Over the course of the past 15 years Tobias Sammet has been responsible for some truly awesome power metal, whether it be with his band Edguy or his concept project (metal opera if you will) Avantasia. After 2 outings (split into 2 parts each), the metal opera 1 and 2 and the lost in space ep’s (part 1 and part 2), we now get The Scarecrow. Once again Tobias has assembled a veritable who’s who of prog metal and hard rock; to help him out with this recording, we have Michael Kiske from Helloween, Bob Catley from Magnum, Roy Kahn from Kamelot, Alice Cooper, Kai Hansen, Eric Singer, and the list goes on and on!
True to form The Scarecrow is full to the brim with massive choruses. Opening track “Twisted Mind” (featuring Roy Kahn from Kamelot) really sets the pace for the rest of the album, from the stomping intro to the monumental chorus, this song does not let up for a second! Roy’s voice complements Tobias’ perfectly.
“The Toy Master” suits Alice Cooper perfectly. Alice’s menacing snarl gives the song the kind of dark atmospherics one would expect from a Cooper song. “Carry Me Over” is simply epic, it’s a mid paced song with a massive chorus, and it will be an awesome live track. Jorn Lande from Masterplan lends his considerable pipes to “Shelter From The Rain” a straight ahead power metal song which would be quite at home on an Edguy record.
In all this is a very well put together album, filled with finely crafted metal. It’s also really good value for money, only one of the songs on The Scarecrow clocks in at less than 4 min, in fact most are upwards of 5. It’s nothing really new, Tobias is not bringing anything terribly original to his genre but he is creating something of real quality, I really look forward to seeing this played live over the summer.
http://www.tobiassammet.com
http://www.myspace.com/tobiassammet
