BLIND GUARDIAN

DEFECTS OF THIS ALBUM: As always criticize the vocals of Hansi Kursch is the least you can do. It must be said that I realized that this is a fault common to the modern Teutonic Metal and Power Metal. There is nothing to do. Another point of criticism (and at the same time value) is the extremely clean recordings: digital technology helps, but at the same time, makes Blind Guardian, a bit 'prissy band. Another flaw in the years that has been associated with bands like Scorpions, just as an example.

ADVANTAGES OF THIS ALBUM: The acoustic version and the orchestral versions are geat. This shows that not serve electric instruments and dose of aggressiveness to play Heavy Metal. Another merit is the fact that this album shows us that often classify a band into a certain genre is wrong. Often the bands that go down in history have been inspired by various genres, and often have moved in real genres, so much so that in a site Prog Blind Guardian are we ever classify as Prog Metal.

IN CONCLUSION: "The Forgotten Tales" probably is one of my preferred Prog Metal albums. But probably "The Forgotten Tales" is one of my preferred Prog albums. "The Forgotten Tales" is an album that vibrates, moves, leaving bewildered. If it were released in 70's could rewrite the history of Progressive and Rock in general.

Firstly, they inject the album with far too many narrative interludes, ruining the flow of the music; secondly, even with the narrative interludes, the plot is extremely hard to follow unless you're already very familiar with the story. In retrospect, they might have had a bit more success if they'd honed things down to focus on a particular story from the Silmarillion rather than trying to take in as much of the whole narrative as they could.

Finally, when it gets right down to it the music on this album is much the same as on any other Blind Guardian album from this period in their career - cheesy power metal with stirring vocal harmonies are the order of the day and there really aren't that many surprises. In short, what you get here is an alright Blind Guardian album bogged down by the band's attempt to add narrative structure.

"Sacred Worlds" opens the album in symphonic style and almost recalls the orchestral grandur and semi-progressive nature of the music on "A Night at the Opera (2002)" (and actually closes the album in a similar symphonic style with "Wheel of Time"), but the band have more things up their sleeve. "At The Edge Of Time" is actually quite the varied album with both epic symphonic tracks, faster paced speed/power metal tracks and folky tracks. In other words all the best from the Blind Guardian songwriting formula. Compared to "A Twist in the Myth", "At The Edge Of Time" features less hard rock elements and more of a metal sound. They occassionally visit their more raw early- to mid- nineties speed/power metal style albeit in a more polished, less raw and more epic and symphonic sounding format and it´s nice to hear that they haven´t forgotten how to play harder edged music yet.

"At The Edge Of Time" is a well produced affair even though I could have wished for at less dry and sterile drum production. The musicianship is of course impeccable and the songwriting clever. Personally I was slightly disappointed by "A Twist in the Myth" and I welcome the return to a more metal oriented sound on "At The Edge Of Time". I guess there are little here that will surprise anyone but it´s still a greatly enjoyable and high quality release deserving a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating.

The power-folk metal genre is more often then not an inevitable ball of cheese, for any band. Now don't get me wrong, I have no prejudice against the style. There are bands that pull it off effectively and convincingly, Wintersun being a perfect example, in my opinion. However, this output falls more within the cheese-ball arena, and there are far too many mediocre bands that sound almost exactly like this. However, even with that in consideration, there's some quality work in this album. Certainly an album in the spirit of Tolkien's work is one to check out.

From what I can tell from this work, Blind Guardian is generally more artistic and skilled at their craft than most of their power-folk counterparts. I really like the diverse and effective use of non-rock instruments, especially in the folk sections of the album, and some of the heavier power-metal sections as well. The overall composition has a good sense of detail. What's more there are a lot of good riffs, melodies, sound-effects, etc., and a decent coherent lyrical concept that helps the album hold its own in. I'm sure a read of the Silmarillion and how the lyrics are musically conveyed would be a fascinating study. There are some solid tracks on here as well, Eldar (that pianist has some chops!) and Blood Tears are my favorites, and A Dark Passage was a great ending song.

Quality of craft is certainly less often the case in the all-out power-metal sections of fast rhythm-guitar strumming, fast sweeping scale runs, stereotypical cutting guitar tone, and double-bass madness that sound exactly like every other power-metal band out there (Nom the Wise a perfect example). I also really dislike the vocalist, he has little to no subtly in his singing, even in the soft folk sections. He's either a growling orc or a nasally over-forced minstrel, and as Prog-Leviathan pointed out, you can pretty much hear him switch between the two like an on-off button. And his vocal track could've used some reverberation, it sounds a bit awkward sometimes as naked as it is. Sometimes the effects are used just to be there and add to the cheesiness, as in Noldor (Death Winter Reigns).

Basically this is an artistic album of (literally) Tolkien-ish power-folk metal, which ranges from convincing and great work to painfully unconvincing and mediocre (sometimes downright boring) composition. Some tracks are great, some are cheesy, some are boring. That sums up this album. If you're into the power-folk scene, this album is pretty much essential. Otherwise, there are thousands of albums that would be more worth your time. Get this if you're an avid Tolkien fan, I suppose.