The Mystery of Time

2013 studio album by Avantasia

The Mystery of Time

Studio album by

Avantasia

Released

26 April 2013

Recorded

June 2012 - January 2013

Genre

Power metal, symphonic metal

Length

62:00

Label

Nuclear Blast

Producer

Sascha Paeth and Tobias Sammet

Avantasia chronology

The Wicked Symphony/Angel of Babylon
(2010)

The Mystery of Time
(2013)

Ghostlights
(2016)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Metal Blast	^[1]
Time For Metal - Magazin	^[2]
Metal Traveller	^[3]

The Mystery of Time is the sixth full-length album by Tobias Sammet's german metal opera project Avantasia. The album was released on 26 April 2013.^[4] This is the first Avantasia release to feature the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg (the same orchestra that performed on Edguy's album Hellfire Club). The cover artwork was painted by Rodney Matthews.^[5]^[6]

The Mystery Of Time scored high positions in several international music charts and even enabled Avantasia to enter the US Billboard charts for the first time.^[7]

When asked to compare the album to Avantasia's previous efforts, guitarist and producer Sascha Paeth described it as follows:^[8]

It is a more 'fantastic' production, based a little bit more on orchestra work and keyboards. It's more like a film score, to underline the whole story, the rock opera aspect, which was a choice on this one and I think it works out fine. Also, this gives the album a face of its own.

Track listing

Limited editions of the album include a second CD with instrumental versions of all the tracks on the album, with the exception of the two limited edition bonus tracks.

All tracks are written by Tobias Sammet

No.	Title	Guest Vocalist	Length
1.	"Spectres"	Joe Lynn Turner	6:09
2.	"The Watchmakers' Dream"	Turner	4:14
3.	"Black Orchid"	Biff Byford	6:52
4.	"Where Clock Hands Freeze"	Michael Kiske	4:35
5.	"Sleepwalking"	Cloudy Yang	3:52
6.	"Savior in the Clockwork"	Turner, Byford, Kiske	10:40
7.	"Invoke the Machine"	Ronnie Atkins	5:30
8.	"What's Left of Me"	Eric Martin	5:07
9.	"Dweller in a Dream"	Kiske	4:45
10.	"The Great Mystery"	Bob Catley, Turner, Byford	10:03
Total length:			62:00

Limited & Japanese edition bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
11.	"The Cross and You"	4:14
12.	"Death Is Just a Feeling (Alternative Version/Tobias Sammet)"	5:24
Total length:		71:38

Story

The album booklet describes the story "So take the time to follow me into a small old English town during the Victorian era and join a young agnostic scientist by the name Aaron Blackwell as he is forced to explore the coherencies of time, God and science; torn between belief in his professional conviction, his spiritual intuition, love and a lodge of scientific occultists."^[9]

Personnel

Tobias Sammet - lead vocals, bass
Sascha Paeth - lead & rhythm guitars, guitar solos on #01, 04-09; additional bass; additional keyboards
Miro - keyboards, piano
Russell Gilbrook - drums

Special guests

Musicians

Guitars
- Bruce Kulick - solo on #03, 06, 10
- Oliver Hartmann - solo on #04, 07
- Arjen Anthony Lucassen - solo on #02
Organ
- Ferdy Doernberg - hammond organ solo on #02

Vocalists

Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Rainbow, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen ex-Deep Purple) - co-lead vocals on #01, 02, 06, 10
Michael Kiske (Helloween, Place Vendome, Unisonic) - co-lead vocals on #04, 06, 09
Biff Byford (Saxon) - co-lead vocals on #03, 06, 10
Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids) - co-lead vocals on #07
Eric Martin (Mr. Big) - co-lead vocals on #08
Bob Catley (Magnum) - co-lead vocals on #10
Cloudy Yang - co-lead vocals on #05

Charts

^[10]^[11]^[12]

Chart	Number
German Albums Chart	2
Swiss Albums Chart	5
England Rock Albums Chart	6
Finnish Albums Chart	9
Swedish Albums Chart	9
North America Billboard Chart	9
Austrian Albums Chart	11
Czech Albums Chart	12
Hungary Albums Chart^[13]	15
Japanese Albums Chart	17
Norwegian Albums Chart	19
Spanish Albums Chart^[14]	29
French Albums Chart	61
Belgian Ultratop (Wallonia)	70
Dutch Albums Chart	85
Belgian Ultratop (Flanders)	97

References

^ "Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time". Metal Blast. 2013-04-05.
^ "Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time Review". Time-For-Metal.eu (Germany). 2013-03-26.
^ "Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time Review". Metal Traveller. 2013-04-08.
^ "The Mystery Of Time". nuclearblast.de.
^ "Tobias Sammet :: Avantasia :: Official Web". tobiassammet.com.
^ "Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time - Listening Session". musikreviews.de.
^ "Metal-Rules.com News, Interviews, Concert Reviews » AVANTASIA "THE MYSTERY OF TIME" DEBUTS AT #9 ON BILLBOARD "HEAT SEEKERS" CHART, #33 ON "HARD ROCK"". Metal-Rules.com News, Interviews, Concert Reviews. 10 May 2013.
^ Jon (27 April 2013). "Sascha Paeth (Avantasia) Interview @ PPM 2013". Metal Blast. Mons. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
^ AVANTASIA - The Mystery Of Time (PRE-LISTENING), NuclearBlastEurope on YouTube
^ "AVANTASIA AUF #2 IN DEN DEUTSCHEN ALBUMCHARTS!". Rock It!.
^ "Tobias Sammet :: Avantasia :: Official Web". tobiassammet.com.
^ "Tobias Sammet's Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time". ultratop.be.
^ "Top 40 album-, DVD- és válogatáslemez-lista – 2013. 14. hét" (in Hungarian). Mahasz. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
^ "TOP 100 ALBUMES" (PDF) (in Spanish). PROMUSICAE. Retrieved 2013-04-08.