour has been spread out over four months, never before I heard so many bad jokes (from anyone other than me) and never before I came home missing touring so much that it actually hurt, although I was happy to be back with my loved ones and get some rest. I wondered myself what it is that makes the difference between earlier tours and this tour, and I guess it’s simple: first of all, the tour was long enough to get used to being around those lovely fellow Avantasians. Second, if I compare it to EDGUY tours: whenever we say goodbye, we know we’ll meet a couple of months later to conquer the world again. With AVANTASIA, the future is completely uncertain.
“I was accused of lying when I hit the road for The Mystery World Tour after I had announced the end in 2011. But you can imagine it is not that easy to rely on a return of AVANTASIA, it depends on a lot of parameters, not at least all the musicians and their personal schedules.
“I thank God that He gave us the chance to bring that lineup together and do this tour, I hope we will do it again some day, but you can never take that for granted, nor plan it, let alone expect it to happen again. I just hope one day it will happen. For sure, there will be another album in a couple of years. But as much as I would love to do a tour, I do not know if we’ll ever find a timeframe in the future that will allow us to bring the project on the road again. The organisation, the schedules, everyone’s individual obligations with their individual bands, it’s grinding… That’s why I am rather thankful that I was given that chance.
“I wanna thank my agency, All Access, and my road manager, AC, in particular for making the impossible possible. I wanna thank my production manager, FD, for administrating everything with a vengeance and a whip, sending trucks from Slovakia to England and making the show look great from Costa Rica to Canada to Russia to Japan and back. I wanna thank the whole crew, who are the best technicians from East Bumfuck to Bali, and, of course, I wanna thank the immortals who I was given the chance to share the stage with. I will miss everyone of you (even Achim), and I will never forget that tour! I love you all!
“I also wanna thank YOU people out there who made this tour a very successful tour, who came in thousands to our shows, I enjoyed playing for each and everyone of you! Don’t think I take it for granted, I had the time of my life, and I know that I am blessed — having fans and friends like YOU!”
AVANTASIA made its North American debut on July 7 at the Quebec City Summer Festival (Festival D’été De Québec) in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
AVANTASIA‘s new album, “The Mystery Of Time”, was released on March 30. The effort was made available as a regular CD, limited-edition vinyl and limited-edition hardcover book with a 28-page booklet containing ten regular songs and two bonus tracks (“The Cross And You”, “Death Is Just A Feeling”). The cover artwork was hand-painted by world acclaimed British fantasy artist Rodney Matthews. Among Rodney‘s most famous artworks are not only album covers for rock legends such as MAGNUM, THIN LIZZY, ASIA and NAZARETH, he has also designed the characters for the TV series “Lavender Castle” and created the covers for novels by British fantasy author Michael Moorcock and many more.
Composer and vocalist with both EDGUY and AVANTASIA, Tobias Sammet is one of Germany’s biggest artists in recent music history. Just prior to leaving for the next leg of the tour to South America with his all-star rock opera, AVANTASIA, Metal Shock Finland‘s Senior Manager Ali Blackdiamond caught up with Tobias for an interesting and amusing chat about his latest offering “The Mystery Of Time,” Bloodstock Festival and more.
Listen to the full interview on the audio player below and also here are a few excerpts from the conversation:
Discussing the whole AVANTASIA project and touring arrangements, Tobias stated (and joked!):
“It’s not as complicated as it looks. I probably shouldn’t say that because I would probably encourage people to do the same thing and that would make me furious! (laughs) If someone said ‘yeah only the best can do that’ it’s gonna wreck your nerves and don’t try this at home. If there’s any musicians out there listening to this show, considering or thinking about doing it themselves, don’t do it! You will have a heart attack in no time!”
Tobias talked of his reasons for having British fantasy artist Rodney Matthews design “The Mystery Of Time” album artwork:
” It’s been a dream of mine to work with him, I’m a huge fan. I have books of him, I have pictures framed on the walls of our house that were painted by him. In fact, I’m so crazy about his art I just received a book that I ordered, it just came today and when I opened the package, I found I already had it. it’s called ‘In Search Of Forever,’ I bought it twice now!
I’ve always been a huge fan of Magnum and Magnum’s artwork and this album “The Mystery Of Time” is so rich in detail and I wanted to create a true piece of art, musically. I also wanted to stress that by choosing the right artwork I wanted to have something handcrafted, I wanted to have something timeless, something that is not up to date, something that is not trendy, something that you would not expect on an Avantasia album that is being released in 2013. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to say Rodney’s art is old fashioned, I just want to say it’s timeless, a piece of art. That’s what I really love about it, I had to have Rodney’s artwork on my album.”
We talked of the upcoming Bloodstock Festival and Tobias had an unforgettable memory from his last appearance there with EDGUY:
“You don’t remind people of a defeat in football and you don’t mention the war in England if you are German. I went onstage and thought people were a bit reserved and thought I should tickle them. So I said ‘we may have lost the war, but we made it to the quarter finals!’ and luckily everyone started to laugh! In England you have to work hard to make people laugh about your jokes, but when you do, people reward it. That’s when Bloodstock and I became real friends!
I’m looking forward to playing Bloodstock because it’s in the mother country of heavy metal and it’s the country where this was all invented and that’s where we’ll bring Avantasia. It’s the first time for Avantasia on a stage in England.
There’s going to be everybody – Eric Martin, Ronnie Atkins, Bob Catley, Amanda (Somerville), Michael Kiske. The only thing is that we’re not gonna do the full show, because that would be 3 hours, and there’s other bands who want to go on after us! It will be a smooth ‘best of’ set.”
Discussing what’s happening with EDGUY at the moment, Tobias said:
” We won’t disband, we will go on. We are about to start working on a new album this fall. We will take all the time we need until we come up with something that makes sense. I don’t expect a new album to come out until spring or summer 2014.”
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Composer and vocalist with both EDGUY and AVANTASIA, Tobias Sammet is one of Germany’s biggest artists in recent music history. Just prior to leaving for the next leg of the tour to South America with his all-star rock opera, AVANTASIA, Metal Shock Finland‘s Senior Manager Ali Blackdiamond caught up with Tobias for an interesting and amusing chat about his latest offering “The Mystery Of Time,” Bloodstock Festival and more.
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 