The Mystery of Time
The Mystery of Time is the sixth full-length album by Tobias Sammet's rock opera project Avantasia. The album was released on 26 April 2013. This is the first Avantasia release to feature the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg. The cover artwork was painted by Rodney Matthews.
The Mystery Of Time scored high positions in several international music charts and even enabled Avantasia to enter the US Billboard charts for the very first time.
When asked to compare the album to Avantasia's previous efforts, guitarist and producer Sascha Paeth described it as follows:
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.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."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 - co-lead vocals on #01, 02, 06, 10
- Michael Kiske - co-lead vocals on #04, 06, 09
- Biff Byford - co-lead vocals on #03, 06, 10
- Ronnie Atkins - co-lead vocals on #07
- Eric Martin - co-lead vocals on #08
- Bob Catley - co-lead vocals on #10
- Cloudy Yang - co-lead vocals on #05
Charts
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 | 15 |
Japanese Albums Chart | 17 |
Norwegian Albums Chart | 19 |
Spanish Albums Chart | 29 |
French Albums Chart | 61 |
Belgian Ultratop | 70 |
Dutch Albums Chart | 85 |
Belgian Ultratop | 97 |