Avantasia could be briefly described as the most famous and acclaimed metal opera of all time. Its grandeur has, for several years, gone beyond the grooves of records, and fans watch its three-hour performances with awe and bated breath. This time will be no different. Avantasia is returning with a new album, Moonglow, and the world tour for this album will begin in the heart of Europe, right here in Slovakia.

The frontman and mastermind of the project, Tobias Sammet, can be described as very kind, charismatic, and, from my experience, extremely communicative and approachable. What he shared about his creative process, as well as his childhood experiences, is revealed in the following lines.

When Edguy was formed, you were only fourteen. That leads me to assume that music has been part of your life from a very young age. I would therefore like to ask whether that was really the case, and why you chose to play metal specifically.

I think metal rather chooses you. When I was four years old, I discovered my brother’s cassette tapes, specifically a tape by AC/DC. On one side was Back In Black, and on the other If You Want Blood, You Got It. I must have listened to that tape a thousand times. I loved its energy, and even then I felt that this kind of music was written for me. It was clear that this is what spoke to me, what I felt, what I loved. It was really powerful.

By the time I was seven or eight, I began to notice that many people didn’t understand this music. I thought it was beautiful, but others said it was terrible. I didn’t understand that. I found the music calming, which probably explains why I wanted to become a musician at a very young age. I remember playing the organ as a child. My teacher made me play really bad German folk music. Sure, that’s what was supposed to be played on the organ, but it sounded outdated and boring. I would compare it to a fiftieth wedding anniversary celebrated forty years ago. It had that kind of sound.

So I bought my own sheet music: Crazy, Crazy Nights by Kiss. I brought it to class and told my teacher, “This is the piece I want to play,” placing the sheet in front of him. He said, “No, I don’t think this is music we can play on the organ.” But by then, I already knew Deep Purple. They had Jon Lord, after all. So I disagreed. I knew there was an organist playing this genre. I loved Fireball, Highway Star, Child in Time, all of it. And that’s just how it happened. I was fourteen, and we formed our first band. Everything was so clear. I simply never had a Plan B. That’s why I say this kind of music chose me.

I completely understand that. I also played the organ when I was younger, and my teacher had a similar attitude toward rock and metal music.

Yes. It really is the most boring instrument you can imagine. But later, when all those crazy sounds came the Leslie sounds, when you discover you can play it with your elbow or your whole hand, it becomes fun. That’s when it starts to get interesting. But the pieces I had to play… God, they were boring. On the other hand, I’m grateful. I learned to read sheet music and gained a better understanding of music as a whole. Today, I can’t just play straight from sheet music, but I know what I’m doing, and that’s good. I wouldn’t have learned that if I hadn’t gone to organ lessons.

Let’s move on to your work and your bands. I have one question that really interests me. At the beginning, Edguy and Avantasia albums sounded like power or speed metal. Over the years, however, both evolved into a more hard rock-oriented style. Why did this change happen in both bands?

I never really saw it as a conscious change. Edguy actually started as a hard rock band. In the first three or four years, our drummer didn’t even have a double pedal. We played songs like Paradise City, Livin’ On A Prayer, She’s A Little Runaway, and similar tracks. Even our first original songs were more rock-oriented. But we were fans of Helloween, and the first Edguy drummer wanted to play faster, so he bought a double pedal. We kept speeding up and speeding up until it turned into a kind of speed olympics. Perhaps it was also because playing slow pieces well is actually much harder than playing fast and sounding impressive. For young musicians, it’s typical. They want to be a whirlwind, fast and extreme as much as possible. That’s why we had this kind of image in the beginning. Albums like Metal Opera or Edguy’s Theater Of Salvation are primarily fast.

But I’ve always been open to any kind of music, and I think others in Avantasia and Edguy are too. I love bands like Dio, Iron Maiden, Kiss, AC/DC, Helloween, Judas Priest, as well as Deep Purple and Van Halen. What I mean is, people sometimes perceive it as a change, but we’re simply musically open and evolving. I notice it in myself as a musician and composer. I need to explore different musical elements, otherwise I would just repeat myself. But I never deny my roots.

If you listen to our new album, Moonglow, you will find real heavy metal tracks, power metal tracks, but also ballads and some sophisticated, epic rock material that can be compared to Queen or Meat Loaf. There are even songs reminiscent of Helloween. It’s simply in my DNA. I need this diversity; otherwise, we’d just release repeated albums like Theater Of Salvation over and over again. When we released Hellfire Club, it wasn’t a copy of Mandrake. We always try to do something new to keep excitement in the music. I think this is crucial. Otherwise, you lose your spark. You can’t record the same power metal album again and again without adding new elements. Otherwise, you become boring, and people think, “They’re just trying to copy Hellfire Club, but it doesn’t work. The first time it was better. It sounds like a cheap imitation made to make money.” Ultimately, even we would get bored of repeating ourselves.

Let’s move on to Moonglow, which you’ve already mentioned yourself. I know you wanted to try something completely different this time. You had planned to release a solo album. Either way, it ended up as a new Avantasia. I’m curious how far did you get with your initial idea? Would you have released a solo record under your own name? And what would it have been called?

Do you mean if it had really been a solo album?

Yes, exactly.

I have no idea. I didn’t get that far. You see, the idea of a solo album never really went anywhere. I just wanted, so to speak, to break free from routine. It was late 2016 or early 2017 when I began jotting down ideas that would eventually become Moonglow. At that time, I thought maybe I should make a solo album. Everyone expects me to do certain things. I had to make sure I wouldn’t become a slave to some schedule I couldn’t influence. Everyone assumes I’ll make an Edguy album, then an Avantasia a year later, then Edguy again, Avantasia again, a two-month break, festivals, and back to Edguy, Avantasia… No, no, no! I’ve been living like that for twenty years, and I’m the one who has to carry it all. I wrote all the Avantasia albums and most of the material on the Edguy records. I told myself I didn’t want to live under those expectations anymore. I cannot live like that. I’m not a perpetual motion machine.

So I decided not to do anything. I would vanish into my own basement and work on material just for myself. Nobody would interfere. Nobody would have the right to know anything about it. It was to be my secret conspiracy. Just me. And then I thought… and of course, Sascha. So we made a few songs without knowing what they would become. Although maybe Sascha suspected it could turn into a new Avantasia. And then I subconsciously realized something quite quickly: why make a solo album at all? Avantasia is already a solo project, just enriched with great, esteemed musicians. At some point, I noticed this. This sounds like Avantasia, it feels like Avantasia. I bet it is Avantasia. And so here we have the new album.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Moonglow’s cover. My first words were, “This looks like it belongs in a Burton’s movie.” In a recent interview, you even mentioned that the songs on the new album are as dark as Poe’s tales and Burton’s films. Is the cover really inspired by Tim Burton’s work? Are you a fan?

I love Tim Burton. I was looking for possible artists to create Moonglow’s cover and came across a guy named… I can’t remember his name now. God, I’m getting old! I kept thinking Andreas Alexanderson, but no, it was Alexander Jansson. Anyway, a Swedish name. Alexander Jansson is a fantastic painter. When I discovered his work, it immediately reminded me of Tim Burton. His art had a wonderful aura. Grotesque yet charming, beautiful and dreamy. I thought, this is exactly the guy I need for the Avantasia album cover. He agreed, and I’m really happy with it.

And yes, I am a fan of Tim Burton because I can relate to his works. He elevates the beauty of things that might only reveal themselves at a second glance. That’s exactly how I feel. Being captivated by something, loving something that others consider abnormal. And that feeling has hurt me many times in life. Especially in the beginning. Over time, you get used to it, but still… When you find something beautiful and others call it repulsive… I remember when I was in second grade, I brought an AC/DC tape to art class. We were allowed to bring tapes. Everyone else brought fairy tales, a few brought pop music. My friend played I Should Be So Lucky, and everyone liked it. So I played my tape, a live version of High Voltage by AC/DC. Everyone looked at me like I was an alien. They thought it was bad. “You’re a kid, you shouldn’t listen to this noise. Who’s influencing you?” I didn’t understand why they said all this. I really liked it. Not to offend or provoke anyone. Burton’s characters, most of his films, are based exactly on that feeling. Being ridiculed just for being yourself. And I identify with that.

When we’re talking about films and stories, let me move to the next related question. Avantasia’s first two albums were unquestionably conceptual. They had a clear plot. On later albums, the story is harder to follow, though it’s there. You focus more on individual songs, with stories becoming more abstract and metaphorical. Which writing approach suits you better? Is it difficult to create a seamless story across an album?

I think that when you focus primarily on the story, treating it like a novel or a film, aiming to tell it from start to finish, you lose a bit of the poetic aspect. You have sixty minutes of lyrics, choruses that should be anthemic, meant to repeat. It’s really difficult to convey a story solely through an album without explaining the context. Explaining the context again diminishes the poetic style of music. Personally, I find it a bigger challenge to create something composed of individual pieces. With Moonglow, I created a very distinct, carefully designed, and imaginative world. There is a story in my head, with all its images, conversations, and plot. But I wanted the songs to remain more metaphorical because once you start explaining too much, you lose something. I’d rather give the listener points to connect themselves. Honestly, a novel and music are two completely different art forms. It’s extremely difficult to tell a story with songs that have refrains and a typical structure. It didn’t fully work even on Metal Opera Part 1 and Part 2. There’s mysticism around those albums, and of course, a lot of praise, and I’m proud of them. But if I hadn’t given people a booklet with the complete story, no one would probably know what the album is really about. That just proves it’s very challenging to incorporate a full narrative, with all its tension and uncertainty, into a regular rock album.

You mentioned the first two albums, Metal Opera Part 1 and Part 2. The next three albums were grouped under The Wicked Trilogy. Are Mystery Of Time, Ghostlights, and Moonglow similarly connected?

No. Mystery Of Time and Ghostlights are connected, but Moonglow starts an entirely new cycle. There will be Moonglow Part 2, making it a two-album concept, a completely new entity.

So far, the new album has released one single, The Raven Child, with a lyric video. Can we expect another video before the tour?

Absolutely. A new video will be released in two or three weeks. It will be for the title track, Moonglow, featuring Candice Night and me. Later, a third single may come out. Honestly, the label drives us to make videos. Personally, I hate it. It is the most boring thing in the world. You spend five days… okay, let’s say three. One day is shooting, two days are travel, and most of the time you just sit and wait. Then you shoot a few scenes, try to move your mouth with the lyrics, pretending to sing. You feel like an idiot. I could never sing on playback with a band, it feels awful. I’ve done it for some TV shows. You go on stage, pretend to sing, and you really feel like a fool.

Wouldn’t it be better to make a live video instead?

I really don’t know yet. Last time we did that with Draconian Love, but I have no plans for the new album. Sometimes it’s more fun not to plan. I’m a spontaneous person. We didn’t plan Draconian Love either. I decided about three weeks before the concert: “Hey, let’s shoot a video.” It gave everyone backstage a headache. The tour manager immediately said no. But after discussions, we figured out how to do it. I can be too spontaneous, and others suffer, but it’s funny. We even recorded a DVD that never became a DVD. We still have three or four concerts from the Ghostlights Tour, filmed with twelve cameras, but nothing has been done with that footage.

Speaking of videos, here’s a curious question. In a few recent videos, like Dying For An Angel, Sleepwalking, and Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose, you appear to be chasing women. Is this coincidence, or is there a deeper symbolism?

It’s probably just what the directors think I do in my free time. I never really considered it. Now it looks like I’m a bad guy chasing women in videos. I haven’t even seen our new video. I just recorded my parts and have no idea how it will be edited or if I will be chasing a woman again.

Everyone asks about your bandmates, but I want to ask about those who haven’t been part of Avantasia. You’ve approached artists like Bruce Dickinson, Meat Loaf, or Alexi Laiho in the past. Have new albums added more names to the list of unavailable artists?

I don’t remember exactly. I’d have to think. Bruce Dickinson is always difficult to schedule for any album. I had one idea for a song that didn’t make it to Moonglow, but I won’t reveal it. Maybe it will happen on Moonglow Part 2.

Did you want to collaborate with artists who have sadly passed?

Yes, definitely. I wanted to work with Ronnie James Dio and Steve Lee from Gotthard. We had planned with Steve Lee, but postponed it for the next Avantasia record. Then the tragic accident happened. I contacted Ronnie James Dio for Metal Opera and one later album. He was very kind, and I was happy to meet him. When I tried to reach him again, his manager, his wife, said it wasn’t possible due to circumstances. He passed away about a year later. Those are the two. I would have loved to work with them in Avantasia.

As you mentioned, Avantasia is full of respected artists and incredible musicians. One of the most beloved supergroups ever. So my last question, surely on the minds of thousands of fans: why can’t concert tickets include a meet and greet?

Because it is extremely difficult. We play shows lasting three or even three and a half hours. In May, we will play on four continents in three weeks. It’s insane. We perform every night or every other night, plus endless travel. Everyone is happy just to stay in a hotel, sleep, and relax. That’s the main reason we don’t do meet and greets.