Blind Guardian's debut album was released in 1988. The line-up is their classic one with the 3 masterminds Hansi Kürsch, lead vocals and bass, André Olbrich & Marcus Siepen on the guitars. And Thomas "Thomen" Stauch on the drums. Battalions of Fear is a raw and unpolished power/speed metal highly influenced by Iron Maiden (specially the guitar work) and Helloween's first album. But with a vocal approach and overall hints of thrash metal. In that sense, Blind Guardian was at the early days on a similar direction as Grave Digger. The early albums lack many of their musical characteristics that would mark the band's music in later years. With that in mind, it's not a bad album and features a couple of important deep cuts, mainly the powerful songs: "Majesty" and "Run for the Night".
Follow The Blind is similar to the debut but heavier with clear influences by thrash metal, namely Testament. But BG were always an evolving band and already here they experimented with orchestral parts for the first time. Two classic fan favorites: "Banish from Sanctuary" and "Valhalla" make this album already a powerful release that started to gather a dedicated fan base for the band, even outside Germany. "Banish from Sanctuary" has also been on the set-list in many tours and it's a battle hymn of a track with a fast galloping riffs and a huge chorus full of vocal harmonies. And what to say about "Valhalla"? Still today is the set-list closer and features Kai Hansen on vocals to give an additional hint of greatness. Additionally, the album cover is a huge step-up from the debut.
BG Once again raised their quality considerably in every aspect: musicianship, song writing, production, album cover and number of classic BG anthems. All of it without stopping to evolve, with TFTTW, BG penned a very distinct style for the very first time. The huge choir and guitar orchestrations would become their trademarks. "Traveler In Time", "Welcome To Dying" and "Lost In The Twilight Hall" are phenomenal songs that exemplify their sound. The guitar work evolved from Maiden-ish to very unique arrangements and the song structures are complex and unformulated. "Lord Of The Rings" slows things down and adds the acoustic element. Kai Hansen was again helping the band by performing backing vocals, vocals on "Lost in the Twilight Hall" and guitar solo on "The Last Candle". All and all, it's their first masterpiece. No surprise that with this release the band’s reputation continued to grow. It all led to signing with Virgin Records in 1992, a major accomplishment for the 90's.
The album saw the band solidifying and expending their original sound that was born with the previous record. "Time What Is Time" , "Journey Through The Dark" and "The Quest For Tanelorn" are now classic tracks combining their trademark sound and speed metal. But songs like "Black Chamber" and "Theatre Of Pain" expand further their toolbox by adding piano and orchestral arrangements. And of course "The Bard's Song- In The Forest" became a sing along BG anthem. The album was acclaimed by power metal fans all across Europe and Japan. After entering the international charts, Blind Guardian took their first trip to Japan to record their first live album, Tokyo Tales. The cover artwork was again created by Andreas Marschall and it's again fantastic!
3 years and one live album after SFB, BG came back with a masterpiece. The atmosphere of this album is darker in comparison to their earlier works. It's a well crafted musical journey in less than 50 min and 9 full songs. There are now intro tracks, instrumentals or transitions. All of the songs are fantastic and have been played live at different tours since its release. What I love the most about Imaginations is the complex song structures with different verses, bridges and choruses without a clear formulated structure. You never know what coming next, there are so many different tempos and changes, it's a roller-coaster and a goosebumps "generator". The new producer, Flemming Rasmussen who worked on the classic Metallica albums, brought the band to a different level. The guitar arrangements, vocals and backing vocals are all magnificent. The title track is one of the best songs in metal and the next 6 songs are not far behind. To me Imaginations is one of the top 10 metal albums of all times. It's 5 minutes too long from perfection.
Nightfall is at the same level as the predecessor. Meaning, another masterpiece. To its advantage are the lyrics and concept based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Silmarillion. To its disadvantaged is the number of tracks (specially the interlude ones) and the total length with 22 songs in 65 minutes. Once again the album was produced by Rasmussen and to many it is regarded as a pinnacle achievement in the band’s career. BG went further into creating an even more complex musical journey with orchestral arrangements, renaissance-styled acoustic sequences, spoken word, and flute & violin passages, all without loosing the hallmarks of power and speed. There are no bad or even OK songs, they are all great, but "Nightfall" is specially amazing, another one of my top songs of all times. Without a doubt Nightfall is head-to-head against Imaginations as BG best albums and both are among my all time favorites.
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In 2002 BG had the difficult task to release the follow-up of two incredible albums. The band decided to go further into a more progressive and complex sound. According to their website, due to their extensive tracking and the epic nature of the band’s musical orchestrations, the album took nearly seventeen months to complete. The pinnacle of this direction is the single “And Then There Was Silence,” a 14-minute masterpiece featuring fifty vocal tracks, thirty guitar tracks, and took over four months to record. It's an amazing musical journey. While the other 9 tracks are all much shorter, they are equally complex with multiple overlaid vocals, choirs, orchestral keys and several cleaner guitar leads. Overall, I really like this album, it was a tough job to follow Imaginations and Nightfall, but A Night at the Opera delivered the goods.
Long 4 years after A Night at the Opera, BG returned in 2006 with their eighth studio album. As was the case with the previous record, they worked with producer Charlie Bauerfeind (Helloween, Gamma Ray). The record marks two significant changes for the band. In addition to being the first record with Nuclear Blast, BG welcomed new drummer Fredrik Ehmke following the departure of founder Thomen Stauch. In the first seconds of the powerful opener "This Will Never End" we can hear a heavy guitar riff, a return to their older guitar sound which was almost absent in the previous record. The single "Fly" is by far the best song on the album. It sounds very different and yet catchy and progressive with simpler guitar riffs and a percussion approach never seen before in BG. Overall, the album arrangements are rather simpler than ANATO, e.g. "Another Stranger Me", but without loosing their characteristic sound and progressiveness. A Twist in the Myth is definetely a natural reaction to the complexity of the previous records. It's not bad record, but it's not BG at their best.
4 years after the simper and more direct predecessor, BG kicks of their 9th studio album with an orchestra intro of 1:30! The whole song "Sacred Worlds" and the closer "Wheel Of Time" fuse the last album guitar approach with the more symphonic elements from 2002's ANATO. At the Edge of Time is a collection of very unique tracks. “Tanelorn (Into The Void)” brings us back to 1992, the melancholic “Road Of No Release” slows the tempo just to be contrasted with the fast “Ride Into Obsession,” the folk inspired “Curse My Name” features flute arrangements,” and the single “A Voice In The Dark” is another fast and powerful one. I never fully got into this album but it's definitely not a bad one.
BtRM is certainly Blind Guardian's best album in years. The sequel of the fantastic "Imaginations..." has all the traditional BG elements: Epic, big choruses and complex arrangements. Additionally, as in the wonderful opener "The Ninth Wave", BtRM includes orchestra and choirs that beautifully add to mix. But as with the previous two records than the last few albums, they took care to not overcomplicate the complexity, actually some songs are very direct and thrashy, like "The Holy Grail". Overall great album for old fans and power epic metal lovers in general.
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