Blind Guardian

It's definitely no classic like Nightfall in Middle Earth, Imaginations from the Other Side or Somewhere Far Beyond, but I think it's got a lot of cool stuff going on underneath all the bombast. It's been a long time since I had an intensive BG session, though, so maybe my memory in general distorts some stuff.
 
I'v listened a bit to Night At The Opera, and I actually do really like some of the songs I'v heard.

I'v also been listening to Masterplans album 'Time To be King', which i didn't like at first. It's growing on me a bit, but I'v noticed there is some of a fantasy feeling to a lot of the lyrics. I never saw this in their earlier albums, but i can see it on this one. Also a few songs have kind of a fantasy element to the music, mostly noticed in some song intros. I'd call it a bit Blind Guardian-ish. Not a lot, of course, but it's there. I find that a bit disappointing. Masterplan and Helloween were always my favorite power metal bands, helped by the lack of this element so common with PM bands.
 
Not surprising considering the first encarnation of Masterplan had ex-helloweeners (hehe) Uli Kush and Roland Grapow. I prefer their first two albums, I sorely missed Lande in the third, and their last... is VERY "meh."
 
I love Blind Guardian, I love how they base their songs off of actual fantasy stories, like "A Song of Ice and Fire" or "Wheel of Time" or etc... I saw them in 2010, one of the best concerts ever, anxiously awaiting their next U.S. tour, whenever it may be..
 
That's Helloween song... and Virgin Steele song... and a band featuring Nemtheanga from Primordial :p
 
So new edition of RockHard magazine will have the info about the new album, according to this: http://www.rockhard.de/megazine/heftarchiv/rh-330/lauschangriff/finsternis-im-maerchenwald.html

Guy from BG forum translated the important stuff:
- release date is indeed Jan 30th
- there's no title yet
- it's a concept album (continuing the story of "Imaginations..", "Bright eyes" & "And the story ends" about a boy who has to decide whether or not to enter a strange world through some portal)
- the album is described as unique, multifaceted, musically sophisticated (don't know if this is the right word, maybe complex)
- the opener is called "Ninth wave"

There seems to follow a complete track-by-track review...more when I have the magazine!
 
Someone put a capital on "g" in the title please, it's annoying me :p

Anyway:
Beyond the Red Mirror will be the title of the highly-anticipated tenth studio album by Germany’s favorite sons and metal’s most epic storytellers Blind Guardian. Prepare to have your senses overwhelmed.

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Four-and-a-half years in the making, the follow-up to 2010’s At the Edge of Time (which debuted at #2 on the German album charts and at #1 on the American Billboard Heatseekers chart & #108 on the American Billboard Top 200 Albums chart) is scheduled for release in Europe on January 30, 2015 and February 3, 2015 in North America.

Recorded at Twilight Hall Studio in Grefrath, Germany and produced by Charlie Bauerfeind (Saxon, Hammerfall, Helloween), Beyond the Red Mirror showcases Blind Guardian’s long-awaited collaborative work with three different classical choirs: one from the Czech Republic (Prague), one from Hungary (Budapest), and one from the United States (Boston). Two grand orchestras – each featuring 90 musicians – also lend their brilliant talents to the new recordings with absolutely spellbinding results.

Transporting listeners via a mysteriously powerful red mirror into an otherworldly dimension that includes tyrants, gods, and the Holy Grail, the ten songs comprisingBeyond the Red Mirror’s story lines revolve around the young protagonist we first met twenty years ago in the 1995 tracks “Bright Eyes” and “And the Story Ends”.

“A story between science fiction and fantasy,” explains Blind Guardian vocalist & lyricist Hansi Kürsch. “The story begins with our 1995 album, Imaginations from the Other Side. The two worlds described therein have changed dramatically for the worse since then. While there used to be several passages between the worlds, there is only one gate left now: The Red Mirror. It has to be found at any cost.”

Asked to describe the band’s guiding principles for the creation of this new release, Blind Guardian guitarist André Olbrich shares: “We want to surprise and impress with our music. Nowadays, music tends to be arbitrary and predictable. But we want to keep developing our music.”

Opening with a tidal wave of surging emotion courtesy of a spine-tingling choir Beyond the Red Mirror unleashes its first gem, “The Ninth Wave”, a consciousness-expanding palette of landscapes and moods bearing the message of an urgent mission still seeking resolution. Closing with an explosion of heroic harmonies & choral glories with a nine-and-a-half minute, self-contained saga “Grand Parade” (called “the best song we have ever written” by Olbrich), the grandiose, uplifting, and ingenious storytelling in Beyond the Red Mirroris guaranteed to leave you breathless.

Come 2015, you will soon experience why Blind Guardian are so influential in their genre and without equal in the pantheon of heavy metal music.

Featuring artwork by long-time collaborator Felipe Machado, Beyond the Red Mirror will be available in the following formats:

  • Jewel Case (10 songs)
  • Limited Edition Digi-Pack (11 songs)
  • Double LP gatefold vinyl
  • Earbook (12 songs plus illustrations, photos, and liner notes)
  • NB-Mailorder-Earbook (12 songs plus illustrations, photos, liner notes + bonus 10’’)
Pre-order here: http://smarturl.it/BLIND-GUARDIAN-Red

Or digital:

AMZ MP3: http://geni.us/BlindGuardianRedAMZMP3

iTunes: http://geni.us/BlindGuardianRediTunes

Google: http://smarturl.it/BLIND-GUARDIAN-Play

The track listing for Beyond the Red Mirroris as follows:

  1. The Ninth Wave
  2. Twilight of the Gods
  3. Prophecies
  4. At the Edge of Time
  5. Ashes of Eternity
  6. Distant Memories (Bonus track on limited edition digi-pack version)
  7. The Holy Grail
  8. The Throne
  9. Sacred Mind
  10. Miracle Machine
  11. Grand Parade
  12. Doom (Bonus track on Earbook version)
Hansi calls the album’s first single, “Twilight Of The Gods,” “a neck breaker… the pure definition of all that the band stands for: it is innovative, melodic and brutal.” The mini-CD single includes two live tracks recorded at 2011’s Wacken Open Air festival in Germany and can be pre-ordered as a digi-pack or in white, blue, green or black vinyl from this location: http://smarturl.it/BLIND-GUARDIAN-Gods

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