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A great Progressive band. I currently own Nightfall in Middle Earth, and it is an amazing album. If you didn't guess, it is a conceptual album based on the Lord of the Rings series. What's your opinion on the band? Feel free to share it.

They are a German band with the following line-up:
Hansi Kursch- Vocals
Andre Olbrich- Lead, rythm and acoustic Guitars
Marcus Siepen- Rythm Guitars
Thomas Stauch- Drums and Percussion

Is there a bass player? I got that line-up from the cd booklet, so If you know otherwise, please share.

Official Site

This is probably my favorite BG song, and I love this video. Please take a few minutes to watch it and discuss it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znp-bF_Hc1g

I would say it depends on the album. Nightfall in particular is probably Power, but other ones are Progressive. They are one of those bands like Maiden who have such a range, and can do anything. I've actually seen in the official Metal Guild that they are sometimes Power, sometimes progressive, and even one album is Thrash, so it just depends. And really, Power is derived from progressive in my opinion. Well, Progressive was done a lot by Maiden, who in turn influenced EVERY Power band, but I would have to say that Power is based a lot on the sound of progressive.

As far as the base goes, I saw something on thier site, possibly about Oliver, but I'm not sure, but the line-up may have changed since Nightfall, and I got that straight from the booklet. They also had an Orchestra for that album, so possibly one of them is also a bass player... I don't know, I'll ask my Uncle, he would know for sure. He pretty much knows everything there is to know about Metal.

Thanks for that. I actually just saw Olivar Holzworth in the Guest musicians section in "Nightfall".

Like I said, I consider a lot of Power Metal progressive influenced, and I also look at Progressive not JUST as a genre, but as a description, kinda like epic. not all Power Metal songs are epic, but a lot are. Bands like Maiden can take a Progressive turn, but the songs are not Progressive per say. Trivium even has a lot of progressive MOMENTS, like in ignition. A lot of Blind Guardian songs are very progressive influenced, and some albums, as you said, are even progressive Power Metal. That is why I brought this topic up, because I consider Blind Guardian Progressive enough. A good example is Blood Tears, it has a very Progressive sound to it, as does a lot of Power Metal.

Thanks again...
I only own "Nightfall" and I still hear a lot of Progressive in it, like in "Blood Tears". I would definitely recommend this album, but I want all their stuff sometime. As I said, they have that range, especially Hansi's vocals. Like Halford or Dickonson.

Not necessarily. My uncle's friend saw Maiden with us, and he hadn't even listened to the new cd, and they played it from start to finish, and he still enjoyed it. If anything get the new disk, I don't know what it is called.

I can't get over the way he sings the two words "Mirror Mirror" It blows me away...

Well, if it's still their 'A Twist in the Myth' tour, truth is they probably won't play anything but 'Fly' and 'Another Stranger Me' from A Twist in the Myth.

IFTOS is hands down THE BEST Blind Guardian album. <3 Bright Eyes is still my favourite song. Also, with IFTOS, I didn't know if you realised this Number_17, but, IFTOS is based on the King Arthur Legend. Also, check out the acoustic version of Bright Eyes, SO much better than the one on IFTOS.

I also own NIM-E..I prefer IFTOS, though NIM-E is just as good. I love Nightfall, it is probably my favourite song on that album.

So anyways, for me, and the albums from Blind Guardian I own, this is how I'd rank them.

1. Imaginations from the Other Side
2. A Twist in the Myth
3. Nightfall In Middle-Earth
4. Somewhere Far Beyond
5. Batallions of Fear

Oh, 17, you'll have a great time at the Blind Guardian show, guarantee it. ;D They're great live. Very energetic.

BG is fun to listen. I used to be a rather big fan in the past actually. A special favourite of mine is the Nightfall in the Middle-Earth album because I'm a huge fan of Tolkien's Silmarillion, on which the album is based.

For some reason I don't find the other albums as coherrent but it could also be my preference towards concept albums. rolleyes
However, other albums sure have a lot of good stuff. I especially like the band's evolution from a rather straightforward, early powermetal style, music to the massive musical pieces of today. I haven't yet heard their latest album and actually the last song I heard from them is "And then there was silence", which is totally awesome - though too short for all those great ideas to really bloom.

And yeah the bass thing.. someone already mentioned the guest-musician thing. I didn't know though that it was just a back-door for Hansi, I always thought it's just an silent agreement by the band members to keep the original line-up - though now Thomenn left so hardly the original anymore. Sadly. sweatdrop
I always respected bands who can keep their original line-up for so many years more. Gives a sense of unity to the whole act.

Well yeah, that is true. Of course it is case-sensitive in all aspects. My point was just in the way that I view bands as a group of friends who like to make music. rolleyes
Of course it doesn't change my respect for a band if the change members, I just think it's great there are bands out there who've been together for tens of years, through all the hard-ships and all that, you know.

However, in many ways bands are like companies that are run like any other business.. there are profits and losses, there is a boss and there are workers. It took me a long while to really realize and appreciate this side of band-life but nowadays I see it as quite normal thing.