Release date: November 8, 2019
Label: Nuclear Blast
Produced by: Charlie Bauerfeind
Length: 2:22:37
Genre: symphonic/orchestral music
Rating: 9/10
“Legacy of the Dark Lands” is a concept orchestral album released as part of the ambitious Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra project. The latter is a collaboration between the cult German power/prog metal band Blind Guardian and the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Blind Guardian had been teasing an orchestral album for twenty years, in fact ever since the conceptual magnum opus “Nightfall in Middle-Earth” (1998). For a long time everyone assumed it would be an orchestral sequel to that masterpiece, inspired by Tolkien’s ‘Bible’, The Silmarillion, but the orchestral project eventually took on a completely different scope.
“Legacy of the Dark Lands” draws its concept from ‘Dark World’, a fantasy novel by the German author Marcus Heinz. It was supposed to come out back in 2016, but getting it done dragged on until 2019. Let’s get one thing straight right away: this is not a ‘regular’ Blind Guardian album but an orchestral ‘side’ project, and despite the total absence of both guitars, bass and drums on “Legacy of the Dark Lands”, Blind Guardian are still very much a metal band.
The central musician on this project is vocalist Hansi Kürsch, who has already announced that the next Blind Guardian album will be a more ‘traditional’, ‘heavier’ affair, calming the fears of all the longtime metal fans who still remember their much less ambitious speed metal beginnings. Hansi was helped with the music and arrangements by guitarist Andre Olbrich, who, as mentioned, doesn’t play on it as a musician, and the same goes for the other two members of this cult power/prog metal lineup.
The only link to “Nightfall in Middle-Earth” is the return of the two English actors, Norman Eshley and Douglas Fielding (who passed away in July 2019), who tie the album’s concept together between the individual compositions by once again playing the central characters, mostly the villains. Plenty of people will feel at least a pinch of nostalgia here, but the excessive presence of spoken dialogues between every single track is the only serious flaw of this otherwise superb orchestral project. Too often they cut off the outstanding musical action, and they could have at least had some music underneath them in the background.
The other slightly weaker side is the somewhat shallow story about the classic clash between good and evil, angels and demons. It isn’t up to the high level you’d normally expect, and thanks to its many clichés it comes off as cheap at times — it would suit some Italian symphonic metal band better. Maybe in the future it would be better for Hansi and the gang to return to their ‘home’ fantasy turf, meaning the more complex worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Michael Moorcock, Stephen King and George R.R. Martin.
The main strength of “Legacy of the Dark Lands” is its incredible atmosphere, conjured up by the combination of Hansi’s excellent singing, mostly dramatic orchestral arrangements and the occasional choir harmony. The symphonic side of Blind Guardian’s music, with its bombastic, ‘Wagnerian’ symphonic arrangements, epic choir harmonies and Hansi’s mighty vocals, is pushed to the extreme this time. And although plenty of people will miss both guitars, bass and drums, or wonder how it all would have turned out with the whole band of German epic metal masters involved, this is an extremely interesting and intense piece of work that, as already mentioned, loses some of its momentum only because of the well-acted but excessive spoken dialogues.
At the same time, “Legacy of the Dark Lands” is easy to imagine as the soundtrack to an epic fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson or one of his many imitators, which goes especially for the second disc of the album, which is entirely instrumental. The opening arrangement on “Dark Cloud’s Rising”, for example, strongly recalls one of the best-known themes from the famous ‘Lord of the Rings’ film score by the renowned composer Howard Shore. There are quite a few moments like that, which will remind many people of some well-known musical theme from a famous epic film.
The same goes for individual arrangements, which often recall some of Blind Guardian’s past, more symphonic-leaning achievements. The excellent epic “The Great Ordeal” definitely belongs among them — with some metal elements added, it would easily have found its way onto one of their more symphonic records, somewhere from “A Night at the Opera” (2002) onward. “Point Of No Return”, perhaps even the most ambitious moment of the project, sounds like a perfect stylistic and atmospheric continuation of the symphonic magnum opus “And Then There Was Silence”, while epic masterpieces like “Harvester of Souls”, “This Storm” and “Beyond the Wall” could easily have found a place on the last two predominantly symphonic Blind Guardian albums.
Anyone who can happily accept that “Legacy of the Dark Lands” isn’t a ‘traditional’ Blind Guardian album, but the work of the fully orchestral Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra project with no metal elements, will enjoy it from start to finish without any baggage. Only the narrow-minded fans will call this conceptual treat controversial, while music gourmets will recognize its many virtues. It’s marked throughout by almost perfect ‘Wagnerian’ orchestral magic, and the whole thing is easy to picture as an operetta production. Hansi, who together with Andre poured an enormous amount of energy and all his songwriting talent into this project, nailed his vocal mission, and with the help of the Prague orchestra he managed to conjure up the climax of all the best symphonic elements of genuine Blind Guardian atmospheric magic.
Review by: Peter Podbrežnik
Track list:
CD1:
1. 1618 Ouverture
2. The Gathering
3. War Feeds War
4. Comets and Prophecies
5. Dark Cloud’s Rising
6. The Ritual
7. In the Underworld
8. A Secret Society
9. The Great Ordeal
10. Bez
11. In the Red Dwarf’s Tower
12. Into the Battle
13. Treason
14. Between the Realms
15. Point of No Return
16. The White Horseman
17. Nephilim
18. Trial and Coronation
19. Harvester of Souls
20. Conquest Is Over
21. This Storm
22. The Great Assault
23. Beyond the Wall
24. A New Beginning
CD2:
1. 1618 Ouverture (instrumental)
2. War Feeds War (instrumental)
3. Dark Cloud’s Rising (instrumental)
4. In the Underworld (instrumental)
5. The Great Ordeal (instrumental)
6. In the Red Dwarf’s Tower (instrumental)
7. Treason (instrumental)
8. Point of No Return )instrumental
9. Nephilim (instrumental)
10. Harvester of Souls (instrumental
11. Beyond the Wall (instrumental)
12. This Storm (instrumental)
Blind Guardian:
Hansi Kürsch – lead vocals, composer
Andre Olbrich – composer
Twilight Orchestra:
Prague Symphony Orchestra – orchestra
FILMharmonic choir Prague – choir vocals (choruses)
BG Choir Company – backing choir vocals
Vox Futura – choir vocals (choruses)
