Mystery of a Blood Red Rose
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Mystery of a Blood Red Rose" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Avantasia | ||||
| from the album Ghostlights | ||||
| Released | 11 December 2015 | |||
| Length | 3:51 | |||
| Label | Nuclear Blast Records | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Tobias Sammet | |||
| Producer(s) | Sascha Paeth and Tobias Sammet | |||
| Avantasia singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Mystery of a Blood Red Rose" is a single and opening track to the German power metal project Avantasia's album Ghostlights, released on 11 December 2015 with a lyric video.[1] It was one of the ten candidates to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.[2] The song was between the final three finalists, but eventually was defeated by "Ghost", performed by Jamie-Lee Kriewitz.
Tobias Sammet, the project's leader and songwriter, described the song as "sumptuous" and similar to "Meat Loaf around 1979 or at most 1990".[3] He also said:[1]
In my humble opinion is the perfect overture to the seventy-minute journey which the full album is going to be. Although Mystery of a Blood Red Rose is 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 consistent 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.
Indeed, the choirs took a total 14 hours to record.[4] Meat Loaf was initially set to sing on the song, and his management was already in the process of approving it. However, they ultimately decided to decline for unknown reasons.[3][4] The song was still no more than a single chorus when the idea of having him sing on it was first raised, but a more complete version of it was sent to him.[4]
Commenting on the reasons he chose the song as the single, he said it was either it or "Draconian Love", since both are "very catchy" and "had a solid playtime to release them as a single". The label favored the opening track, which Sammet liked as the song was more "daring" due to its "timelessness" and "old-fashioned" tone.[3]
