Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Blind Guardian
Label: Virgin Records
Released: 2003
Runtime: 133:50
Rating: 4/5
No, no, no, absolutely no surprise! For all of us whose lives are more closely intertwined with the music of Blind Guardian, this wasn’t just an expected album, it was a demanded album! The demands were met and exceeded (again!) the entire metal universe. There’s really no point cooking up some special doctoral thesis here. Well, if that’s the custom, fine, so be it. The number one name in symphonic power metal on Earth has fired off a live output that unquestionably sounds like a proper battle cry. Like you’ve landed in the middle of the fighting, swords swinging,… with Tolkien’s literature truly living on stage through their style. Count in the bassist Oliver Holzwarth and keyboardist Michael Schüren, hired for the tour, and you actually get six people on stage. But the frenzied, fanatical and wildly explosive crowd, the kind Blind Guardian have and can proudly claim as their own, is without a doubt the seventh member, the one who helps this album truly sound different from what we’re used to. So the album, simply called “Live”, honestly lives in the full sense of the word. Can we even ask for more?
The setlist is made up of tracks that simply can’t be left out, starting with Valhalla, Welcome To Dying, Imaginations Form The Other Side, all the way to the notorious The Bard’s Song (In The Forest), also released as a single, Lost In The Twilight Hall and Journey Through The Dark. The specialties come with Mordred’s Song, Bright Eyes, A Past And Future Secret and the stage magic of all stage magics on this record, Lord Of The Rings (!).
The band ignites “right from the get-go” at full throttle and literally kills the crowd with a batch of older material that makes up the first part of the setlist. Once the climax peaks for the first time, Guardian carry on with novelties from their latest studio album “A Night At The Opera” (2002), namely the English version of Harvest Of Sorrow and then The Soulforged, and calm things down a notch. Moving on to the second disc, there’s more material from the latest studio album: Under The Ice (which opens the second disc) and later Punishment Divine. Given their more intricately built orchestral arrangements, Blind Guardian managed to pull off the backing vocal lines on stage without major trouble and brilliantly crossed them with the ambient layer of the keyboards, which amounts to more than a decent approximation of the studio versions of those four tracks. I was quietly hoping they’d add the excellent 14-minute epic And Then There Was Silence to the mix, which also made it onto some setlists of the “A Night At The Opera” tour (’02/’03), but never mind. A Blind Guardian setlist simply can’t be bad, and on this double album it’s no different.
The sound is fantastic. Incredibly alive and damn precise. H. Kürsch fights his way through his vocal performance more confidently than ever, with his distinctive raspy screams sounding full and convincing at every moment. The variously roaring crashing of the drum fortress, from which T. Stauch fires off a whole barrage of rockets (his phenomenal drumming speaks for itself), the refined wah-wah sounds of A. Olbrich’s solo and transitional guitar adventures, and M. Siepen’s tight riffing, which whenever needed melts perfectly into the three-way interplay of both guitars and the already mentioned heartfelt singing of Kürsch, now present Blind Guardian as a much more mature, experienced and fully compact band that sounds truly grandiose live, too. That the new album, production-wise and in the attributes just mentioned, is an enormous quality leap compared to “Tokyo Tales” (1994) isn’t even worth singling out.
If you ask me which songs stand out on the album, it’s undoubtedly all the ones taken from “Imaginations From The Other Side” (1995). That’s where the stage magic comes through most palpably. The title track of that album especially stands out. The guys bombard you from start to finish through a highly atmospheric vibe that doesn’t let up for a second, carried on the wings of their “crazy” fans. And the tastefully and cunningly added keyboards undoubtedly help conjure that magic at every step, too.
Line-up
Hansi Kürsch – vocals
André Olbrich – guitar
Marcus Siepen – guitar
Tomen Stauch – drums
Guest musicians:
Oliver Holzwarth – bass guitar
Production
Charlie Bauerfeind
Track list
CD 1.:
1.War Of Wrath
2.Into The Storm
3.Welcome To Dying
4.Nightfall
5.The Script For My Requiem
6.Harvest Of Sorrow
7.The Soulforged
8.Valhalla
9.Majesty
10.Mordred’s Song
11.Born In A Mourning Hall
CD 2.:
1.Under The Ice
2.Bright Eyes
3.Punishment Divine
4.The Bard’s Song (In The Forest)
5.Imaginations From The Other Side
6.Lost In The Twilight Hall
7.A Past And Future Secret
8.Time Stands Still (At The Iron Hill)
9.Journey Through The Dark
10.Lord Of The Rings
11.Mirror Mirror
