 The press soon started to create speculations on the possibility of them being rivals and which album would be more successful.When asked about this, Arjen Anthony Lucassen (mastermind behind Ayreon) stated that he was mad at Tobias Sammet, head of Avantasia, because Tobias managed to have Alice Cooper, who is Arjen's favorite singer, to perform on his last Avantasia album, leading to some incendiary emails sent to Sammet on Lucassen's part.Coincidentally, Tobias was also mad at Arjen because he had Bruce Dickinson (Tobias' favorite singer) performing on his Ayreon album "" and the media's constant queries about his thoughts on Ayreon after the creation of his Avantasia project.