Christmas is drawing near, and Tobias Sammet got his "Nutcracker Suit" on already. The new Avantasia single is finally here and on December 11th it'll be available digitally from iTunes and other platforms officially.

Tobias comments: “'Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose' is a song I originally wrote with Meat Loaf in the back of my mind - but for some reason the collaboration didn't happen, so I did the song myself. The choirs alone took more than 40 hours to arrange and record - for a four minute song! That pretty much says it all. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing and more is more! In my humble opinion it is the perfect overture to the seventy-minute journey which the full album is going to be. ‘Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose’ may be a rather short composition compared to most other Avantasia songs, yet I wanted to embellish and amplify it with flamboyance and all Avantasia trademarks. I wanted to make it a detailed piece of fantasy art, but at the same time it was a big challenge to make that painting look inherently consistant if you view it from the distance. The layered choirs took us forever to record and yet nothing distracts from the main theme and flow of the song. Everytime you give it a listen you will discover something else going on. I have a feeling that I have never managed to create such an epic and dreamy atmosphere in just four minutes. I gotta admit, I am slightly proud of it!"

Avantasia's seventh album, Ghostlights, will be released worldwide on January 29th via Nuclear Blast.

The opus features guest appearances of Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Geoff Tate (ex-Queensryche, Operation: Mindcrime), Marco Hietala (Nightwish), Sharon Den Adel (Within Temptation), Michael Kiske (Unisonic, ex-Helloween), Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids), Bob Catley (Magnum), Jorn Lande, Bruce Kulick (ex-KISS), Robert Mason (Warrant), Herbie Langhans, Oliver Hartmann and Sascha Paeth.

The record contains twelve songs and was produced by Tobias and Sascha Paeth in Gatestudio Wolfsburg, Germany. Paeth is responsible for engineering and mixing Ghostlights, too. Mastering was done by Michael Rodenberg.

The instrumentalists on Ghostlights are the following:

Sascha Paeth - rhythm guitars, lead guitars, bass, additional keys
Michael Rodenberg - orchestration, keys
Tobias Sammet - additional keys and bass
Bruce Kulick - lead guitars
Oliver Hartmann - lead guitars
Felix Bohnke – drums

Tracklistings:

CD
“Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose”
“Let The Storm Descend Upon You”
“The Haunting”
“Seduction Of Decay”
“Ghostlights”
“Draconian Love”
“Master Of The Pendulum”
“Isle Of Evermore”
“Babylon Vampyres”
“Lucifer”
“Unchain The Light”
“A Restless Heart And Obsidian Skies”

2CD Digibook:
“Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose”
“Let The Storm Descend Upon You”
“The Haunting”
“Seduction Of Decay”
“Ghostlights”
“Draconian Love”
“Master Of The Pendulum”
“Isle Of Evermore”
“Babylon Vampyres”
“Lucifer”
“Unchain The Light”
“A Restless Heart And Obsidian Skies”
“Wake Up To The Moon” (bonus track)

CD2 (Avantasia live)
“Spectres”
“Invoke The Machine”
“The Story Ain’t Over”
“Prelude”
“Reach Out For The Light”
“Avantasia”
“What’s Left Of Me”
“Dying For An Angel”
“Twisted Mind”
“The Watchmaker’s Dream”
“Another Angel Down”

3CD Deluxe Edition Book (includes 68 page photo book plus karaoke version of CD1 with bonus track):

“Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose”
“Let The Storm Descend Upon You”
“The Haunting”
“Seduction Of Decay”
“Ghostlights”
“Draconian Love”
“Master Of The Pendulum”
“Isle Of Evermore”
“Babylon Vampyres”
“Lucifer”
“Unchain The Light”
“A Restless Heart And Obsidian Skies”