Blind Guardian - Beyond The Red Mirror

Published January 27 2015

*=Staff's pick	Ninth Wave Twilight Of The Gods Prophecies At The Edge Of Time Ashes Of Eternity Holy Grail* The Throne* Sacred Mind Miracle Machine Grand Parade

Genre	Semi-prog. Heavy/Power Metal	Hansi Kürsch	Vocals
Tracks	10	André Olbrich	Guitar
Running time	65 Min.	Marcus Siepen	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Barend Courbois	Bass
Release	30 January 2015	Frederik Ehmke	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboard
Producer	Charlie Bauerfeind
Similar artists	---

Blind Guardian releases an album which I see as perhaps too complex for the everyday fan of the band. It follows the direction of the latest albums and takes most things even further away from the original appearance. I believe that some of the band's older fans will no longer appreciate the band's massive creations, since it really takes a large effort to suck in all this pompous and partially quite progressive music.

The songs contain lots of speedy passages and complicated approaches and quite often it's a real joy to listen to this album. The album is a well-thought-out product as it offers grand choirs, a nice ballad and significantly captivating stuff. It certainly lacks the raw and witty image that made the band known during the 90's, but if you listen closely and carefully, you can definitely hear bits and pieces of the old style Blind Guardian, but many of those sections are in a way covered by bombastic arrangements and the wide and ample performance.

The album is very intense and determined and it's loaded with grandiose moments that demonstrates what the band's two talented main characters, vocalist Hansi Kürsch and guitarist André Olbrich, envision. They really try to constantly elevate their performance and although this album isn't immensely intricate, they twist and turn all their abilities to come out with different structures all the time.

I believe that this is an album which typically will be praised in the media, due to its expansive nature and capacity. I personally enjoy much of its contents, but as they feed off the energy, they perhaps also come out too self-centered, in favor of creating something that the fans really want to have, meaning that the band reaches out to be a little too monumental, instead of focusing on aspects that the long-time fans are looking for. In my viewpoint, a good album nevertheless and fans of this unit should definitely give it a shot, as far as I'm concerned.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	6	7	6	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe