News Archives - Page 4 :

Title: Some pictures and a strange cover ...

Published on: May 19th, 2010

EMP has recently visited the studios of Blind Guardian and have reported some photos here: EMP in Twilight Hall Studios. The first thing that is impressive since 2006, is that the band members have aged well: D (It doesn't see too much on Frederik). It's true they aren't very young our bards!

Finally something a little more surprising is that a new artwork has appeared on the site of Felipe Machado but it has no name! Is this the test cover for At The Edge Of Time? That for A Voice In The Dark? The potential of a future single? We don't know but we have decided to post it here:

Regarding At The Edge Of Time, there will in all 5 versions published by Nuclear Blast:

• The classic version
• The double CD digipack
• The 2-LP pictures disc
• The limited CD boxset
• The limited 4-LP boxset (however, not on the webshop, to be confirmed)

The 30-second preview of A Voice In The Dark is always available on our site, go listen it!

Title: Discography updated

Published on: May 20th, 2010

The discography section of the site has been updated with information pages of A Voice In The Dark and At The Edge Of Time, their information will of course be updated when they become available (guests, dates and studios where they have been recorded, lyrics, etc ...).

But in the meantime to listen to it all, you can always order the new tee-shirts proposed by EMP! Some like this: Dragonflame are very nice! But you can see all of them by visiting the website of EMP, on page Blind Guardian.

And finally, a note posted today on their Facebook page: the group will begin on Monday a 4-days rehearsal for the tour! And there should be a bunch of new songs on the setlist on the tour! (The dates are still available on our concerts page).

Title: Listening session for At The Edge Of Time

Published on: May 22nd, 2010

Welcome to the Twilight Hall!

The German magazine Metal Hammer has been invited by the group recently for a listening session of At The Edge Of Time in the famous Twilight Hall Studios.

It's in the court of an old farm near Krefeld that the story begin, one after another, members of Blind Guardian greet their neighbors and disappear behind a large green gate which is none other than the studio! The group does things quietly (since the time we knew) and offers to reporters tea and cakes while André talks about his work of the previous night: "I was so excited, I went to bed at 7 am. Those melodies wouldn't leave my head."

Everyone fills and more detailed information on the album starts to fall: "For the first time in the history of Blind Guardian have we worked with a real orchestra, which was recorded in Prague", sets Frederick the talk off. "I think the real musicians give the songs a big push." Hansi prefers to perceive the thing in its entirety: "It has always been important for us not to repeat any album. This principle goes back to our debut Battalions Of Fear. I don't look for parallels to earlier albums but to try to evaluate with some distance how the work settles itself in our discography. And from that point of view I'd say that we have become even more bombastic and playful. On the other hand is the new album heavier than most of our stuff." He continues with a fact long been noted by fans of the group: "You always want to self-actualize yourself on an album. But afterwards you always find something to muck about. I must have listened to the new tracks 200 times at least, but I still haven't noticed something that I would change. A good sign, and thus I'm sure: The Blind Guardian-fans will be 100% content."

Someone wants more tea?

With heaviness and speed, is the return of ancient inspiration and fantasy is ubiquitous: "There's no basic topic, each song tells its own tale", says Hansi. "For the most part I was inspired by several books that shared the bed with me. For example "The Wheel Of Time" by Robert Jordan or the "Ice And Fire"-saga by Geroge R.R. Martin. Furthermore we dared some tougher topics. Control The Divine is based on "Paradise Lost" by John Milton and Curse My Name on "The Tenure Of Kings And Magistrates", also by John Milton." And he continues: "The recordings were very harmonic this time, partly because we had a lot of time. Because of the release of the computer game "Sacred 2", to which we contributed two songs, we finished Sacred and War Of The Thrones already in early 2008. For the rest of the year we could be creative. 2009 we recorded something now and again and were able to work on the songs. The real recordings were done between Octobre 2009 and March 2010."

And now, the detail of the listening session:

• Sacred Worlds: The already known background for the computer game of the same name. Broader Metal isn't possible, the middle part even reminds of Nightwish.
• Tanelorn: The first big surprise: Return of the old role-play-feeling, the guitars race, and Hansi's singing downright aggressive partially. A dainty for the fans of earlier albums.
• Road Of No Release: After a piano-intro the song unfolds slowly and ends in a goosebumps-chorus. This epic semi-ballad would have stood its ground on Imaginations From The Other Side as well.
• Ride Into Obsession: Enough jingling, now for the sledgehammer again. Even though some experimental inclinings hide in some passages (especially in the vocals), but this Speed-bomb should score even among the by now somewhat aging discipleship.
• Curse My Name: Greetings from The Bard's Song. Set somewhere between Middle Ages and Middle-Earth, this mostly balladesque song gives goosebumps all over. Should be played at every king's court.
• Control The Divine: Mid-tempo-song with reminiscences to Imaginations From The Other Side, whereas the chorus with its surprising turns might fit better on A Twist In The Myth.
• War Of The Thrones: Once more the piano introduces, then comes a slow crescendo. Hansi adds a lot of emotions, but even he can't prevent that the song sounds like an English christmas carol in the end.
• A Voice In The Dark: The next whoopee for the older fans. Heavy guitars, aggressive parts, and Kürsch dares the very high notes once more. Nothing but the Champions' League!
• Wheel Of Time: For the end, another huge helping of bombast. Lots of orchestra, even more tracks, and a chorus for which Rhapsody Of Fire would relinquish Mama's pizza for the rest of their lives.

(Talk about it on the forum)

Title: Welcome to Twilight Hall Studios!

Published on: May 27th, 2010

Metal Hammer was invited into the studio while Blind Guardian was in full production of At The Edge Of Time. The German magazine has taken some pictures that we share with you here. You will see the workplace of the group as no one has ever seen: Recording At The Edge Of Time.

Something new on the site, now, you can directly comment the news by filling out the quick form at the bottom of them without any registering on the forum (like a blog :D).

Title: Promotionals pictures of At The Edge Of Time

Published on: May 27th, 2010

The news promotional pictures for At The Edge Of Time are available on our gallery! The work is really different from what has been done for A Twist In The Myth (which is also been added, too, for nostalgia), it's almost scary sometimes!

• Gallery At The Edge Of Time
• Gallery A Twist In The Myth

About At The Edge Of Time again, the album will be released well into 5 different versions published by Nuclear Blast:

• The classic version
• The double CD digipack
• The 2-LP pictures disc
• The CD pyramid-boxset limited to 1 000 exemplars
• The 4-LP pictures disc boxset limited to 500 exemplars

You can pre-order each of these versions on the website of Nuclear Blast: At The Edge Of Time

(Talk about it on the forum)

Title: The Sacred Wheel Of Time Cannot Erase The Medieval Song - Fourth part

Published on: June 03rd, 2010

The latest teaser for the series The Sacred Wheel Of Time Cannot Erase The Medieval Song brought us many surprises because we could see a lot of guest musicians invited on At The Edge Of Time. We note the presence of vocals, violin, tap dancing (yes, you heard right, tap dancing on an album of Blind Guardian, and when we told you they wanted to off the beaten track with this album).

For this fourth part, the group makes us discover some excerpts of A Voice In The Dark, Tanelorn and Wheel Of Time, focused on André.

And for wait a little until the release of the single at least, we invite you to read again the record that Metal Hammer has written for the listening session of At The Edge Of Time and for remind the atmosphere resulting from it, look the promotional pictures.

(Talk about it on the forum)

Title: Interview of Felipe Machado Franco

Published on: June 04th, 2010

Nuclear Blast has recently interviewed Felipe Machado Franco, the colombian artist who's made the cover of A Voice In The Dark and At The Edge Of Time. It's at home, in Colombia that he answered them.

How far back does your knowledge of Blind Guardian go?

I'm the biggest Blind Guardian fan there is in the world. Back in 1995, a friend of mine called me and said, "Dude, I just found a band similar to Helloween and Rage and the singer really kicks ass. It's like a perfect mix between power metal and thrash… you have to hear it!!!" After that I went to a CD shop over here in Bogotá (Colombia) and asked the owner to get me some CDs Blind Guardian. Then, every time my parents had some work trip, they already knew that the best thing to bring back home was any new Blind Guardian CD missing from my collection. I immediately got a wave of inspiration from Andreas Marschall's cover artwork and decided, "Hey, that's what I want to do with my life."

What sort of collaboration was there between you and the band members for this artwork?

There's always a bunch of ideas coming from them and I reply with my version of their art directions. I think Hansi and the band have a pretty clear concept guideline for the visuals of the band, so it's always a concept negotiation. They are the coolest band to work with because when the time came to create the single cover for "A Voice In The Dark", after some tests Hansi mentioned, "Just think of something that could go with the band's vibe and surprise me." So they know how to trust and encourage what I could create. The CD cover concept was mostly the band's idea. For each song's interior art, there were always ideas from everyone. And yes, this will be the first Blind Guardian booklet that is completely illustrated.

Did you have the opportunity to hear any of the new music before you came up with ideas for the new album artwork?

No. I wish I had. Because of the amount of work a Blind Guardian production takes, the art direction and creation was simultaneous to the recording and the mix, but the band's directions were really clear and narrative.

Dragons and hooded figures are prominent on previous Blind Guardian album covers. Was it mandatory that you include both for the cover art?

A dragon is always welcome on any Blind Guardian cover art. For that creature, it was pretty clear that it would have a strong presence on the cover for the new CD since on their last live CD, the hooded dude, a.k.a. the Blind Guardian, did not appear prominently, but in the background. Man, do I love the mystery that character has! So I secretly included the Blind Guardian at the base of the stairs of the pyramid and the band thought he should stay there this time. I have always felt he's the one secretly telling the tale of their cover artwork, traveling to each new world. I think he's pretty cool because any fan can be represented in him. For some parts of this new CD and the single's artwork, when he appears you can see the years have passed on his long white hairs and beard coming out of the hood.

Was there a theme you wanted to tie together?

The art direction the band gave me always had the intention to promote mystery and some sort of secret narrative. I see it as a palace where different time lines intertwine and where something really important is about to happen, either at the beginning of the story or at the end. That's how I see the link with the album title.

The "pyramid" looks as though it's rising out of the ocean. Was this intentional?

An ocean of sand I hope, right? I suppose we could think that time has passed over the pyramid…? All I know is that I love all the crazy interpretations kids are creating from the cover, and I think that's what heavy metal and Blind Guardian cover art should do.

Who do the guardians represent to you and what are they protecting?

I think they're protecting a secret meeting inside the pyramid between the Dwarf holding the bag with gold coins from Follow The Blind and his friends the Goblins having pints of beer at the fire from Tales From The Twilight World who also invited the Bagpiper and his crow from Somewhere Far Beyond. If I'm correct, they're all hearing tales from the Sandman while the blue Elf girl from Nightfall In Middle-Earth dances.

At The Edge Of Time will be released the 30th july for Europe and the 24th august for North America.

(Talk about it on the forum)

Title: New sample of A Voice In The Dark!

Published on: June 07th, 2010

A new 30-seconds preview of A Voice In The Dark is now available on Amazon.fr and on our website now for your convenience:

A Voice In The Dark

It seems that this passage is the part before the one we already know and which is available here: Excerpt from A Voice In The Dark! We wish you all a very good listening!

(Talk about it on the forum)

Title: You're The Voice and War Of The Thrones also available!

Published on: June 07th, 2010

Excerpts from You're The Voice and War Of The Thrones (Acoustic Version) are also available through Amazon.fr and on en.Blind-Guardian.fr now for your biggest pleasure and your personal comfort:

You're The Voice

War Of The Thrones (Acoustic Version)

So we can appreciate full A Voice In The Dark extracts today!

(Talk about it on the forum)

Title: Filming A Voice In The Dark

Published on: June 09th, 2010

The group should leave next week for the filming of a clip in Belgrade, Serbia, nothing is certain but there is a good chance for it will be the clip from A Voice In The Dark, since promotional video should be available in July (and thus before the album release scheduled for 30) and will also be present on the limited versions of At The Edge Of Time.

I remind you that you can still hear a sample of 30 seconds (sample that we were the first to offer) of the title song of the single by visiting the news containing the sample or on the right hand column of this page.

The promotionals pictures of At The Edge Of Time are still available on the gallery and by visiting the website of the artist who made them, Herr Buchta, it's possible that you understand better why those pictures are specials because this artist has a style that really particular. It seems that Blind Guardian had wanted to off the beaten track to all aspects of this album ...

Title: Some news of the band!

Published on: June 14th, 2010

During their journey in Serbia to film the video of A Voice In The Dark (Filming A Voice In The Dark), Blind Guardian has been interviewed by the Serbian site Metal Sound and it's Hansi who answered their question. We learn more about the inspirations of some songs:

• The group chose A Voice In The Dark as single because it's a very speed song, very "Blind Guardian" and with a catchy chorus.
• Hansi was inspired by the saga of "A Song Of Ice And Fire" by George R.R. Martin to write A Voice In The Dark.
• "The Wheel Of Time" by Robert Jordan was the inspiration for Hansi to write Ride Into Obsession and Wheel Of Time.
• Wheel Of Time is the favorite song of Hansi on At The Edge Of Time.

And for those who want to read the entire interview, here it goes: Interview with Hansi on Metal Sound.

Blind Guardian was in Paris on Friday 11 to promote the album and will be on Monday 14 in Madrid to continue their European promotional tour which should also pass through England, Switzerland, Italy and other country yet!

And finally, a short interview in German with André and Marcus by Metal Hammer magazine in which they talk about their influence of the heavy metal of the 80's.

Title: Ad for German tour

Published on: June 17th, 2010

The group has released today on his Youtube profile a little video announcing the tour in Germany with images of summer concerts in 2009. The image quality and viewing angle lets them think they could be used for a future DVD (Imaginations Through The Looking Glass has been released in 2004 anyway ...).

I also remind you that the dates announced yet are the only confirmed, in a recent interview with Hansi, he confirmed for North America early 2011 and probably in Asia after and a return to Europe for the end.

Concerning At The Edge Of Time in particular, here's a preview of what the limited CD box should look like:

And finally, Marcus makes us a little track-by-track of the album: At The Edge Of Time by Marcus.

Title: The cover of Valhalla by Burden Of Grief now available!

Published on: June 18th, 2010

The cover of Valhalla by the thrash metal band Burden Of Grief is available in full on their MySpace page. Note the appearance of Gerre, the singer Tankard.

This cover will appear on the bonus disc of the album Follow The Flames (with covers of other bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, The Doors, AC/DC, Pantera, etc ...) will be released on July 2 in Europe.

Title: Samples of At The Edge Of Time

Published on: June 25th, 2010

Samples from each songs of At The Edge Of Time are now available on the band's official website: Samples of At The Edge Of Time!

You can listen to 30 seconds of each of the 10 songs on the album, don't hesitate to make you happy ;-)

A Voice In Dark is released now in all good record stores so I hope many of you have already gone to buy and listen :-) Here is an overview of the picture disc:

And here is also what will the double picture disc of At The Edge Of Time:

Title: Blind Guardian special CD in August 2010 Metal Hammer magazine!

Published on: June 30th, 2010

A Blind Guardian special bonus CD will be offered in the August issue of the German version of Metal Hammer magazine due out on July 14 th!

It will contain the short version of Sacred Worlds and 8 other songs recorded at Wacken Open Air 2007. This CD will not be sold separately!

It will cost 6.90 € and for ordering outside Germany simply send an email with the subject EINZELHEFT Blind Guardian to abo@metal-hammer.de. With shipping it will cost 9.90 € for Europe and 12.90 € for the rest of the world.

And here is the cover and the tracklist of this CD:

1. Sacred Worlds (Metal Hammer edit)
2. War Of Wrath (Live @ Wacken 2007 - Metal Hammer edit)
3. Into The Storm (Live @ Wacken 2007 - Metal Hammer edit)
4. Born In A Mourning Hall (Live @ Wacken 2007 - Metal Hammer edit)
5. Nightfall (Live @ Wacken 2007 - Metal Hammer edit)
6. Fly (Live @ Wacken 2007 - Metal Hammer edit)
7. Valhalla (Live @ Wacken 2007 - Metal Hammer edit)
8. The Bard's Song (In The Forest) (Live @ Wacken 2007 - Metal Hammer edit)
9. Mirror Mirror (Live @ Wacken 2007 - Metal Hammer edit)

(Talk about it on the forum)