Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Blind Guardian
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2015
Length: 65:03
Rating: 4.5/5
German champions of symphonic prog/power metal Blind Guardian are back with a new album, »Beyond The Red Mirror«, which is nothing less than a sequel to their hugely revered masterpiece »Imaginations From The Other Side« (1995), which also means we’re looking at an incredibly ambitious studio project. Anyone who knows how the Blind Guardian camp ticks won’t be too surprised by that, but still, it’s no small feat to make another album that’s at least on par with its predecessor, if not outright its superior. Almost five years have passed since the excellent »At The Edge of Time« (2010), the longest gap between two albums in their history. That means the metal ‘bards’ had a real abundance of time to craft grandiose symphonic arrangements, melodic guitar harmonies and epic multi-voiced chants, the very things that made them famous in the past and won them legions of followers all over the world.
»Beyond The Red Mirror« brings two big changes. The biggest is certainly that Barend Corbouis became Blind Guardian’s new bassist just two days before the album came out, which means longtime session/touring bassist Oliver Holzwarth (ex-Rhapsody of Fire) no longer took part in »Beyond The Red Mirror«. Holzwarth had worked with Blind Guardian as a guest musician since 1998. Corbouis has thus become only the second official bassist in the band’s history, after singer Hansi Kürsch put his bass guitar in the corner in 1998 and devoted himself solely to singing.
The second ambitious, if not revolutionary, move is that the band used two different orchestras (from Prague and Budapest) and no fewer than three different choirs (from Prague, Budapest and Boston) on the album, making »Beyond The Red Mirror« their most orchestral project to date, with a boatload of majestic multi-part vocals that fans of epic, symphonic prog/power metal with a conceptual core will be drooling over. Kürsch shaped that concept as a continuation of »Imaginations From The Other Side« and split the individual compositions into several parts marked with Roman numerals, like book chapters. Unlike »At The Edge Of Time«, where individual pieces drew on well-known works of fantasy literature, this time some completely original fictional ideas take center stage too.
The links between the various worlds of science fiction and fantasy have come under threat from the workings of dark forces, leaving only one gateway between the worlds, in the form of a red mirror. So, roughly speaking, it’s yet another classic Blind Guardian concept that tries to build bridges between reality and fantasy through musical ‘stories’, and they pull it off brilliantly on every single track, so we can call »Beyond The Red Mirror« yet another triumphant chapter in the career of a band that has never let anyone down so far.
Blind Guardian are one of the very few German power metal outfits formed in the mid-eighties that have stayed consistently good to this day. What’s more, you could say their sonic evolution is still going, as individual tracks on their latest effort prove. »Beyond The Red Mirror« is an album all the band’s fans could only dream about, since it combines all the best sonic elements that gave them their cult status, while multi-part orchestral arrangements and choir harmonies take them to entirely new heights of symphonic grandeur. Guest keyboards were played by old acquaintance Michael Schüren and Mattias Ulmer. Ulmer also helped write the grandiose, central arrangement on the opening bomb »The Ninth Wave«, which features epic choral vocal harmonies that take Blind Guardian to previously unimagined dimensions and a maximum atmospheric effect. The recognizable, melodic guitar harmonies between lead guitarist André Olbrich and rhythm guitarist Marcus Siepen are, as expected, top notch, successfully carrying on a long tradition with the occasional pleasant, inventive surprise. Hansi is also in great vocal form, once again effortlessly leading the listener into various fictional worlds in his own passionate, charismatic way, while the versatile drummer Frederik Ehmke pulls off quite a few technically demanding drumming acrobatics.
»Twilight Of The Gods«, partly inspired by Norse mythology and the epic of the Nibelung ring, came out as the album’s first single. Alongside somewhat more aggressive rhythms, mighty chants rule here too, peaking in a melodic, multi-voiced chorus that heralds the end and the beginning of a new era. »Prophecies«, another atmospheric triumph of epic drama, has pretty much all of Blind Guardian’s iconic tunes (the vocal harmonies are especially flattering) and at the same time calls to mind some of their newer work as well as older classics. Stylistically, this track could easily sit on »A Night At The Opera« (2002), which actually kicked off their current, more orchestral era.
»At The Edge Of Time« was the title of the previous album, while this time it’s a grandiose track of the same name with a slow intro but an intriguing plot, where numerous tempo shifts crop up, crowned with pompous orchestral arrangements and fighting-spirited guitar passages. As on many past tracks, it’s not hard to picture battle marches and strange encounters between protagonists in the middle of various fantasy landscapes. »Ashes of Eternity« is steeped in plenty of punchy guitar phrases, but melodic motifs soon take over, while one of the verses references the classic »Bright Eyes« from »Imaginations From The Other Side«.
The limited edition of the album also includes a very interesting track called »Distant Memories«, which features a majestic orchestral arrangement with a baroque flavor and magical multi-part vocals, while Hansi takes a somewhat subtler vocal approach for the first time on the album, one he could have used more often, since these are exactly the moments that best confirm his outstanding vocal talent and versatility. »The Holy Grail«, whose lyrical point needs no in-depth introduction, is a more aggressive effort, a kind of spiritual, if not stylistic, successor to the »Imaginations From The Other Side« standards that told the saga of King Arthur, the Crusades and the quest for the Holy Grail. Given the theme, it’s no surprise it features numerous sacred-tinged choir harmonies.
»The Throne« is a veritable incarnation of the epic grandeur only Blind Guardian can conjure up, with complex, symphony-crowned motifs and temperamental tempo changes constantly trading places, and this composition also has good potential as the soundtrack to some fantasy film or TV series. »Sacred Mind« has a mysterious and somewhat gloomy intro, which is reflected in the choir harmonies too. Here too there’s no shortage of swerves into more aggressive sections, while in the chorus Hansi and company touch on the mystical Xanadu.
The ‘bards’ on »Beyond The Red Mirror« are still devoted to symphonic progressive metal with a huge emphasis on majestic orchestral arrangements, but now and then, just like in the old days, they surprise with folk elements too, which is especially noticeable on the highly emotional ballad »Miracle Machine«. There have been quite a few similar ‘troubadour’ moments in their career so far, but this time they’ve reached a new level with the synchronization of multi-part vocals under the influence of Queen and subtle piano arrangements. »Beyond The Red Mirror« closes with the monumental, nearly ten-minute epic »Grand Parade« (its original title was »Irish Hill«), which is actually the main contender for the best composition on the record. Backed by a vast orchestral richness that accompanies the charge of the fighting-spirited quintet, the final act, the revelation and the triumph all unfold here, and the masters of epic drama use all their songwriting and arranging know-how to create another epic feast that will undoubtedly take its place among the eternal Blind Guardian classics.
With »Beyond The Red Mirror«, Blind Guardian have once again built a fascinating bridge between the worlds of fantasy and reality, creating a concept masterpiece that’s sure to be one of the top contenders for best metal album of 2015 (and that’s right at the start of the year). The ‘bards’ from Krefeld are still the champions of symphonic metal and one of the few bands from the golden era of Teutonic (power) metal that are still relevant. In Blind Guardian’s case, there’s nothing wrong with having to wait another four or five years for the next studio album, since it seems to pay off richly for them every time.
Lineup
Hansi Kürsch – vocals
André Olbrich – guitar
Marcus Siepen – guitar
Frederik Ehmke – drums, percussion
Barend Courbois – bass guitar
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Michael Schüren – piano
Mattias Ulmer – keyboards, piano
Thomas Hackmann, William “Billy” King, Olaf Senkbeil – choir
Hungarian Studio Orchestra Budapest (Peter Pejtsik – conductor)
FILMharmonic Orchestra Prague (Adam Klemens – conductor)
Hungarian Studio Choir Budapest (Peter Pejtsik – conductor)
FILMharmonic Choir Prague (Stanislav Mistr – conductor)
Vox Futura Choir Boston (Andrew Shenton – conductor)
Production
Charlie Bauerfeind
Tracklist
- 1. The Ninth Wave (9:28)
2. Twilight of the Gods (4:50)
3. Prophecies (5:26)
4. At the Edge of Time (6:54)
5. Ashes of Eternity (5:39)
6. Distant Memories (5:51)
7. The Holy Grail (5:59)
8. The Throne (7:54)
9. Sacred Mind (6:22)
10. Miracle Machine (3:03)
11. Grand Parade (9:28)
