News Archives - Page 1 :

Today after around a year and a half of existence the site reach a milestone - You can now browse in the language of Shakespeare to the following address: en.Blind-Guardian.fr. It is also an opportunity to launch an english section in the forum to allow anybody to discuss with the fans around the world.

Of course you will find everything that exists in the French version: the biography, the itemized discography but also the profiles of all members, the tour dates and of course inspirations for the albums and the complete interpretation of Nightfall In Middle-Earth and all our other pages!

Come play to our Battles Of Blind Guardian to elect the song of Blind Guardian that you prefer (see rules of battles).

The English section of the forum is divided into five separate forums:

• The news of Blind Guardian where we talk about all the news posted on the site but also Blind Guardian in general
• The tour section for listing all the planned concerts
• The music section where obviously talk about all music genres
• The tavern to talk about whatever you want, anything that does not fit the forums above
• And the forum where we will learn more about you

I hope that opening our website to the world will be the first step toward something even bigger.

I would certainly thank Flavien and Sebastien for translation they have done to make this version of Blind-Guardian.fr.

Karagiannidis Panagiotis from Metalpaths (a greek webzine) has interviewed André to discuss of the upcoming album.

The important points from this interview are:

• The album will be released in 2010 that's for sure, probably in the first half
• Sacred is not the highlight of the album, they have already three or four songs a little bit better
• They don't have the title for the album yet
• Charlie Bauerfeind will again produce the album
• The orchestral project will be released in 2011, they have already started the production
• They'll use a real orchestra for this project!

Hello Andre, greetings from Greece! This is Panagiotis from Metalpaths, how are you?

Hello, I'm fine!

So what are your activities in this period of time, what are your latest news?

Well the latest news is that we started the song writing one year ago and we have almost seven songs ready so far. We have already recorded two songs last year and now for since like two months we are recording four more. The drums are ready already so we started the guitar work now and I think that we will be recording the whole summer. In between though, we are going to play in some really big festivals in Europe so we are rehearsing again, focused on some songs we didn't play so far. After the summer activities we want to do another break for song writing and write some more songs for the album which is planned for 2010...

The Holzwarth brothers have formed in September 2008 a rhythm section for offer their services to musical bands.

They play one more time some Blind Guardian songs, among others, during sessions in Germany and Austria during the month of May, like they did in November 2008:

• May 04th, 2009: Köln, Germany, Drummer's Focus
• May 05th, 2009: Markdorf, Germany, Drummer's Focus
• May 06th, 2009: Stuttgart, Germany, Drummer's Focus
• May 07th, 2009: München, Germany, Drummer's Focus
• May 08th, 2009: Salzburg, Austria, Drummer's Focus

You can check a preview here:

en.Blind-Guardian.fr team is pleased to wish a happy birthday (or heavy heerschday :-p) to André who is celebrating his 42 years!

We all hope he will be able to achieve the dream he confided recently (Interview of André on Metalpaths) in the interview he gave: organize a big Blind Guardian festival and play the whole orchestra album one time live on stage with a real orchestra.

Blind Guardian has been confirmed for the Kaliakra Rock Fest at Varna in Bulgaria from the 1st to the 3rd july 2009.

Blind Guardian will play the 2nd, july.

You can buy your ticket on the following link: Tickets for Kaliakra Rock Fest 2009.

For more informations, check the website of the Kaliakra Rock Fest.

Blind Guardian has been confirmed for the Ilha do Ermal Festival at Vieira do Minho in Portugal from the 28th to the 30th august 2009.

Blind Guardian will play the 30th, august.

You can buy your ticket on the following link: Tickets for Ilha do Ermal Festival 2009.

For more informations, check the website of the Ilha do Ermal.

German power metal-band Rage will be joined by Hansi (who has been participated in their album Unity) and Jen Majura who has been participated at the recording of the song "Sacred" (you can see the news in french: Jen Majura on Sacred) on the Wacken Open Air festival (the confirmed bands are listed on our forum) for their twenty-fifth anniversary.

en.Blind-Guardian.fr team is very pleased to wish a very good thirty-first anniversary to Frederik :-). It will soon be four years he joined Blind Guardian and I think it's obvious that he now has his place within the group and he gives them a second youth (he's ten to twelve years younger them), which probably gives a bit of freshness in the quartet.

We remind you that Blind Guardian began his tour of summer festivals yesterday at the Metalway Festival in Spain.

Last point, the Blind Guardian official forum changed for the last version of phpBB with, we hope for it, a great skin!

Remember, in february Hansi told us for the band project in 2009 (Blind Guardian in 2009 : the projects) and he says that:

In accordance to these events I can promise you some surprising songs (though most probably no new ones) and a nice stage set up.

It was right because they played some old songs like: Traveler In Time, Goodbye My Friend, Time What Is Time but also some more surprising like Blood Tears or Punishment Divine. Marcus has also confirmed that this would continue for the upcoming shows:

Talking about the set, we were preparing some nice surprises for you guys, some songs we didn't play in a very long time, we even play a brand new one, so if you are curious, come to one of the gigs and check it out yourself.

And for the news songs, Hansi left some doubts but Sacred was played on each setlists! Here is a great performance at the God Of Metal which took place in Italy the sunday 28th:

More dates are planned, check the summary of the summer dates or the tours page of our website.

Last year it was Van Canto which make a cover of "The Bard's Song (In The Forest)" on their album Hero ("The Bard's Song" by Van Canto), this year it's the german thrash melodic metallers of Burden Of Grief will make a cover "Valhalla" (with other metal classics songs like "Aces High" by Iron Maiden, "The Four Horsemen" by Metallica or also "Break On Through" by The Doors) on their next album planned for 2010 and unnamed for the moment.

This cover will appear, with the others, on a bonus CD includes in the limited edition of the album.

Thursday, July 2, Blind Guardian was at the Kaliakra Rock Fest in Varna in Bulgaria (Kaliakra Rock Fest) and it was with photos of the show that we update the gallery of the site!

Pictures of Kaliakra Rock Fest (All these pictures are from Metal Katehizis).

More dates are planned, check the summary of the summer dates or the tours page of our website.

To thank it members and their fidelity, Blind-Guardian.fr decided to offering them a multimedia section on the forum where will be posted several videos and MP3. We will try, wherever possible, that these media will be rare for offer you what you will not find anywhere.

This section is reserved for registered members, you must be logged on the forum.

Harris Bakopoulos from Solid Rock has interviewed Hansi to discuss of the upcoming album, the orchestral project and Demons And Wizards. There is not big news, just some confirmations :

• The album is supposed to be released in September 2010.
• The title can be something like "Punishment Coming" or "A Storm To Come"
• The songs are progressive, with modern touch but they are more on the typical band side than "A Twist In The Myth" and epic moments like in "A Night At The Opera"
• They have checked several different orchestras for the orchestral project and they'll do first recordings as well during the next 12 months and still this is going to be the album which comes afterwards
• The probably play with a real orchestra for the orchestral album tour, "And Then There Was Silence" could be a very attractive song to be played by an orchestra and probably have some voices on it as well

This summer you are going to to visit Athens once again to play in "Rocking Athens Festival" with Heaven And Hell, Testament, Gojira and two promising Greek bands, Mencea and Descending. How do you feel about that?

It's a blast! It's really a great time for us to play some good music to good people and play with great bands. Because this is a very special package. There are some great festivals all over Europe but I do have the feeling that this one is a strong package and will find a lot of attention...

Read the entire interview

Saturday, July 4, Blind Guardian was at the Metalcamp in Tolmin in Slovenia (Metalcamp) and it was with photos of the show that we update the gallery of the site!

Pictures of Metalcamp (All these pictures are from Metal Hammer).

More dates are planned, check the summary of the summer dates or the tours page of our website.

Sunday, July 12, Blind Guardian was at the Masters Of Rock in Vizovice in Czech Republic (Masters Of Rock) and it was with photos of the show that we update the gallery of the site!

Pictures of Masters Of Rock (All these pictures are from a official forum member (view his personnal website).

More dates are planned, check the summary of the summer dates or the tours page of our website.

Update: Sixty pictures were added in the album.