BLIND GUARDIAN — Beyond the Red Mirror (review)

BLIND GUARDIAN — Beyond the Red Mirror album cover

Album · 2015 · Power Metal

4.5/5 · 2015-02-06
adg211288

Beyond the Red Mirror (2015) is the tenth full-length album by German power metal act Blind Guardian. Blind Guardian are, as I'm sure any self-respecting metal fan knows, one of the field leaders of the power metal genre so a new album from them is a pretty big deal, especially when considering that their album releases are few and far between, their last effort being the excellent At the Edge of Time (2010), so Beyond the Red Mirror closes what has been the longest gap between Blind Guardian studio albums so far. It's a concept album with the songs grouped into seven chapters.

At the Edge of Time was always going to be a tough act for Blind Guardian to follow; it's actually my fourth favourite album from the group following the consecutive releases of Tales from the Twilight World (1990), Somewhere Far Beyond (1992) and Imaginations From the Other Side (1995) (in reverse order). It's instantly apparent that the wait has, as ever, been worth it though and Blind Guardian continue to show signs of their musical evolution, that's to say that while I can hear nods to several of their past albums, At the Edge of Time and A Night at the Opera (2002) especially, Beyond the Red Mirror stands on its own feet.

With this album Blind Guardian has taken the increased symphonic elements of At the Edge of Time and increased them again to result in what is easily their most symphonic album to date. So if you liked what they did previously with tracks like Sacred Worlds then you're in for a treat with Beyond the Red Mirror and offerings like The Ninth Wave and Grand Parade, although the former is actually one of my least favourite tracks from the album personally, but that's more testament to how strong the other songs are rather than The Ninth Wave being inherently weaker.

I would not quite call this a fully fledged symphonic power metal album though. Blind Guardian may have upped the symphonies but they've hardly forgone the fast paced guitar driven power metal anthems that I and I'm sure other fans expect to hear from them and that's as it should be. It's a very grand and epic affair no matter where they go with their ideas though, with quite the contrast of ideas. You're got a track like At the Edge of Time (yeah, a 'title track' for the previous album) which is more like a mid-paced symphonic metal song but then there's also something like The Holy Grail which brings out their aggressive side, harkening back to more along the lines of Imaginations From the Other Side. That's how I prefer my Blind Guardian, more gritty and intense, so it should come as no surprise that The Holy Grail is among my favourite tracks from Beyond the Red Mirror, along with single Twilight of the Gods, Prophecies and Sacred Mind.

The band have found a good balance between these two extremes I think, so as a whole the record works. I can't shake the impression that it's a very small step down from At the Edge of Time though. One thing of note would be the absence of a folk ballad, which is really felt. There's an piano/orchestral based one instead, Miracle Machine, but it doesn't have the same magic that tracks like A Past and Future Secret or Curse My Name from albums past had. I'd say it's one of the lower points of the album, which is a common opinion I have with ballads and power metal albums, but not with Blind Guardian albums until now, so that's disappointing, but it's really the only somewhat negative thing I have to say about Beyond the Red Mirror. It's not a bad track by any means. The others are simply better.

Though I do think it has a couple of lesser tracks the majority of Beyond the Red Mirror is on the level with At the Edge of Time and that makes it a more than worthy follow-up in my book. Only time will tell how where it sits within the ranks of their discography (At the Edge of Time certainly didn't become my fourth favourite Blind Guardian record overnight) but it's easily a 4.5 star record for me. Let's hope we don't have to wait until 2020 or later before we get another one though!

more than 2 years ago
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adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It's become pretty close between them for me too. I still don't think The Ninth Wave is that great though, which is really what puts this back a bit for me. The Holy Grail is probably my favourite BG song from the last 20 years though.

666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

This has grown on me a lot since it came out. I think I prefer it to AtEoT now even.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

To be honest now that they have ten albums you can draw a line straight down the middle between them. The first five feature their rawer (gradually lessening) speed metal influenced sound and then starting with Nightfall they turn towards the more progressive and symphonic influenced power metal you can hear here.

DippoMagoo wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I think The Ninth Wave is a pretty weak opener (at least by their standards), and the production isn't as good as usual, but otherwise I like it almost as much as At the Edge of Time and A Night at the Opera, which are currently my two favorites by them. I'm still not terribly familiar with their pre-Nightfall albums, though.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Funny thing is my first listen to this didn't actually go all that well, but I did quickly get into it.

666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Solid album but definitely seems a step backwards to me based on my first few listens. It might grow on me though.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

They're my favourite band so maybe I'm a little bias, but I do think this one would rank about the middle of their discography.