jeeze the same things. over and over again.

not dissimilar to how meats setlists were. ugh

Welcome to the Neighbourhood arrived today - Bat 2 tomorrow - I don't know how I feel about opening them!!!

I know exactly what you mean -- Bat II came out on vinyl 25 years ago, and now here it is again. A mere quarter of a century later. The audacity of some folks, eh?

Mine should be arriving SOON, according to the shop. We'll see.

Amen. Hopefully next we'll get a Hang Cool Tour "best of" live CD. One can dream ;)

Got both of mine (Bat 2 and welcome) - just waiting for the Blue vinyl...

Hi - Just popping in to say hi and to see what is going on in here. I haven't logged in since July and it is so sad to see that there's only been 22 unread posts for me to catch up on :( Always hoping there will be some sort of exciting news ... it's been too long!

Sony Japan are reissuing Bat 1 and Dead Ringer on CD in July.

There’s a clip from the convention, from before he took his tumble, where he says to a fan that he and jim think braver is the best thing they’ve done and they’re looking at doing an album which is the answer to Braver...

Interesting I thought...anyone else?

Interesting. I wouldn't rank "Braver" quite that highly. But the process they used to make it was probably the best for both of them with Jim not in the studio and Meat working with Paul and running stuff by Jim. It could obviously work again and most likely be cheaper to make to where it could be profitable enough. Jim still has some songs left so if Meat can sing without pain it sounds likely. Just bring back the big piano sound and some bombast.

Would you share the clip please?

https://youtu.be/fkAoB1TXlXw

its towards the end of the clip as the guy is leaving the table meat beckons him back

Wow, that would be awesome! I really think that if he is able to, he would love to do it.

I hope both Meat and Jim have good health and can do the project.

It pains me to write it, but I don't understand why both Jim and Meat like that album so much. I don't get the praise the record got from Jim in the first place. But having said that, I really want to believe both of them mean it, and the initial praise by Jim was not just a tribute to a dear friend. If they both feel it and love it, then I am happy for them to extend that cooperation. And of course I am looking forward to it.

Trust me: Jim will not be involved with this, unfortunately (I would love for it to happen as much as you).

That makes me sad :(

Why not?

Really, how involved was Jim in the "Braver" album? A couple of lines on "Speaking in Tongues" that I'm aware of and what sounds like some emails and some feedback, which judging by the un-Jim like production was also minimal. Not slagging anyone, but Jim always has big piano and huge backing vocals. Honestly recent Avantasia sounds as Jim-esque as "Braver" did.

Unless we've misunderstood, Jim still has some songs left. One very prominently known, "body" and others mentioned "Last at Bat" and a couple others I can't recall at the moment. The songs they used on "Braver" were really old and I think they had to do production to what Meat could sing when it was recorded. I don't know if Meat's voice was different due to pain or age (or a combination of both) but he sounded great on HCTB and the tour for that album. Unless Cavallo "fixed" everything I'd settle for any vocal close to HCTB.

Oh wow, someone else here knows Avantasia! I still need to listen to the recent album but the one before, Ghostlights was fantastic, Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose was definitely Jim-like, which makes sense because Tobias did actually try to get Meat Loaf for it.

I've only recently entered the Avantasia world.
What a place and you never know who you'll bump into. Much exploring still to do.
Indeed, Meat would be a perfect guest vocalist over there.

"Ghost in the Moon" is a 10 minute epic sort of like "Mystery of a Blood Red Rose" including a reference to it. "The Story Ain't Over" also delves into Jim territory. They aren't the lyrical masterpieces Jim writes, but the overall sound on those 3 songs is influenced heavily.

They tried to get Meat on "Mystery of a Blood Red Rose" but his management turned it down. Tobias is very open in discussing how Jim and Meat influences his music in several interviews.

If Jim were unavailable, I think the producers of those 3 songs could do a better job than Desmond Child did, but Desmond did a decent enough job for the most part.

I didn't know Jim/Meat was a big influence! I've not seen much in the way of interviews by Tobias. I do really like Avantasia, the line up of singers he gets is always good, and ehll he got amazing performances from Geoff Tate! He could have done something amazing with Meat.

Main reason I knew about the Meat Loaf thing is because I remembered a thing around the time Blood Red Rose came out with Tobias mentioning it but also Arjen Luccassen mentioned it once when I asked about getting Meat for a future Ayreon project!

It's a shame Meats management turned it down, makes me wonder if Meat himself knew about it.

RE Avantasia - I used to know Toby quite well circa 2005 (we'd arranged for exclusive rights of an edit of 'Superheroes' for a project that I was writer on at the time). We met in 2003 before Edguy were a known quantity on the rock circuit in the UK. If memory serves, Toby wrote another song intended for Meat that ended up being a B-side on a mid-2000's album, too (Story Ain't Over, I think).

*Looks up Avantasia on Spotify*

Wow! :up:
I instantly liked Ghost in The Moon. Great stuff.

Something like Mystery of a Blood Red Rose & The Story Ain't Over / Prize Fighter Lover (original version) / Date With Destiny would have formed an awesome basis for a Meat album.

I love bits of Braver, the title song is superb and like Souvenirs with the sax and Meat's voice is pretty good on that, but some stuff really should have been left off that album. Just because Steinman wrote certain songs doesn't make them automatically great in my opinion.

I'm sure there are many writers who could write in the style of Steinman / CHSIB / DIST / Blind As A Bat without having to go through the Sonnenberg management bollox.