BLIND GUARDIAN — Battalions of Fear (review)

BLIND GUARDIAN — Battalions of Fear album cover Album · 1988 · Speed Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Time Signature
By the gates of metal...

Genre: power metal / speed metal

"Battalions of Fear" is the debut album by power metal giants Blind Guardian.

And now for some intertextual reference to another review.

In Valarious' review of this album, Valarious expresses a dislike towards this album because it sounds like a generic 1980s power metal album - and I agree in that description. It does sound a lot like a typical 1980s power metal album, but whether that is a good or a bad thing really depends on what you look for. Valarious was looking for something that the album was lacking and thus found it disappointing, and I totally understand, accept and appreciate that, and most of all, I respect that opinion.

Now, personally I like 1980s power metal, because it tends to be more thrashy and less cheesy than I find a lot of modern power metal to be. Blind Guardian's early releases contain plenty of those thrash and speed metal elements that I like so much, and I actually miss those elements on Blind Guardian's later releases. Fortunately, their first four albums contain lots of such elements, and that is exactly what I like about "Battallions of Fear" - most of the songs on this album are fast paced, yet they are full of catchy guitar melodies and epic-sounding sing-along choruses - all of those things that German power metal bands did so well back in the day - "Majesty" is a good example of that.

Another thing that I like about this album is that, even though it's the debut, and the influences from other bands like Running Wild and Helloween are obvious, there are several Blind Guardian signature elements already, such as the above-mentioned choruses.

I'd recommend this album to fans of power metal and thrash metal.
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