Live | Avantasia – 013 – Tilburg [NL]

26 March 2025

‘Here Be Dragons’ recently released, is Tobias Sammet’s – AKA – Avantasia, best, most consistent, and concise piece of metal opera so far and to promote his tenth studio album Avantasia embark on a European tour. The tour started in Hamburg and tonight Avantasia will be entertaining the 013 crowd in Tilburg and the audience can expect a 100 % Avantasia show/experience for sure, as the setlist contained no less than twenty-two songs!!

THE VOCAL DUELS

The set opened with ,,Creepshow” which reached the pole position in the German charts, from the new album, and it was a wonderful way to start this gig, as that punchy track got the show underway immaculately. ,,Creepshow” has an almost addictive chorus, and it invites the crowd to sing along to, and so, they did, very loudly; this hooky anthemic song will be an Avantasia live staple for sure! Next up was the classic Avantasia song ,,Reach Out For The Light’’ from ‘The Metal Opera’ (2001), where Adrienne Cowan (Seven Spires) gave Tobias a helping hand by adding her fabulous vocal part in this impressive power metal song, again with an almost singalong chorus.

The setlist covered most of Avantasia’s discography, although to my great disappointment there were no songs from Sammet’s two last albums ‘A Paranormal Evening With The Moonflower Society’ (2022) and `Moonglow’ (2019), but the new album ‘Here Be Dragons’ was luckily represented with six tracks. The title track of that new album was one of the highlights of this evening, featuring an awesome vocal duet/duel between Tommy Karevik (Kamelot) and Sammet, who, although he had a cold, reached almost all the high notes/chords without problems.

THE BEST PERFORMANCES OF THE NIGHT

Singer Eric Martin (Mr. Big) was also, again, present as he did a good job in the warm ballad-like ,,What’s Left Of Me”. Probably due to his cold Sammet was sometimes absent during a couple of songs, but he really gave an awesome performance during the rather creepy ,,The Toy Master” (‘The Scarecrow’, 2008). The best track, without Sammet was the epic ,,The Wicked Symphony” (2010), featuring Karevik and Leckremo (H.E.A.T.) and these contrasting singers delivered one of the best performances of the night.

During all this power metal force Chiara Tricarico really did a wonderful job with the soaring ballad ,,Farewell” but follow up ,,The Scarecrow” delivered the full power metal goods again, as this folk metal epic really got the crowd going wild. The band, especially the guitar duo Sascha Paeth and Arne Wiegand, were on fire and delivered top notch riffs, hooks, and solos galore. The heavy and sometimes creepy ,,Death Is Just A Feeling” (‘Angel Of Babylon’, 2010) ended the regular show with a blast.

AVANTASIA – THE CONCLUSION

But then the lights went down for the encores and first the crowd was treated to a re-arranged version of ,,Lucifer” (‘Ghostlights’, 2016) , followed by ,,Lost In Space” (‘The Scarecrow’, 2008) and ,,Sign Of The Cross/The Seven Angels’’, the familiar medley with all the singers on stage, ending this gig second to none indeed. Can it get any better than this?

The show was almost perfect, clocking in at almost three hours of melodic power metal music at the highest level. The atmosphere in Tilburg was superb, with everyone singing along from the very first song and throughout the entire show; but most of all, every singer really shone, with Sammet – although he had a cold – as the centre of this memorable gig.

All photos by Martien Koolen