A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society

A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society is the ninth studio album by Tobias Sammet's German metal opera project Avantasia. It was released on 21 October 2022, through Nuclear Blast.

A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society
Studio album by Avantasia
Released	21 October 2022 (2022-10-21)
Genre	Power metal, progressive metal[1]
Length	53:58
Label	Nuclear Blast
Producer	Sascha Paeth Tobias Sammet
Avantasia chronology
Moonglow (2019) A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society (2022) Here Be Dragons (2025)
Singles from A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society
"The Wicked Rule the Night" Released: 19 May 2022 "The Moonflower Society" Released: 13 July 2022 "Misplaced Among the Angels" Released: 2 August 2022 "The Inmost Light" Released: 23 September 2022

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
laut.de	[2]
Metal.de	8/10[3]
Metal Hammer	6/7[4]
Rock Hard	8.5/10[5]
Sputnikmusic	3.5/5[6]

Background

According to Avantasia founder Tobias Sammet, song ideas go back as far as 2018 but were not finalized until a few months before the album release.^[7] On 19 May 2022, he announced the album for release in Fall 2022. Sammet expressed his content with the album, saying that any song could classify as a first single.^[8] The song "The Wicked Rule the Night", along with a lyric video were released the same day.^[9] The album title and release date were revealed on 29 June 2022. In a press statement, Sammet explained how his active involvement in arranging, orchestrating and producing the album has made the record feel "extremely personal" to him.^[10] In support of the album, the band held six concerts in Germany and Switzerland in Summer 2022.^[11]

Track listing

No.	Title	Guest vocalist(s)	Length
1.	"Welcome to the Shadows"		5:05
2.	"The Wicked Rule the Night"	Ralf Scheepers	4:25
3.	"Kill the Pain Away"	Floor Jansen	3:44
4.	"The Inmost Light"	Michael Kiske	3:27
5.	"Misplaced Among the Angels"	Jansen	5:17
6.	"I Tame the Storm"	Jørn Lande	3:53
7.	"Paper Plane"	Ronnie Atkins	3:54
8.	"The Moonflower Society"	Bob Catley	5:14
9.	"Rhyme and Reason"	Eric Martin	4:42
10.	"Scars"	Geoff Tate	4:13
11.	"Arabesque"	Lande Kiske	10:10
Total length:			53:58

All tracks are written by Tobias Sammet.

Personnel

Adapted from the album's booklet, Nuclear Blast

Avantasia

• Tobias Sammet – lead vocals, keyboard, bass guitar
• Sascha Paeth – guitar, bass guitar, mixing
• Michael Rodenberg – keyboard, orchestration on tracks 5, 11
• Felix Bohnke – drums

Guest vocalists

• Floor Jansen
• Jørn Lande
• Michael Kiske
• Bob Catley
• Ralf Scheepers
• Geoff Tate
• Ronnie Atkins
• Eric Martin

Additional musicians

• Oliver Hartmann – additional lead guitar on track 4
• Herbie Langhans, Ina Morgan – backing vocals on tracks 1, 3, 6, 7

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society Chart (2022) Peak position Australian Hitseekers Albums (ARIA)[12] 17 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[13] 7 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[14] 68 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[15] 87 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[16] 52 Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[17] 13 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[18] 3 Italian Albums (FIMI)[19] 76 Japanese Albums (Oricon)[20] 42 Polish Albums (ZPAV)[21] 31 Scottish Albums (OCC)[22] 15 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[23] 16 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[24] 10 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[25] 4 UK Album Downloads (OCC)[26] 20 UK Independent Albums (OCC)[27] 10 UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[28] 3

Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society Chart (2022) Position German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[29] 98