Blind Guardian

I think Blood of the Elves is absolutely fantastic and there are a couple of other great ones too, but the album as a whole hasn't really clicked with me yet.
 
They stared Patreon channel. I always wonder how much money these legendary but not mainstream bands are making.

Alisa from Arch Enemy is also on Patreon, on Spotify band like Sabaton have paypal donations. If these bands need to have an extra income then industry is really shitty.
 
The GMSC inspired me to finally give Blind Guardian's discography a once over and here's my made-up, incredibly subjective tiers after only listening to each album once:

Great - Nightfall in Middle-Earth / A Night at The Opera

Good, Will Require a Relisten To Actually Decide Quality - Imaginations from the Other Side / At The Edge of Time / Beyond the Red Mirror / The God Machine

Meh, Probably Won't Give These a Relisten - Tales From The Twilight World / Somewhere Far Beyond / Legacy of the Dark Lands

Hard Nope, Not Good - Battalions of Fear / Follow the Blind / A Twist in The Myth

At the end of the day, I don't think this band is really my cup of tea. Something about the way they construct their songs and melodies doesn't truly work for me. Hansi has a good voice, obviously, but it's far too raspy and annoying in his early years and far too overproduced and overlayered in the later years.

I cannot, however, deny their great albums or songs.
 
I completely agree with you except where I don't. Battalions of Fear and Follow the Blind are top tier Holy crap albums. Yes, they´re rough, but they're very 80s. It´s like Helloween's Walls of Jericho vs the Keeper albums, it's not bad per se, but just different. All 80s bands went through that transition. Maidens first two albums, Stratovarious's first 2, etc. I would at least put them in the "may need a re-listening or two" category. Twist in the Myth though, spot on.
 
Tales From the Twilight World is fantastic, definitely a couple of tiers too low. SFB is also a classic so that placement is a surprise too.
 
Onhell said:
I completely agree with you except where I don't. Battalions of Fear and Follow the Blind are top tier Holy crap albums. Yes, they´re rough, but they're very 80s. It´s like Helloween's Walls of Jericho vs the Keeper albums, it's not bad per se, but just different. All 80s bands went through that transition. Maidens first two albums, Stratovarious's first 2, etc. I would at least put them in the "may need a re-listening or two" category. Twist in the Myth though, spot on.
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I'll be honest in saying that Hansi's vocals on these albums is simply unpalatable for me. I can appreciate the rawness of early albums, but for bands like Maiden, I still enjoyed the heck out of the vocals. Even early Opeth has it's vocal charm, despite Mikael's growls being woefully under par. But Hansi's growling shriek combined with the vocal melody construction really just doesn't work for me at all, regardless of what the instrumental is doing.

KidInTheDark666 said:
Tales From the Twilight World is fantastic, definitely a couple of tiers too low. SFB is also a classic so that placement is a surprise too.
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See above, re: Hansi's voice. It's no secret that I'm a vocal snob and his tone on these early records is really just not to my liking. It gets better on these two albums, but it's not there yet, and neither is the songwriting IMO. I'm sure my opinion will change somehow in the future, with more listens, even if I don't see myself regularly spinning Blind Guardian.
 
Revised to reflect my opinions, based on gut reaction and about 20 seconds of thought:

MrKnickerbocker said:
Great - Nightfall in Middle-Earth / Imaginations from the Other Side / Tales From the Twilight World

Good - Somewhere Far Beyond / At The Edge of Time / The God Machine

Meh - Battalions of Fear / Follow the Blind / A Night at the Opera (BUT "And Then There Was Silence" is great) / Beyond the Red Mirror

Hard Nope, Not Good - A Twist in The Myth / Legacy of the Dark Lands
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Mine only ranges from good to excellent, but it ignores Legacy of the Dark Lands which is hardly a Blind Guardian album with only Hansi and an orchestra.
 
LooseCannon said:
OH BABY BABY
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baby-oooh.gif


Blind Guardian is one of those bands I want need to see again. I had ticket three times for their gigs, only went one and it was the worst concert experience I had (nothing to do with them). But their European dates are all over the place throughout the year, I completely fail to see the logic in there. And I would really love to hear something from the God Machine.

MrKnickerbocker said:
Hard Nope, Not Good - A Twist in The Myth
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How did this happen?
"Twist in the Myth" sounds like logical successor to "A Night at the Opera" and logical predecessor to "At the Edge of Time" and you ranked pretty high both of those.
 
Spambot said:
How did this happen?
"Twist in the Myth" sounds like logical successor to "A Night at the Opera" and logical predecessor to "At the Edge of Time" and you ranked pretty high both of those.
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Idk, I’m sure I’ll give them all another listen in a year or two. I remember it just not having the same quality of songwriting.
 
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