A TWIST IN THE MYTH

As I understand it, Blind Guardian decided they'd had enough creating bombastic songs that they couldn't pull off live that well, so they stripped down their sound some and came out with an album that doesn't sound that much like power metal OR progressive metal. This one falls somewhere in the hard rock or heavy metal area, as far as I know. While that's not bad, and the album is certainly a fun one to listen to, it seems quite a letdown after the massive and unstoppable A Night at the Opera. There are few choirs here, the tempos are generally slower, the guitars less crunchy, the melodies a bit less inspiring, and the strings and backing sounds are mostly missing. It is quite well produced, however, especially compared to any of the pre-Nightfall in Middle Earth albums.

A worthy addition to a Blind Guardian fan's collection, but not a good place to start, and not really that essential. The track Otherland is about the only song that really harks back to the excitement I found on other CDs of their, but they all are listenable and, I suppose, progressively mellow.