Band: Blind Guardian
Drums: Frederik Ehmke
Album: At the Edge of Time
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Date: 24-Aug-2010
DD Rating: 
Once upon a time, I ignorantly muttered “Blind Guardian” in the same mocking breath as the likes of wicked lame “power metal” bands. Then, in the early aughts, I was doing a search for the Lord of the Rings soundtrack and came across Blind Guardian’s “Lord of the Rings” from their album Tales from the Twilight World. It became a bit of an inside joke between me and my wife, and any reference to LARP’ing, D&D’ing, or any such medieval nerdery inevitably elicited a mention of Blind Guardian, a refrain of “One ring for the dark lord’s hand, sitting on his throne”, or simply “MORDOR MORDOR MORDOR!” (But I secretly always found it a bit catchy…)
My actual knowledge of BG ended at that one song. Then, not too long ago, iTunes recommended the band’s 2006 album A Twist in the Myth based on my browsing history. I found this amusing, and clicked on it to see how absurd it was. I hit Preview All and sat there dumbstruck as I heard one awesome 30-second clip after another. I bought the album, burned it to CD, and brought it along on my trek to an out-of-town gig, loving every ounce of it. I think I listened to A Twist in the Myth a dozen or so times consecutively, and I don’t know how many times since. I’m slowly picking up the older material now. And, when my wife gets in the car and I offer to put on something else, I get a not-displeased “No, that’s okay.” I think she secretly likes it too!
The new album, At the Edge of Time, combines the best of Blind Guardian’s evolving sound. There’s the massive wall of sound production that’s become increasingly prodigious over the last three albums, and then there are tracks like “Tanelorn (Into The Void)” that are a bit of a throwback to their original “speed metal” sound. Of course, their signature minstrel songs are here too, in “Curse My Name” and “War of the Thrones”. At the Edge of Time is bookended by two of the band’s best tracks to date, in my opinion: the opener, “Sacred Worlds”; the closer, “Wheel of Time”. Both incorporate an orchestra and are huge-sounding, epic productions like “And Then There Was Silence” from A Night at the Opera. All the tracks are killer, but the other standouts are “Valkyries” and “A Voice in the Dark”.
Hansi has not sounded better, and André Olbrich and Marcus Siepen are phenomenal on guitar. Frederik Ehmke on drums is fast and solid with inventive fills and smooth-and-steady double bass chops. I really dig his playing.
Embrace your inner Jeff Albertson and get some Blind Guardian!