Blind Guardian

A Night at the Opera (Century Media)
by Martin Popoff

Curiously, Hansi Kursch once told me that Blind Guardian “have nothing to do with power metal yet are nothing BUT power metal.” That statement becomes apparent when listening to the band’s mesmerizing, stultifying, multi-layered new album A Night At The Opera, a record oft-delayed due to sight (cover art) and sound (mixing), and now descending alternately, like a chorus of angels, and like the sixteen hooves of the Apocalypse. Not as heavy or dark as the Nightfall… album, A Night At The Opera is conversely more metallically joyous, spiraling and well, heavenly. Importantly, it’s not a concept album, each track given pretty heavy subject matter (Biblical stories, Nietzsche, some fantasy) and music that is highly orchestral and then beat to hell by armies of voices and pounding drums. Kursch is rarely alone, the vocal presentation being a complex labyrinth of choral effects and arrangements, once more underscoring this coursing, roiling effect one experiences when listening to this utterly unique band.
(2323 W. El Segundo Blvd. Hawthorne, CA 90250)