Review by Xephyr for Avantasia - A Paranormal Evening With the Moonflower Society (2022)
An Ordinary Eventide
As a fan of Power Metal, I always find myself looking forward to Avantasia's newest offerings with an immense anticipation that I don't get from a whole lot of other bands. Mastermind Tobias Sammet and his never-ending lineup of talented Metal guest vocalists have been at it for quite a long time now and while his imagination hasn't waned, A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society sees a return to normalcy for the project after the absolutely stellar Moonglow. As someone who believes that Moonglow is far and above Avantasia's strongest album, Moonflower Society had a lot to live up to as the artwork and initial singles pointed towards an exciting extension of the more fantastical and whimsical themes presented on their previous album. The Burtonesque imagery made me hopeful as I could picture a world where this sort of style could be conveyed very well given Sammet's compositional style, but as I spent more time with Moonflower Society, I can't help but admit this is another missed opportunity for a Power Metal album to stick to any sort of identity despite there being some strong tracks within.
Despite my bias towards Avantasia, I have to admit that their albums are a mix of great and forgettable songs that, while they utilize their guest vocalists very well, fail to be incredible album experiences most of the time. As someone who isn't exactly a fan of the original "Metal Opera" concept, even stronger albums like Ghostlights or The Wicked Symphony are somewhere middling affairs that have unforgettable tracks like "Runaway Train" or "Ghostlights", but also have forgettable ones like "The Haunting" and "Forever Is A Long Time". Sadly, Moonflower Society goes back to this cursed formula with "The Wicked Rule The Night" being one of the best songs Sammet has ever written, and tracks like "Paper Plane" and "Rhyme And Reason" being straight up head-scratching. What remains fantastic about the Avantasia project, though, is its ability to bring in all sorts of talented vocalists and place them on tracks that rival or even surpass their own band's material, regardless of whether it's a strong Avantasia song or not. I bring attention to this mostly because of Floor Jansen and Jorn Lande, whose voices deserve much better than what their most recent material has given us. Both of these vocalists get ample time to shine and, as a Power Metal fan, I'm absolutely thankful for that as Sammet has a knack for bringing out the best in these artists in his songwriting. The rest of the staple guests are still around, like Bob Catley, Michael Kiske, Eric Martin, and Ronnie Atkins, but the absolute staple of Moonflower Society is Ralf Scheepers of Primal Fear and his incredible performance on "The Wicked Rule The Night". The trio of Lande, Kiske, and Sammet come close on the closing track "Arabesque", but Scheepers honestly just blows them out of the water on this one. That being said, Sammet sounds much more confident in his lead vocals and especially in his harmonies this time around, going blow for blow with the likes of Kiske and Jansen in some of the best ways possible. I can understand Sammet's voice being an acquired taste, especially on his more theatrical tracks like "Welcome To The Shadows", but he absolutely has the chops to support his newer and even more bombastic songwriting.
Moonflower Society continues Avantasia's trend away from the classic Power or Heavy Metal influences and towards a more mystically symphonic approach that's even more about the hooks than before, if that was even possible. While I'll admit that Avantasia's music has always had shades of being this hook-laden, I think that Moonflower Society ups the ante a bit too much even for my taste. The album feels a bit simple and straightforward compared to what Sammet seems to be capable of, with most songs coming in at around the 4-minute mark and only one breaking the 6-minute barrier. Obviously the length of a song doesn't tell the whole story, but at the same time it leaves me wanting a bit more out of the songwriting as a whole. The album is varied enough, though, with "Welcome To The Shadows" and "The Moonflower Society" living up to the album's theme with mystical, bouncing keyboard rhythms and a slightly creepy atmosphere, while "The Inmost Light" invokes a classic Helloween sound and "Misplaced Among The Angels" coming in as the staple Avantasia power ballad. As much as I'd like to say I'm above Sammet's cheesy power ballad writing, I can't help but consider "Misplaced Among The Angels" one of Avantasia's best with its sweeping but driving melodies and incredible harmonies between Sammet and Jansen. That being said, "Paper Plane" has to be one of the most useless ballads I've heard out of them with its boring chorus and unexciting buildup. "Rhyme And Reason" also has to be one of the most confusing Avantasia tracks I've heard, with the swing melody and frankly annoying chorus really not working in any shape, form, or fashion. "Scars" and "I Tame The Storm" also fall victim to being uninteresting overall, the former not having anything to distinguish it and the latter having a noticeably weak chorus despite having Lande on vocals. Plus, "Arabesque" may be one of Avantasia's weakest epics to date with a neat but incohesive spread of ideas ranging from bagpipes, to suitably Middle Eastern strings, to standard Power Metal operatic fare. The harmonies between Sammet, Kiske, and Lande are always wonderful to hear, but it really feels like the song ends right when it's getting started despite being ten minutes long.
It may have been the expectation of a follow-up to Moonglow, but Moonflower Society sadly misses the mark for me in a lot of ways. That being said, it's still a perfectly fine album that will have any Power Metal fan salivating at the vocalist lineup alone, which is something that Avantasia has consistently been able to deliver on. Hearing Floor Jansen loud and centered in the mix alongside Sammet on "Kill The Pain Away" is fantastic and Jorn's features in "Arabesque" are the best you're going to hear him this year, so this project continues to do its job and truly highlight these talented artists. At the same time, the overly pandering "Welcome To The Shadows" and the solid "The Moonflower Society" are the only two songs that were really able to invoke the supposed theme of the album, which is a shame considering the album seems pretty lost in the rest of its runtime. In retrospect I think I'm being a little harsh on Moonflower Society considering I'd still consider it to be a step above the average run-of-the-mill Power Metal album, but at the same time the weaker half of this album's tracklist is pretty weak in comparison to their past albums. It has enough highlights for me to recommend it above their more average albums, but I can't help but be disappointed in the overall simplicity of it all.