BLIND GUARDIAN — Beyond the Red Mirror (review)

BLIND GUARDIAN — Beyond the Red Mirror album cover Album · 2015 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
666sharon666
Blind Guardian are undeniably one of the biggest power metal bands to have ever existed. But despite the high regard that I and many others have for them if they have one fault it's that they're pretty slow at making their albums, just ten in the twenty-seven years since their debut Battalions of Fear, the latest of which is 2015's Beyond the Red Mirror. They get away with this because when they do release an album it's of a higher quality than pretty much any other artist in the power metal genre. This one is no exception, in fact for me it's their best in twenty years.

Most people seem to be describing this album as Blind Guardian's foray into symphonic power metal territory but I really don't get that. They're been using symphonic metal elements for a while now and there aren't any more here than on any of their other albums, a few very symphonic tracks like The Ninth Wave but overall it's too varied between different takes on power metal to pigeonhole it like that. Maybe someone stole them from my copy, because I'm not hearing what other people seem to be hearing. A good chunk of the album is more in line with Imaginations from the Other Side, especially The Holy Grail which could easily be a lost track from that album. That's probably why it's my favourite, along with Twilight of the Gods, Ashes of Eternity and Sacred Mind. There aren't any bad tracks, though the album did take quite a few spins to grow on me whereas others they've done were more immediate.
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adg211288 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I still can't get into The Ninth Wave so much, which is keeping this one at a 4.5 for me. Otherwise I'd agree that this is their best since Imaginations but because of that song I still prefer At the Edge of Time.

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