The Scarecrow

Time for another album recommendation. I'm not sure how, but I've managed to blog my way thus far without talking about a genre I've greatly enjoyed for years: power metal. As my previously posted paper mentioned, power metal is a melodic offshoot of speed metal that employs fast, bass-pedal driven tempos, guitar melodies and harmonies, "clean", often operatic vocals, and uplifting lyrics about fantasy, sci-fi, war, freedom, and introspection, among others. It was partially a reaction against the doom and gloom of death metal, and itsw great fun to listen to. Sadly, it's virtually unknown in America (though there are some good American power metal bands nonetheless), but Europe has a vibrant power metal scene. Recently I've been getting to know an album by Avantasia (Avalon + Fantasia), a supergroup formed by boy genius Tobias Sammet of the German power metal band Edguy. Namely, the first album of their "Wicked Trilogy": The Scarecrow.

The Wicked Trilogy centers around the eponymous Scarecrow, actually (I think) a human who suffers from a distorted perception of the world and sets out on a quest for peace, self-discovery, and love. To tell this epic story, Sammet has recruited some of the best vocalists and instrumentalists in metal, similarly to what Arjen Anthony Lucassen does with Ayreon. (The two bands are considered rivals, and have competed over guest stars; The Scarecrow was released on the same day as 01011001, which only intensified their "rivalry")

The result is spectacular. The story and the music work together instead of detracting from each other to make great songs that can be enjoyed individually or as a whole; Sammet explains that "You don't have to understand the story, you have to feel it." There are furious head-bangers like 'Devil in the Belfry' and 'Twisted Mind', metal anthems 'Shelter from the Rain' and 'Another Angel Down', and ballads such as 'Carry Me Over' and 'Cry Just a Little'. And then there's the epic, 11-minute title track, which goes from metal to ambient music and back to metal, pretty much summarizing the scope of Avantasia's style.

The album is endlessly creative, beautiful, bursting with energy, and only gets better as you listen to it again and again. Critics of power metal who say all the songs sound the same should listen to this album (or anything by Tobias Sammet, really). When I first heard it I thought it was kind of weird and not metal enough, but a few months later they released the other two parts of the trilogy and I decided to listen to all three albums over and over until I 'got' them. I eventually did, and they're some of my favorite music ever. The Scarecrow was just ahead of its time for me; it has plenty of rokk, a truly epic scale, and lyrics you can immerse yourself in time after time. Highly recommend.