Well, I can give you a much more definitive assessment of Avantasia's Angel of Babylon.It's bad. Really bad.
With this album, I feel like someone just stuck a sharp object in Tobias Sammet & crew and deflated them into something vaguely resembling a flat tire. The energy just isn't there in any song. It's bland, it's boring, it's almost bizarrely lame & cheesy. The only song I remotely thought was OK was the first track, "Stargazers," but even that was one of Sammet's weaker offerings here.
I didn't have super high expectations after listening to TWS, but this was surprisingly awful. Holy shit, Tobias: what were you thinking?
This CD and TWS were released together, but I don't think that was a good idea. My sense it that Tobias ran out of steam and just wanted to get this over and done with, because the quality of this album is just not up to his usual standards. It's half-assed-ness is very apparent in each track. I think all of Tobias's creative energy went into TWS and when it came to AOB, there wasn't anything left in the tank.
At least, that's how it felt to me.
And if there was any iota of a concept in this so-called trilogy, it is now as clear as sludge.
There is a female presence here, in the form of a certain Cloudy Yang. I had never heard of her before this album, and I am not terribly inspired to hear any more. Her song on AOB, "Symphony of Life" is one of the weakest songs on the CD. And that is all I'm going to say about that.
So, this is one unfortunate release, I am sorry to say. Even the cover art is not up to par with the previous two albums! I feel like I've wasted an hour of my life listening to this and I am upset!
A definite horns down. /w\
4 comments:
Yeah, this was pretty bad. I don't know what Tobias was thinking... it was just bad... the only redeeming songs in my opinion were "Stargazers" and the title track "Angel of Babylon". He should have waited on this album, but he rushed it and it turned out like this. Pretty disappointing.
Hmm.. I have the album, haven't listened to it yet. After reading this I don't know if I'm looking forward to listening to it. I hoped it was better then The Wicked Symphony...
Great reviews here, they tie together nicely and Angel of Babylon truly is the audio equivalent of a sad, deflated balloon. I would only say that you are missing a pic of Bob Catley which I considered essential. Any excuse.
Mr. Sammet seems to be in something of a rush, under the impression that illegal downloading will see him living under a handkerchief on the street corner before the year is out. One can hope.
@ Sorcha: I'm so sorry if I put you off...Perhaps you will have a different opinion to share once you have listened to it yourself. I can hope! I didn't spend any money on either of these two CDs, even though I was about to purchase TWS from Amazon when it's released here in Canada shortly. I am so glad I didn't.
@ Jon: thanks for stopping by! You are my CD review hero!
"One can hope." LOL! Line of the day!
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