Here At The Edge Of Time

As I fully gear up for the upcoming Blind Guardian concert (probably a review to come), it's about time for a review of the new album, At The Edge Of Time. I am extremely excited about this show, probably the most I've looked forward to a concert since seeing Dio with Doro and Yngwie a few years ago, incidentally at the same location. Blind Guardian is definitely a band I've wanted to see for quite a few years - I was first introduced to them with "Nightfall" and "The Curse of Feanor" back on some metal website back when websites were still a new sort of thing. Eventually I picked up the album...then all the others. It's easily been a decade since they went on the 'I want to see them live' list.

That list has grown considerably shorter over the years and, as I now reflect, the bards might be the last band on it. Iron Maiden was on it for a long time, but we finally broke through there with a 'No Prayer On the Road' show in Providence, RI. Quite a few amazing performances from Eddie's boys followed that one. Got to see one of my favorite bands 'back in the day', Sepultura, a goodly number of times from a club to bigger stages. Megadeth, Slayer, AC/DC (my first concert), Black Sabbath, Dio, Metallica when they were good. I'll never see Voivod, but I resigned myself to that years ago, even before Piggy died. I used to think I wanted to see Manowar live, but after hearing some of their live stuff I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Rush, happily, I've seen a goodly number of times beginning with the 'Presto' tour. I've seen bands that surprised me by how good they were on stage (Coal Chamber, Marilyn Manson) and very many that sucked. But I've never seen Blind Guardian.

No, wait, come back over here...back to the edge of time. Let's use a 1-10 scale, this is an 8. A few songs could be stronger, but there are no stinkers (of course).

Sacred Worlds - Excellent album opener. Fans already know the somewhat tortured path of this song, evolving from a short piece they did for the video game 'Sacred 2'. They wisely extended it into the fantabulous masterpiece that it is today. For the album version, which isn't my favorite (that would be the Metal Hammer magazine slimmed down edit without all the orchestration), we get a rather typical power metal opening orchestra bit, albeit more professional than most - clearly the result of the orchestral project the guys are working on in their 'spare time' - it segues quite nicely into the band's opening chops. Right off the bat you feel like the guys are right in their wheelhouse, short, energizing squeals of the guitars, pounding drum beats, running bass. Hansi starts out smooth and sounds great. His voice really is pretty unique and he really fills the room on the chorus. Listening to their older stuff he has REALLY gotten better with age. Oddly enough, I never really got into the 'band' Blind Guardian. I can't name anyone except Hansi. No, really. I like their guitars, really I do. I loved their old drummer, the new guy is also good. But for me the standout was always Hansi and he doesn't disappoint on this album, I am totally looking forward to seeing him perform live and up close (in a small venue, too, which is simply beyond awesome - like seeing Dio perform like 30' away...Doro, too for that matter...Yngwie, well, the closer you get the bigger he gets, if you get my drift). Anyway, let's just say that Hansi's got it all going on in this song, when he starts wailing at about 7:15 it's just go time. Love how he doesn't try to hit notes that aren't in his repertoire, when he screams he gets ragged, but he knows how to make that sound great. Nice to hear him peaking like this as we sadly watch others on the downside of their careers - Dickinson, Halford, of course we lost RJD earlier this year...

Tanelorn (Into the Void) - Back we journey to Tanelorn. As the band said as they were recording this album, it's a real mix of looking back and looking forward. 'Sacred Worlds' has that all in one, some thrash, some orchestration, etc. 'Tanelorn' is more in the straight thrash vein, and, speaking of veins, they tear this one open. Love the guitars on this song and the chorus has a nice sing-a-long vibe that I suspect might lend itself to an appearance on stage. I like the drums here, also. I like a drummer that keeps 'busy', not just keeping the beat. By that I mean that, even when they're just keeping the beat during a verse or whatever they're throwing in little fills or unexpected blasts to keep things interesting. Cool, very Blind Guardian-y guitar solo 2/3rd through. And, you know what's awesome about BG? With less than a minute left in the song they're still throwing new stuff at you instead of just repeating the chorus for a minute. Maturity, my friends.

Road of No Release - Time to ease up off the accelerator a bit as we intro with some quiet keys. Slowly we swell with a chorus effect and then we're enjoying hearing Hansi sing instead of scream. As the song progresses his tone gets darker and darker before bringing it back up a bit. The tempo picks up a bit, too. A nice change of pace, not a song I find myself bonkers over, though. Hansi's voice gets 'exposed' a bit towards the end. Let's not fool ourselves, he'll never be a smooth toned devil pouring vocal honey from his lips. I never meant to imply he was. I think he has a fantastic voice for what he's doing. I don't want to hear him sing scales or Barry Manilow covers. I want the gravel-voiced bard on a wooden stage in the woods. I don't think there's anyone better for that.

Ride into Obsession - Another flashback to their thrash/speed metal roots. I really dig the drums throughout this song. Some nice tempo changes, etc., galloping guitars. Even if I haven't heard this for days sometimes my brain is hearing that vocal line that Hansi hits us with at about 2:10 and 3:55, it's like molten lead poured down from the ramparts into our ears, almost inhuman in the way he just goes there in the midst of a line and then comes out of it. Strangely fascinating to this listener. A short and sweet blast of a song.

Curse My Name - Ah, one of my favorites. We've settled on the floor before the stage and the show begins, the minstrels start playing, flutes, cymbals, some strings, the singer appears through the curtain and starts the tale. This one just builds and builds and builds...after the 2:00 mark or so we get martial drumbeats and morose strings before adding more instruments and then a chorus, eventually becoming a round. Damn, a lot of power in this one considering how 'slow' it is. I'm continually drawn into the mind of the character Hansi is portraying, amazed at how he conveys a sense of longing combined with a dismissive condescension - I don't care what they think, but, uh, yeah I sorta do.

Valkyries - This one could continue the bard show. Starting out with some clean Hansi and then some very cool riffs. I think most would agree that this is one of the high points of this album. Well-crafted with a soaring chorus that can only be described as lush ("opulent, sumptuous"). When I said before that Hansi was never pouring honey from his lips, well, this chorus is about as close as he gets, and for a band like this, it's more than enough - it's top of the genre stuff. Love the layering of the vocals, the undercurrent of a more clipped, dark voice ripping through the clean from below. Understated guitar solo. Again, listen close around 4:50 for 20 seconds or so, the drummer is doing a lot to fill the air without dominating. Very fitting the way the song just sort of fades away (as opposed to fading out).

Control the Divine - This one might be a grower. First couple of trips through I found myself liking this song, but not remembering it when it was over. Nice vocal acrobatics from Hansi again, though, especially as around 0:40. Love how he does that without going too far (for him). Still find it a nice song that just doesn't have enough mental peanut butter to stick in my brain.

War of the Thrones - Again, you can get the background elsewhere, as you might have noticed I'm not focusing on lyrical content and such here. Strong vocals to start with a nice build in the music. Just before we hit the 1:00 mark we get to where this song is going, nice chorus, pretty stripped down song, really. If it wasn't so carefully arranged and replete with some of Hansi's best work it would almost be filler. With those it is, instead, just another great performance by the minstrels on the stage, entertaining us slobs.

A Voice in the Dark - And a dagger comes flying from backstage as chaos erupts! Except for the fact that the songwriting is much stronger and the vocals are way more mature, this could fit on Follow The Blind. Fast, pounding, dark driving vocals that often venture into tortured wails...yes, BG can still do speed metal if they want. After a fusillade of notes from the guitars Hansi joins, biting and tearing off notes, spitting them at us. More astounding use of layered vocals, clean and scream blending into a delightful speed smoothie. All throughout the song I love how Hansi is constantly coming at us with a vocal dagger under or over the cleaner vocals, ripping through the song's fabric to instill a sense of urgency and danger, which fits, naturally, ideally with the music's rush.

Wheel of Time - Who let the gypsies in? And the guy with that drum? And the guy with the hookah?! This starts out making you think it's going to be an epic. Of course, that's exactly what it is. There's so much going on that I'm not going to try to break it down. I'll just say that the chorus is classic BG epic, Hansi sounds great, the profusion of alternative instruments, the simply amazing central guitar riff. Clocking in at just under 9:00, not too long, this is what all metal epics want to be when they grow up. And then we're done.

So, the question is, where do they go from here? Undoubtedly, this is Blind Guardian's finest effort since Nightfall In Middle-Earth. Is it better? Um, well, HELL NO. 'Nightfall' is one of the finest metal albums in this genre that you will ever find. What 'Edge' does, though, is find itself firmly ensconced just below it with the likes of Imaginations From The Other Side. A very worthy effort. Easily one of the year's best and much more. I got this at the same time as Maiden's The Final Frontier and, honestly, it slaughters it. This album is the primary reason why I have only listened to 'Frontier' a bare handful of times (I suspect after BG saturation and the show I'll want a break and will likely try to see if 'Frontier' can grow on me, then maybe I'll post a review).

Blind Guardian takes the art of 'moving forward with a nod to the past' to a new level. Their thrashy speed anthems on this album would fit in, and be the best songs on, their early albums. The orchestration of Somewhere Far Beyond is fully realized here and alternative instruments and a full orchestra are integrated 100 percent seamlessly into a metal album without sounding forced or like 'ok, here's the song with the orchestra'. The power of 'Imaginations' is here. The fantasy of 'Nightfall' is here. The nods to popular fiction are incorporated like a ring finger on a fist, not like a thumb. Admittedly no real 'reachers' on this album, like "Fly" on A Twist In The Myth, but that's OK, there's no need to 'spice things up', they're already reaching a lot of unexplored territory here, even as they do it in a way that's similar to where they've gone before. It's like taking the same drive as a passenger instead of the driver, what's there might be, at heart, the same, but you see everything from a different position, from a different angle, you see things that you never noticed before, the colors are brighter, the darks are darker...

...and that band of minstrels raising all sorts of hell in the backseat beats the everliving s**t out of anything you could hear on the radio.