My preferred version of Nightfall is the remix/remaster/no-interlude version from this release:
http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Blind_Guardian/A_Traveler's_Guide_to_Space_and_Time/357484
http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Blind_Guardian/A_Traveler's_Guide_to_Space_and_Time/357484
Cornfed Hick
Ancient Mariner
It's been a while since I played this Guardian album though. It's one of those records I listened to so much in my mid-teens that I can hear it all in my head, but maybe I'll have a different impression now. On the other hand, it's a bit scary - what if I don't like it at all anymore?
I've listened to it a fair amount in adulthood, and it holds up.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
I remember that when it came out I didn't buy it (I think I still don't have it) but borrowed the CD from the library. I taped it on cassette and made a shorter "own" version on one side of the cassette.
What plays a part is that I've always been very impressed by Tolkien's The Silmarillion. However, I still treated Nightfall in Middle-Earth as an own work, so much that I never really felt the need to search for links between book and music. I was much more into music (and vocal performance) only. Still that is the most important thing but now I enjoy this rediscovering, with new focus on the lyrical content. Most interludes also have this lyrical content, producing a more nostalgic connection with Tolkien's writings. So it's only become a bigger experience.
What plays a part is that I've always been very impressed by Tolkien's The Silmarillion. However, I still treated Nightfall in Middle-Earth as an own work, so much that I never really felt the need to search for links between book and music. I was much more into music (and vocal performance) only. Still that is the most important thing but now I enjoy this rediscovering, with new focus on the lyrical content. Most interludes also have this lyrical content, producing a more nostalgic connection with Tolkien's writings. So it's only become a bigger experience.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
Interesting subject you put on there.
Strictly looking at Blind Guardian's music, I can't judge well over later work. Their next album turned me off. It felt as if they'd put too many ideas and layers in one song, and perhaps this hasn't changed until this day.
Pre-Nightfall work:
Several strong tracks but also songs in which I have to be patient until something exciting or good (e.g. a strong melody) happens. Sometimes it isn't that impressive.
Now Nightfall itself: most of these songs are really grabbing. As if the band was more focused on using and repeating the good parts. We already knew they did big choruses on earlier work, but here, they are mostly good big choruses, if not great. So this album is very consistent. Not too many different (and sometimes unimpressive) parts. They stayed to the core.
So how does this kind of songwriting and their style fit to The Silmarillion? I hadn't thought of this before to be honest.
Which colours or dimensions does this music lack to do this story enough justice? More darkness perhaps (but then in which way)?
I think they focused on several parts of the book (not the book as a whole) so I wonder if several "chapters" could have been treated more differently from each other.
Strictly looking at Blind Guardian's music, I can't judge well over later work. Their next album turned me off. It felt as if they'd put too many ideas and layers in one song, and perhaps this hasn't changed until this day.
Pre-Nightfall work:
Several strong tracks but also songs in which I have to be patient until something exciting or good (e.g. a strong melody) happens. Sometimes it isn't that impressive.
Now Nightfall itself: most of these songs are really grabbing. As if the band was more focused on using and repeating the good parts. We already knew they did big choruses on earlier work, but here, they are mostly good big choruses, if not great. So this album is very consistent. Not too many different (and sometimes unimpressive) parts. They stayed to the core.
So how does this kind of songwriting and their style fit to The Silmarillion? I hadn't thought of this before to be honest.
Which colours or dimensions does this music lack to do this story enough justice? More darkness perhaps (but then in which way)?
I think they focused on several parts of the book (not the book as a whole) so I wonder if several "chapters" could have been treated more differently from each other.
Understatement of the day
Mere months after talking about doing it, I re-listened to all of Nightfall in Middle-Earth. I jotted down some notes along the way...
---
"Into the Storm" - This is a great high-adrenaline slice of metal. No complaints at all.
"Nightfall" - The build-up to the first chorus is magnificent. I like how they manage to put so many different sections in such a short space - many epic-addled prog-metal bands have a lot to learn here.
"The Curse of Feanor" - Quality craftsmanship, but the vocal melodies are relatively weak and there's a bit too much indistinct riffing. I like the chorus variations.
"Blood Tears" - First weak song. Awkward cross between balladry and bombast, not a hook in sight.
"Mirror Mirror" - This veers far to close to generic power metal for me. Sorry, I know this is a fan favourite, but I have no idea what this song is trying to convey. I can't feel anything. No good melodies either. Chorus does stick in your head though.
"Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns)" - Eru damnit, this started out so well and now we're on the third dull song in a row. And we have to go through all those dreary bridges and choruses again and again, because for some reason the song must be seven minutes long. I know it's a lamentation and all, but that's no reason to make the listener suffer...
"Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)" - Now this is more like it. A certified Guardian classic. All those Cheesevivör bands could only dream of coming up with a song like this.
"Thorn" - Possibly the best song on the album, with "Nightfall" as the only other contender. All the twists and turns of the verses work, and for once the vocal layering adds subtlety and not just power.
"The Eldar" - I like the change of pace with the piano, but too much melodrama and too much screaming.
"When Sorrow Sang" - By-the-numbers Blind Guardian. I don't mind, but I have to say that this is not how I would re-imagine the story of Beren and Luthien. I think the album as a whole suffers from the way all songs are squeezed into the same power metal shape. More diverse and imaginative arrangements would do wonders. (I suppose there were budget concerns, but they did spring for an actor to do all those pointless interludes, didn't they?)
"A Dark Passage" - Disjointed and not terribly memorable, but works fine as a closer.
---
All in all, it sounds basically the way I remembered it. If you cut out some deadwood, I think it's about as good a power metal album as there's ever been, though admittedly I'm neither a devotee nor an expert on the genre.
---
"Into the Storm" - This is a great high-adrenaline slice of metal. No complaints at all.
"Nightfall" - The build-up to the first chorus is magnificent. I like how they manage to put so many different sections in such a short space - many epic-addled prog-metal bands have a lot to learn here.
"The Curse of Feanor" - Quality craftsmanship, but the vocal melodies are relatively weak and there's a bit too much indistinct riffing. I like the chorus variations.
"Blood Tears" - First weak song. Awkward cross between balladry and bombast, not a hook in sight.
"Mirror Mirror" - This veers far to close to generic power metal for me. Sorry, I know this is a fan favourite, but I have no idea what this song is trying to convey. I can't feel anything. No good melodies either. Chorus does stick in your head though.
"Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns)" - Eru damnit, this started out so well and now we're on the third dull song in a row. And we have to go through all those dreary bridges and choruses again and again, because for some reason the song must be seven minutes long. I know it's a lamentation and all, but that's no reason to make the listener suffer...
"Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)" - Now this is more like it. A certified Guardian classic. All those Cheesevivör bands could only dream of coming up with a song like this.
"Thorn" - Possibly the best song on the album, with "Nightfall" as the only other contender. All the twists and turns of the verses work, and for once the vocal layering adds subtlety and not just power.
"The Eldar" - I like the change of pace with the piano, but too much melodrama and too much screaming.
"When Sorrow Sang" - By-the-numbers Blind Guardian. I don't mind, but I have to say that this is not how I would re-imagine the story of Beren and Luthien. I think the album as a whole suffers from the way all songs are squeezed into the same power metal shape. More diverse and imaginative arrangements would do wonders. (I suppose there were budget concerns, but they did spring for an actor to do all those pointless interludes, didn't they?)
"A Dark Passage" - Disjointed and not terribly memorable, but works fine as a closer.
---
All in all, it sounds basically the way I remembered it. If you cut out some deadwood, I think it's about as good a power metal album as there's ever been, though admittedly I'm neither a devotee nor an expert on the genre.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
Great combo of balladry and bombast. Incredibly haunting, deep and melancholic song. Best from the album. Top 5 Blind Guardian for me, or even higher.
That melody in the beginning is one of the best hooks they ever did. Of comparable quality to My Dying Bride's Cry of Mankind theme.
Black Bart
Ancient Mariner
Unknown One
I see the ghost of navigators.
The legend says the crowd is still singing...
I'm still singing it about 2 months after a BG concert.
SomewhereInTime84
Trooper
I finally got around to giving Beyond the Red Mirror a listen, and ehh, wasn't too impressed with it.. It sounds good, but nothing that groundbreaking really... I only really liked 2 songs, "Sacred Mind" and "The Holy Grail".. nonetheless, I am still excited to see them live in November
I have the same opinion of BTRM as pretty much every BG album: some good songs and some forgettable ones. It's consistent with nothing awful but also nothing that has me coming back to it. Except the one two punch of Ninth Wave and Twilight of the Gods. 
SomewhereInTime84
Trooper
yea, it's not bad, it's just kinda more of the same thing
NotePad
Nomad
I admire Blind Guardian for coming up with a really unique sound in a genre where most bands sound too alike. But as far as I know, they haven't really caught on in North America. I have a vision of them in the future being like Iron Maiden; going on giant arena tours that include North America. I can't help think of their sound as the modern day equivalent of Maiden. Perhaps Maiden should take them on one of their American tours.
...at least, that's how I feel.....
...at least, that's how I feel.....
JudasMyGuide
The resident reactionary recalcitrant
I finally listened to Red Mirror the day before yesterday... and I'm somewhat unimpressed. It's not bad, no, far from it. But I don't remember a single song. Seriously. It might be a grower, but still.
SomewhereInTime84
Trooper
Ahh so excited for Sunday night!!!!