Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: CUK Šiška, Ljubljana
Concert date: 21.05.2015
A full twenty years have passed since the release of Imaginations From the Other Side, one of the finest moments in the career (now stretching over three decades) of power metal’s standard-bearers, the eternal Blind Guardian (even if they outgrew the genre long ago and wrote their own take on it). In the album’s closing track And the Story Ends, the protagonist of the story, a boy, the chosen one and savior, is deciding whether to take the fateful step and walk through the magic mirror into a parallel world where a royal role awaits him. The Germans decided to continue that story on their tenth studio album, the recently released Beyond the Red Mirror, which proves that Blind Guardian’s wellspring of ideas is nowhere near running dry, and won’t be any time soon. The tour for the new album finally brought the legendary German bards back to the Slovenian capital, where they last played in 2006. Even though we hosted them three times at Metalcamp in between, it felt like an eternity since the last time we saw them, and this time the crowd threw itself through the red mirror with everything it had.
Right on the announced hour, Ljubljana symphonic power metallers ShadowIcon took the stage. Blind Guardian picked them as the support act themselves, which isn’t even surprising, since the girl and the guys entrusted both their debut Empire In Ruins and the current EP Smoke And Mirrors (at least the mastering) to the Germans’ longtime collaborator Charlie Bauerfeind. The band greeted the already nicely filled hall with If I Was the One from the EP. The rain drove most of the crowd indoors, and it was great to see that the opening act wasn’t just playing for themselves and the sound guy. Who, this time, didn’t do the job satisfactorily: the sound was downright dreadful, the instruments smothered, and Ana Prijatelj’s sweet vocals muffled and dull. Their take on symphonic power metal, full of bombast and baroque pomp, didn’t come across in its best light, despite the effort and a confident performance. For my personal taste, what they offer is far too soft and pretty, although the two guitarists liven up the symphonic frills here and there with a few harsher parts, so let me just add that it might not hurt to drift a bit further from the worn-out clichés of the genre in the future. That said, ShadowIcon deserve congratulations for a self-assured set, because playing in front of a band of Blind Guardian’s caliber is no easy task.
Still, the truth is that the hall was waiting for just one thing. The return of the legendary German bards to the capital, which we’d been waiting for almost nine years since their first show here. Blind Guardian will celebrate their 30th anniversary next year (if we subtract the two extra years under the name Lucifer’s Heritage), but that old line about fine wine truly applies to them. Even though some still miss the good old speed metal beginnings, there’s probably nobody who could accuse the band of lacking quality. They can still serve it up in generous helpings, as the opening The Ninth Wave proved right away. It may not be as strong an »opener« as Sacred Worlds, but the crowd was already singing along loudly during it and earned Hansi’s praise from the very start. Speaking of the old speed metal days, the Germans brought them up themselves with a breakneck Banish From Sanctuary and confirmed they’re in top, maybe even career-best form. With Hansi at the helm, who delighted us for the entire two hours with outstanding vocal acrobatics, both in the calm, quiet moments and in those most epic choruses that gave you goosebumps. There were plenty of such moments from start to finish, the first one right at the beginning with the epic Nightfall, and from there Blind Guardian whisked us off in a whirlwind to Oz with an excellent selection of new material that fits the setlist nicely, alongside older classics that put the most strain on the throats of the exceptionally fired-up crowd. The band noticed it, and their great mood was obvious too, with smiles creeping onto their faces more than once. They served up the old The Last Candle superbly, the acoustic double of Miracle machine/Skalds And Shadows came out beautifully, and the close of the first part was probably the peak of the gig: first an excellently performed classic, Lord of the Rings, then the more than ten-minute epic ballad about Cassandra’s prophecy of the fall of Troy, And Then There Was Silence. In this one Blind Guardian really show off all their skills in the best light, because the epic spectacle is packed with unexpected twists, complex touches and moments so good that it’s without a doubt some of the best stuff ever created in music, with only something like Symphony X’s The Odyssey and Hallowed By Thy Name coming close. They faded out into immortality with Valhalla in the first encore and The Bard’s Song – In the Forest in the second, which, with the thunderous singing of the feverish crowd, raised the roof of Kino Šiška, and again with the closing Mirror Mirror, so in the end there was nothing left for Blind Guardian to do but gift Šiška the phenomenal Majesty too. It’s been a long, long time since a band gave the crowd three encores here, and after a full two hours the goodbye was sweet. Until next time, when we meet the immortal bards again on a rainy night and they pull new immortal tales from their rich treasure chest by the fire.
Setlist
BLIND GUARDIAN:
1. The Ninth Wave
2. Banish From Sanctuary
3. Nigthfall
4. Fly
5. Tanelorn (Into the Void)
6. Prophecies
7. The Last Candle
8. Miracle Machine
9. Skalds And Shadows
10. Lord of the Rings
11. And Then There Was Silence
— encore 1 —
12. War of Wrath/Into the Storm
13. Twilight of the Gods
14. Valhalla
— encore 2 —
15. Wheel of Time
16. The Bard’s Song – In the Forest
17. Mirror Mirror
— encore 3 —
18. Majesty
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