As a huge fan of this German quartet, I was quite overjoyed to
\nfind this double-album for a fairly low price in one of the local
\nCD shops a few months ago. After sitting through the whole two
\nhours and twelve minutes (or somewhere near that time), there was
\nonly one word in my vast vocabulary that could adequately describe
\nthe spectacle my ears had just beheld: impeccable.<\/p>\n
From start to finish, this album doesn’t miss a beat. We are
\ntreated to the opening passage from their 1997 release,
\nNightfall in Middle-Earth<\/i>, called “War of Wrath.” This is a
\ndialogue between Morgoth and one of his servants from J.R.R.
\nTolkien’s book
\nThe Silmarillion<\/i>. The audience jumps right in, and speaks
\nwith the audio recording, making it sound even better. As soon as
\nthis is done, guitarists Andre Olbrich and Marcus Siepen unleash
\nthe ferocious assault that is the opening riff of
\nInto the Storm<\/i>.<\/p>\n
This album encompasses many Guardian hits, reaching all the way
\nback to their debut album
\nBattalions Of Fear<\/i>, with the audience-requested song
\n“Majesty,” and also taking many tracks off their latest album (at
\nthe time),
\nA Night At The Opera<\/i>. One real gift they give to the
\naudience (both those who attended the concert, and those who bought
\nthe disc) is track six on the first disc, “Harvest Of Sorrow.” This
\na harrowing, sweeping ballad that was only released in Japan as a
\nbonus track on
\nA Night At The Opera<\/i>. This was the first time I had ever
\nheard it, and I was not disappointed.<\/p>\n
This is a very rare occurrence, especially for someone as
\nmusically cynical as myself, but I cannot find one weak track on
\nthis whole album. After each disc had spent several weeks of
\nrelentless inspection inside my CD player and walkman, every sonic
\ninch inspected eighteen times over, I was shocked to find that each
\ntrack was perfectly crafted. Even on my most cherished records, I
\ncan typically find one filler or lackluster track, but this album
\nsimply doesn’t offer anything that’s weak. This may be because
\nHansi Kursch and co. were able to construct their playlist so the
\nsongs compliment each other. The ballads are weaved throughout the
\nset, acting as tranquil interludes between the thrash assaults.
\nTracks like “A Past And Future Secret” and “The Bard’s Song (In The
\nForest)” serve as buffers between the much heavier songs such as
\n“Time Stand Still (At the Iron Hill)” and “Punishment Divine.”<\/p>\n
At first, I was slightly nervous about listening to this album,
\nfor I hadn’t heard a lot of Guardian material at the time, and I
\nthought the music would be too difficult to grasp. I couldn’t have
\nbeen more wrong. Though I only knew about 1\/4 of the setlist, each
\nsong was easy to listen to. There was nothing self-indulgent or
\n“hard” to listen to.<\/p>\n
Production-wise, it’s flawless. The sound comes in with crystal
\npitch, and the instruments are muffled of shoved off into one side.
\nHowever, and this is the only thing I could find wrong with the
\nalbum, is the editing job. After the mind-blowing tracks “The
\nBard’s Song” and “‘Lost In The Twilight Hall,” the crowd cheers for
\n2-4 minutes without interruption. As a guy who likes his music, I
\nfound these periods to be tedious, though I think that the band
\nleft it in there because they wanted people who weren’t in Italy
\n(where the album was recorded) to have a genuine live experience
\nwith the band. They succeed on that aspect.<\/p>\n
Yes, Blind Guardian can be over-the-top at times, and yes, each
\nsong is a monumental, ascending piece, usually accompanied by a
\nhuge choir, but that just makes each song even better. Blind
\nGuardian are — at least in my opinion — the greatest power metal
\nband around, and this album only serves to reinforce that opinion.
\nI recommend this album to anyone who likes power metal, epicness,
\nQueen, or rock opera. Even to people who have never heard a Blind
\nGuardian song before in their life, I urge them to pick this up,
\nand learn to follow the blind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":26647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6993],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37896","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-blind-guardian","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37896"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}