Avantasia to play at preliminary round for Eurovision Song Contest

Yeah, sometimes news come rushing in you can't believe. This is one of those.

The well known metal opera project Avantasia of Edguy frontsiren Tobias Sammet has announced to play at this years 2016 edition of the German preliminary round for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Wow, what a honour. This is a contest with a long tradition. Mostly it is well known for bands and single artists in the pop world but surely it is a great opportunity to promote some metal music on TV. The show is going to take place on 25th of February 2016 and will be broadcasted through TV. I'll add more details here in the article when I run across them, like the exact time for the show as well as (hopefully) links to where you can all watch the event.

Update 2016/02/19: On the website eurovision.de you'll find the livestream of the event.
German TV stations ARD and EinsFestival will broadcast this starting on 20:15h via their frequencies on german television.
You can read more detailed info about all the bands that will participate as well as about how to vote for your favorite band on the website of the Eurovision song contest Stockholm 2016 (sorry, only in german available). 

In the meantime you can already check out the song the band is going to perform at the preliminary round of the ESC. The track is called ‘Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose’.

Until the big event takes place you can listen to the official album trailer for the upcoming Avantasia album "Ghostlights" which will hit the shelves of the CD shops on 29th of January 2016. As always it will feature a massive guestlist. Just hit the play button to be introduced to the line-up as well as the chance to check out the cover art and to check out some info on the various release formats.


Finally here is a list of the upcoming tourdates for the worldtour which will start in March 2016. Some venues are already sold out, so better hurry if you want to get a ticket for one of their shows. Ticket can be purchased over at Avantasia.net

04.03. D - Berlin - Huxley's*
05.03. D - Hamburg - Große Freiheit* - SOLD OUT!!
06.03. D - Bremen - Aladin*
08.03. UK - London - The Forum*
09.03. F - Paris - Le Trianon*
11.03. E - Barcelona - Razzmatazz 1*
12.03. E - Madrid - La Riviera* - SOLD OUT!!
13.03. E - Madrid - La Riviera*
15.03. D - Frankfurt-Langen - Stadthalle*
16.03. CZ - Prague - Forum Karlin*
18.03. D - Kaufbeuren - All-Karthalle*
19.03. D - Bamberg - Brose-Arena*
20.03. D - Oberhausen - Turbinenhalle*
22.03. I - Milan - Alcatraz*
24.03. CH - Pratteln - Z7*
25.03. CH - Pratteln - Z7*
27.03. SK - Banska Bystrica - Ice Stadium*
28.03. SK - Bratislava - Sportshall*
29.03. A - Tröpolach - Full Metal Mountain Festival
31.03. D - Saarbrücken - Saarlandhalle*
01.04. D - Ludwigsburg - Arena*
02.04. D - Fulda - Esperantohalle*
04.04. H - Budapest - Baba Negra*
06.04. RUS - Moscow - Ray Just Arena*
09.04. JP - Tokyo - Shinagawa Prince Stellar Ball*
24.04. BRA - Sao Paulo - Espaco das Americas*
08.-11.06. S - Sölvesborg - Sweden Rock Festival
01-03.07. FIN - Helsinki, Tuska Open Air
06.07. D - Flugplatz Ballenstedt - RockHarz Open Air

Update 2016/01/13: Brand new US/Canada tourdates have just been announced.

APRIL 13 - CANADA - Toronto, Queen Elizabeth Theater
APRIL 15 - USA - New York, Playstation Theater

More dates will be announced. Check in at the band's Facebook site or take a look on their homepage to stay up to date.

Wacken Open Air 2014 internet streams and TV shows announced

Yeah, I am pretty sure a lot of you guys outta there are preparing for the biggest event of the year in the world of Heavy Metal: the legendary Wacken Open Air!!!

For all those who cannot make it there I have good news at hand: also 2014 there will be the chance to see some of the shows! The organisers announced at the festival homepage that there will be a webstream available directly at wacken.com as well as on the sites of the media partners 3sat and arte. The streams will have no region-lock so everybody should be able to see the stuff that will be broadcasted. Read the full announcement right here.

Update 2014/08/07: Timetable for the TV broadcasts of the after-festival specials has been changed so I updated them. You can find them at the very end of this article. Think this is mostly interesting for the german visitors of my blog so I kept the german timestamps in there.

Update 2014/08/04: BIG UPDATE! Added all the links to the streaming on-demand service that the TV station ARTE offers for a limited time of 30 days. So if you missed out a show just click on the band name and a new window will open up with the stream. Added also the timetable for the TV broadcasts on german TV at the very end of the article. Have much fun!

Update 2014/08/01: Last night was great! Accept were my favorites, was a good show that simply put a smile on my face. If you missed the stuff out just click on the bandnames in the streaming schedule below. The shows have been added to the online streaming archive of the TV station!

Update 2014/07/31: These bands have been confirmed to be streamed today (Thursday 31th July 2014, all times german time). You can watch it right below in the embedded stream window of ARTE. Thanks to the people out there putting up such fine goodies as the webstream for us, you rock!

17:00h Skyline
18:00h Hammerfall
19:30h Steel Panther
21:00h Saxon
22:30h Accept

For the other days these bands are currently scheduled for streaming:

Friday 01.08.
16.45h - Heaven Shall Burn
18.00h - Children of Bodom
19.30h - Apocalyptica
21.25h - Carcass
22.30h - Santiano (Recording after Artist-Approval)
00.00h - Saltatio Mortis

Saturday 02.08.:
16.00h - Devin Townsend Project

17.30h - Emperor
19.00h - Amon Amarth
20.30h - J.B.O.
22.00h - Knorkator (Recording)
23.30h - Motörhead (Recording)
00.15h - Kreator
01.45h - Schandmaul

Sunday 2014/08/02:

Update 2014/08/02: In addition 3sat will also broadcast a big round up of the festival on 2th of August 2014. The broadcast will be shown on TV and also as a free webstream at this location.

The timetable for this extra stream goes like this:

20.15h – Slayer (Recording)
20.30h – Apocalyptica (Recording)
21.00h – Motörhead (Recording)
21.35h – Saxon (Recording)
22.00h – Avantasia

Update 2014/07/30: This year it seems to be okay and legal to put the stream also on your own page. I've found this embed code on the ARTE homepage so you'll be able to watch Wacken 2014 also here on my blog. Very cool, so everyone can watch right here. :-)
The exact time-tables are still to be confirmed so please check back at this article from time to time since I will update it with as many information as possible. Some more details (in german language) can be found at the websites of 3sat and ARTE.
You can also have a look at the running order on the festival homepage to see which band is on stage or will be soon.

Some shows have been confirmed to be streamed. Those are listed below:

Hammerfall on Thursday July 31 from 18:00 to 19:15 CET
Accept on Thursday July 31 from 22:30 to 24:00 CET
Children Of Bodom on Friday August 01 from 18:00 to 19:15 CET
Carcass on Friday August 01 from 21:15 to 22:15 CET
Kreator on Saturday August 02 from 00:15 to 01:30 CET

After the festival there will be the chance of watching selected shows through the media channels 3sat and ARTE. 10 shows have been set up for broadcasting through these german TV stations. Under the confirmed bands you can find names like Hammerfall, Accept, Children of Bodom, W.A.S.P., Kreator and Amon Amarth. These have announced to be aired on  9th of August at ARTE and the 11th of August at 3Sat. More info to come...

Update 2014/08/02: The first broadcast times (2 TV stations will sned them on different days and times) of the after-festival shows with recorded concert stuff have been released:

Samstag, 9. August in ZDFkultur
20.15 Uhr Accept
21.15 Uhr Apocalyptica
22.15 Uhr Heaven Shall Burn

Samstag, 9. August in ARTE
23.30 Uhr Slayer

Sonntag, 10. August in ZDF Kultur
20.15 Uhr Saxon
21.15 Uhr Children Of Bodom

Montag, 11. August in 3sat
02.00 Uhr Hammerfall
03.00 Uhr Accept
04.00 Uhr Apocalyptica
05.00 Uhr Heaven Shall Burn

Freitag, 15. August in 3sat
01.45 Uhr Amon Amarth
02.45 Uhr Steel Panther
03.45 Uhr Schandmaul
04.45 Uhr Kreator

Samstag, 16. August in ZDFkultur
20.15 Uhr Hammerfall
21.15 Uhr Amon Amarth
22.15 Uhr Steel Panther

Samstag, 16. August in 3sat
03.40 Uhr Saxon
04.40 Uhr Children Of Bodom

Sonntag, 17. August in ZDFkultur
20.15 Uhr Schandmaul
21.15 Uhr Kreator

Full Metal Cruise 2013 documentation still online

Besides the traditional metal festivals with stages and often a proper camping ground these days a new form of festival seems be more and more popular. I'm speaking about all of the cruises that put a bunch of bands, lots of lights and stages plus all the fans on one big ship and let them do a trip of their very own.

Besides other big festivals like the Sweden Rock the biggest one called Wacken Open Air has also done a cruise of their own entitled "Full Metal Cruise". It took place from  5th to 12th  Ma 2013 and did feature 20 Bands on three stage on stage and also at the boarding location. Among others the following bands were performing: KREATOR, SABATON, AVANTASIA, DORO, HEAVEN SHALL BURN und FIREWIND.

If you'd like to see how this turned out, hurry and head over here. The german TV station ZDF did broadcast a 77 min. long documentation about the event that still can be seen for some days in their media streaming service. Check it out!

Mediascope: Helloween, Avantasia and Black Metal movie

Wow, the new year has just begun and there are already lot's of new things online that you can check out freely. For example german metal legend "Helloween" has recently put out their newest studio album called "Straight out of hell". In cooperation with the biggest daily german newspaper "Bild" the band has set up a stream of the entire album right here.

The head of Avantasia is Tobias Sammet. With their last show the band played at the Wacken Open Air 2011 the project was officially laid to rest but Tobias Sammet felt afterwards that their was so much left unsaid and music still in his head that he had to go back and start the project once again. Actually the recordings are already finished for a new album called "THE MYSTERY OF TIME". It is set for release in March 2013. The tracklist will be:

01.  Spectres
02.  The Watchmakers' Dream
03.  Black Orchid
04.  Where Clock Hands Freeze
05.  Sleepwalking
06.  Savior In The Clockwork
07.  Invoke The Machine
08.  What's Left Of Me
09.  Dweller In A Dream
10.  The Great Mystery

A first trailer revealing that Michael Kiske will also be on board for some guest vocals has been put out. There will be in fact a big amount of guest stars on the album since Biff Byford,Bruce Kulick, Russell Gilbrook (Uriah Heep) Arjen Lucassen (Ayeron), Joe Lynn Turner and Ronnie Atkins have been confirmed to do guest appeareances of the album. In addition you can also have a ear on some snippets of the album by checking out the trailer below.

There are more preview videos available, just check out the Avantasia youtube channel to see them.

Least for today is the stream of a full movie that had it's premiere on the Sundance film festival. It's called "Black Metal". The story is set around the main question that ask's, if and in which way are musicians responsible for the deeds of their fans? The story tells the story out of the perspective of a vocalist of a Black Metal band who has to deal with a fan driven deed of strong brutality.