 Blind Guardian
 Nightfall in Middle-Earth
 Review by Mike Korn

I've heard a lot about the German progressive power metal band Blind Guardian over the years but I've never actually laid ears on this semi-legendary group until now. Thanks go out to Century Media Records for finally making these guys and their records domestically available at prices you can actually afford.
The tales I'd heard about Blind Guardian's extreme musical prowess were no exaggeration. This is on a very, very advanced level of development that owes as much to Wagner and Mozart as Iron Maiden and the like. Your head will swim trying to keep up with the wild time changes and sheer bombast these guys create. Most prominent are the immense harmony vocal passages that sound like choirs. I detect a strong Queen influence on Blind Guardian, not only in these operatic vocal passages but also in the unique "howling" guitar sound created by Andre Olbrich, which is very reminiscent of the work of Queen's Brian May. The band is firmly rooted in heavy metal, with resemblance to Iron Maiden and Helloween at their most epic, but there's also a lot of influence from classical European music as well. The record is very medieval sounding and is definitely what heavy metal would have sounded like in the Middle Ages.
The lyrics are also on the majestic side. As you might gather from the title, J. R. R. Tolkien is an inspiration, particularly "The Silmarillion". Fantasy lyrics always rate high with me, but Blind Guardian comes dangerously close to pompous camp at times. They are great musicians and the material is often awe-inspiring but it can also be boring and overdone. By the time the CD was done, I was feeling pretty exhausted by it all. For lovers of truly bombastic and operatic power metal, Blind Guardian is your dream band, but all others should approach with care. Blind Guardian is Hansi Kursch, Andre Olbrich, Marcus Siepen, Thomas Stauch, Oliver Holzwarth and Mathias Wiesner.
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