There's something to be said about anticipating a release so much that you build up too much interest it. Well, this happened to me with the Avantasia's EPs. If you know me at all you know I'm a huge fan of Tobias Sammet, Edguy and Avantasia. When I heard of the fact that two singles would be released still in 2007, I was ecstatic. First slotted to appear end of October, they were finally pushed to end of November, which didn't help cool down my expectations.

Now with the title track, Lost In Space is very radio oriented and at first I wasn't sure about it, it seemed too mellow to be the title track to use to promote the upcoming album The Scarecrow. BUT, after a few listen it started to get to me and is actually an awesome song that I end up singing in my head all the time, its catchy and has a melody you'll simply never forget. This title is the first track on both the part I and part II of the Avantasia's EPs. Next is ABBA's cover Lay All Your Love On Me. A great song, no doubts there, and Tobias vocals do a great job to make this cover a great track, but well, its a cover, which happens to be something I didn't expect from these EP's (at least not in such overwhelming numbers), I really thought it would be all original work, and as it happens not much of it is. But more about this later on. Another Angel Down is the killer track from this first EP, even better than Lost In Space itself, its a faster song, which features Jorn Lande and Tobias in a song that has panache, great straight-in-your-face metal riffs with an awesome bridge and chorus part that will make you sing along until you lose your voice. While I was expecting the full EPs to have material of the sort, for this song along (and Lost In Space) its worth having this EP. Then comes The Story Ain't Over, and its a great great song, but it sounds like a Meat Loaf title so much, so unmistakably, and while its a wonderful song, I'm just a little worried that copycat wouldn't be too harsh a word to describe this song. No offense to Tobias, which I consider to be a musical genius (with the my other two personal favorites : Wojtek Lisicki and Yoshiki). But there is no doubt here this is, if not copycat, then a HIGHLY inspired song. Now I'm not complaining as such, being a huge fan of this type of songs and I'm very glad to get one that sounds so good with three talented singers to perform it. The vocals of this songs are awesome, Bob Catley, Amanda Somerville as well as Tobias' own vocals makes this an incredible "Meat Loaf" song. Next is a track called Return To Avantasia. First its short, 47 seconds, and it builds you and make you want to hear something that will blow up your ears, well, if like me you were expecting such explosion after it, especially when the next titles is called Ride The Sky, you'll be sadly disappointed. Instead you'll get a Rock song that sounds very 70's (all-the-way) which is in fact, another cover (from Lucifer's Friend). The song is okay for what it is, even though I'm not a huge fan of Eric Singer's vocals (I prefer him on drums), though the duet with Tobias works perfectly, especially that Toby sounds a lot like Paul Stalney in that song. Still, not really the type of track I was expecting from an appetizer to a new Avantasia album! The album contains some multimedia bonuses (videos / screen saver) for those those interested in such "bonus" material (when I buy a CD the music content is what I look for).

Here we are, 6 tracks, 3 very good ones, and well, fillers, as well as a pathetic (in the sense its short, not that its not a great intro, but to what ?) 47 second track that leads to nothing and frankly has been put on the CD for the sole purpose of having a 6th track. The Abba Cover is great, the Lucifer's Friend one not so much, but I was waiting for more quality than quantity here, and while the quality of all songs is there, its not so much related to Avantasia, so I don't know what was the point of making two EPs, and I'll get back to that decision on my review of part two (just click Next :) ). I was debating if I should quote or not these EPs, and decided that I would, to show that compared to what I've been used by Tobias, the quote will reflect a little part of the disappointment I got from these offerings.