A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

I thought was four stars .but .

I had this album for quite a long time. Actually I was not interested at all to purchase the CD because of one reason: I don't like an album name that is similar (hey, exactly the same!) with other band. I know exactly that "A Night at the Opera" name has anchored into my mind since my childhood when I knew Queen. So it's hard for me to accept other bands use similar or the same album name because it indicates the band is not creative at all. With countless provocation from my metal friends, I finally conquered myself and purchased the CD. With my previous total satisfaction of their "Nightfall In Middle Earth", it does make sense if I expect something more from than previous album. There was no regret at all after I spun the CD even though that I still rate "Nightfall" higher in rating than this album. One thing for sure, this album would not make you down at all - especially if you love power metal with some flavor of symphonic style. I personally like the way Hansi Kursch sings combined with unique guitar sounds and inclusion of keyboard which makes the album sounds symphonic.

On composition, I can say that this album has excellent melody where each song brings in itself a nuance of "tale" being told to listeners. The tagline melody mostly come from vocal and choirs even though in interlude the melody is given to guitar. The arrangements are mostly complex, blending the sounds of guitar, accentuated with keyboards and powerful drumwork and tight bass guitar lines. Particular to guitar, I think the sound is like a mix of Brian May's (Queen) and Mick Box's (Uriah Heep). The band has proven to be successful in providing ups and downs dynamically throughout particular track as well as the whole album. Having considered these factors, I can say that this album has an excellent structural integrity at song as well as album levels. The last part on composition is on music harmonies among vocal - choirs, guitar sounds, keyboards as well as drum and bass guitar. It's so beautiful and it brings the music in a very smooth flow.

The flow that makes great music!

The opening track "Precious Jerussalem" blasts off wonderfully through dynamic and jaw dropping drum work which gives "energy" to the music followed with Kursch voice line and unique guitar sound at background. The combination of lead voice and choirs is really excellent. It's an excellent opening track and it blew me away at first spin. The interlude part is also wonderful and it reminds me to the style of "Nightfall in Middle Earth" album. "Battlefield" opening is so colossal with guitar fills and keyboard in mellow style followed with powerful power metal music ala Blind Guardian. Hmmm. I can feel that this is the music of Blind Guardian. It's so unique and I don't think any band alike. The heavy riffs provided by this track are awesome especially when it's combined with guitar melody which reminds me to Mick Box of Uriah Heep. "Under The Ice" also has nice opening with guitar fills followed with fast tempo power metal music. The chorus line is "very Blind Guardian" - it's very unique! Oh I do enjoy the music interlude when guitar gives its stunning solo.

"Sadly Sings Destiny" starts with guitar riffs which makes me think of a hard rock track. But I'm wrong because what follows is a complex arrangements with guitar plays critical role augmented with powerful double pedal bass drum and bass guitar. Of course, the combination of vocal and choirs is still predominant factor in the music. The guitar solo this time reminds me truly to the music of Uriah Heep - it's like Mick Box playing power metal music. This song has great riffs and it's very dynamic in terms of style and tempo changes. The chorus line is great especially with high register notes on lead vocal department. "The Maiden and The Minstrel Knight" is very symphonic and it starts mellow with guitar fills augmented with keyboard. It's like taking a break from heavy music into mellow style. Still, I admire the combination of lead vocal and choirs - it's very nice man! When music flows into heavier style, the role of lead vocal and choirs is becoming more obvious especially when it's accentuated with guitar melody. Until this track I think all of tracks presented thus far are all progressive in style!

I won't do all track by track review as I think all tracks are great - at least for my ears. Track no. 10 "And Then There Was Silence" should be considered special because it's an epic with great composition and musicianship. This epic in itself is like a mini-story because the way the music composed is something like story telling - something like an opera, really! The song has great combination of melodies, styles as well as tempos. It flows beautifully from one segment to another even though there are pieces where the transition happen abruptly but they all have been successfully managed by the band to maintain cohesiveness. I would say at track level, this track has a great structural integrity and it fits also with overall album theme.

I can say that the flow of music segments in typical track as well as the movement from one track to another track is excellent and they sound cohesive and successful to create a story telling environment. Therefore I conclude that the flow has proven to be successful in creating great music.

Conclusion

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Yeah, I underestimated this album at first feel about it. The more I spin the CD, the more I find new subtleties which sound wonderful to my ears. That's why I keep spinning this CD many times because I have never gotten bore with the music. No wonder, just before I wrote this review I was in conversation with colleague collaborator (Floyd Wright) who claims that this album is very good. No I understand it very well. Nothing wrong then if I give this album as a masterpiece progressive metal album. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

My introduction to Blind Guardian was the song "Battlefield" from this album. I loved it, and bought a bunch of their albums. This one probably best demonstrates Blind Guardian's "new" sound: layers upon layers of guitar and vocals, which give the album an epic and symphonic flair. This album is recommended for those who enjoy power metal, or epic sounding music in general. The epic "And Then there was Silence" is one of the best songs Blind Guardian has ever done, as is "The Soulforged" and the aforementioned "Battlefield". Also recommended is "The Maiden and the Minstrel Knight", which has a symphonic medieval ballad feel, combined with Blind Guardian's brand of metal.

This is my favorite Blind Guardian album. Not as aggressive as Imaginations From the Other Side ( Which of course I find sad as I love aggressive music) and much more bombastic than Nightfall in Middle-Earth. But overall it´s the most symphonic and progressive album Blind Guardian has made so far.

The style is German Heavy Metal ( at this point there is not much power metal left in my opinion) with folky and symphonic tendencies.

It took me a couple of years an many listens to understand the greatness of this album. When I first listened to A Night at the Opera I was completely overwhelmed by the many layers in the music. There are just so many things going on under the lead melody that you really have to concentrate to appreciate this fully. Let me warn you that if you like your music mellow and subtle, stay away from this one, as A Night at the Opera might be the most symphonic and bombastic album I have ever heard.

Pick any song on this album and you will be thrown back in your seat trying to figure out what hit you. It´s just a massive wall of sound but what a beautiful sound.

This is a really original album as no other artist has ever sounded like this. I can give no less than 5 stars for this masterpiece.

I first bought Blind Guardian's album Nightfall in Middle Earth. I was impressed, sure, but I couldn't see exactly why it was listed as prog here in the archives. It sounded mostly like rather unique power metal to me. However, when I went out and purchased A Night at the Opera, those questions were answered, and fairly quickly. If you want to find this band's proggiest output, this is where to go. If nothing else convinces you, try the fourteen And Then There Was Silence, full of rhythm and key changes and massive harmonies and a chorus like I have never heard anywhere else.

I'm not a big power metal fan. I'm not really that into hyperfast songs with little bass and incredibly cheesy lyrics. But this album works, all the way through, keeping quite uptempo through a lot of it without getting repetitive. My brother, a drummer, is fascinated by this album--chances are if crazy or creative drumming works for you, this is a great place to go. From the blistering double bass on Precious Jerusalem to the excellent cymbal work at the end of Wait for an Answer, Thomen Stauch proves he is a master of those rhythm circles. And that's not to say that someone who is a big fan of guitar would be disappointed, either. The electric riffs and solos work magic in this context. The only thing missing is a strong bass presence, which I think might be the only problem I have with this album at all.

And then there's the vocals. They might not work for some, I understand. They are about the most pretentious collection of four part harmonies soaring over electric guitars. Personally, I think they're really interesting and add so much to the music, but to the fan of more straightforward rock or metal, I can see how they can drag the album down. Hansi has a unique voice, and maybe not the best one, but the man has a keen sense for singing with emotion and power. And for writing genius vocal melodies.

Definitely something to give a shot to. Fans of progressive or power metal should be able to enjoy this, as it sits somewhere between the two (less progressive than Symphony X, but much more so than, say, Dragonforce). Just try to avoid singing along with random vocal bits, like the chorus of Battlefield or melodies here and there throughout And Then There Was Silence. It's fantastic stuff, and I enjoy it even more now than I did on my first few listens--a sure sign of true progressive magic.

Quite possibly their best album, alongside with Nightfall in Middle-Earth. Strangely enough, both albums have night in their titles. . .

All bands have their golden phases and release some pretty awesome albums (or album) during it. That is the time when the bands make their classics, their most important and/or representative works, when they truly make their ground for the future, for being remembered and having some influence whatsoever. With Blind Guardian, that phase started with Imaginations From the Other Side and will (hopefully) continue pass A Twist in the Myth, and includes this very album that i am reviewing right now.

With A Night at the Opera, Blind Guardian does exactly what the album name proposes: with an enormous amount of vocal overdubs and most songs having an epic feeling, it does seems like, in some extend, you are in an opera house or in a concert hall.

Also, A Night at the Opera do not sound like the normal Blind Guardian album, but in the good way: the already good straightforward power metal they did was, here, partially thrown away and substituted by an interesting, diverse and fresh metal. So, instead of just exceeding themselves at the straightforward power metal (like they did in Nightfall in Middle-Earth and Imaginations from the Other Side), they actually brought many new things to the table, like the more profuse usage of keyboards and pianos (for being both the harmonic base or another soloist instrument) and the bigger versatility of the instrumental session. Their music became clearly much deeper and interesting, apart from also becoming more complex, and maybe that is why this album could arguably be classified as a progressive metal album.

This album, however, carries with itself one very sad fact: this is the last Blind Guardian studio album with the long-time drummer Thomen. Thomen actually left Blind Guardian in 2005, claiming that he was not satisfied by the direction the band took in Nightfall and A Night and to pursuit his own personal projects, after being the drummer of Blind Guardian for 20 years.

The highlights go to the whole album. All songs are very good ones and the only one that really need any extra attention is the only band epic up to date, called And Then There was Silence, (possibly) based on the Trojan War (like you didn't had it coming . . .).

Grade and Final Thoughts

I gotta say that i really believe that this album is actually as good as Nightfall in Middle-Earth. When it comes to the best Blind Guardian album, people always choose one between this one, Nightfall or Imaginations (which i believe is the less-good of the three), but i think that both night albums are just as good, but good in different ways.

Anyway, the bottom line is that this album is really awesome (specially in the power metal sense of the word, because all songs have an epic feeling). Because of that i think that this albums deserves the masterpiece grade.

'A Night at the Opera' - Blind Guardian (96/100)

Just take a look at the bloody album cover. You could stare at it for five minutes and still find new ghouls and spooks in the woodwork, grinning back at you. It's an altogether fitting cover for the most challenging, complex and ultimately satisfying power metal album I have ever heard. A Night at the Opera is an album saturated with layers and detail. It's an hour of music forged from the same kind of painstaking perfectionism that Queen poured into its namesake nearly three decades before it. In the broadest sense, it's as if their entire career had led up to this farflung expression of decadent bombast; as it was, there were no greater heights for them to climb thereafter.

Blind Guardian have long been among my favourite metal bands, and A Night at the Opera has been my favourite album of theirs for most of that time. At the same time, I understand why it's turned out to be their most divisive album to date. Everything from Tales from the Twilight World onward were progressively more ambitious undertakings. By the point of Nightfall in Middle-Earth in 1998, Blind Guardian unleashed one of the most overwhelming power metal albums ever; a certified extravaganza of the Tolkien-inspired bombast they're known (and mostly loved) for. At that point, there were already plenty of people complaining-- dammit, they wanted the good, clean power metal of Somewhere Far Beyond again. Even on Nightfall in Middle-Earth, I can understand why some people interpreted the added instrumentation and ambitious conceptual angle as unnecessarily padded.

Of course, Blind Guardian went ahead and made something that has made Nightfall in Middle-Earth look relatively tame in comparison. Even if Blind Guardian were more talented with arrangement than songwriting on this album, the latter seems to get unduly criticized by fans. While I don't imagine songs like "Under the Ice" and "Wait for an Answer" would be as mind-boggling had BG not gone the extra mile, most of these songs would earn a place among the band's best written pieces. Their most epic compositions notwithstanding, "Battlefield" is possibly the best single-worthy addition to the band's catalogue. Complete with the energized Medieval tinge, it successfully conveys the chaotic sense of being in the fray of clashing swords, dark clouds of arrows raining overhead. I have a hard time thinking that even the most prog-hating metal mongoloid would find a gripe with "The Soulforged" either; although it offers some of Andre Olbrich's most intricate guitar work to date, the battleready spirit is palpable.

Part of me almost wishes Blind Guardian had put a greater emphasis on these high-octane tracks; as much as I love the progressive direction they took, the ambition feels all the more profound when they pump it up. Some of the less frantic songs on the album are more difficult to rightly interpret as songs; although each of the tracks have clearcut choruses in the band's prime tradition, I find myself occasionally more in awe of the way the band has brought the music to life, rather than their written skeletons. "Sadly Sings Destiny" and "Wait for the Answer" maintain the feeling of overwhelming exhilaration, but I do wonder if they would have held up, had they been produced with the relatively straightforward approach of Somewhere Far Beyond. Even if it might be said that A Night at the Opera is a slightly less consistent set of songs than a few of the albums before it, it takes an entirely different kind of genius to enrich the music with added arrangements. There's a frustrating trend for symphonic metal bands to tack the 'orchestral' elements of their composition as an afterthought to their supposed main course. Blind Guardian's dedication to see how much detail they could milk out of each minute of the album resulted in an entirely unique listening experience; even the album's weakest moments feel profoundly realized.

Although A Night at the Opera may have still been a prime contender for the best Blind Guardian album without it, there is no doubting a significant part of the awe for the album is derived from it's fourteen-odd minute centrepiece, "And Then There Was Silence". Not only is it the most elaborate piece Blind Guardian ever wrote-- it's quite likely the closest metal has ever come to mirroring the heights of classical music; not just in timbre, but the sheer weight of the composition. It unfolds as a self-contained opera, fuelled with nothing other than the Trojan Wars as their literary inspiration. It took three months' recording (equal to the rest of the album combined) just to buckle the thing down. That balances out to just under five minutes of recorded music per month; for any other working band that would be a snail's pace, but you can hear the countless hours of labour in every minute of their magnum opus. Although the rest of the album could be more or less adapted for use in a live rock concert, the band's performance here could not be removed from its orchestral accompaniment without a fatal loss to the music. Blind Guardian have been long acquainted with the use of symphonic and folkish arrangements in their music, but it's only here that the band turned their instruments into an extension of the symphony, rather than vice versa. Although a defiant motif (I hesitate to call it a chorus!) recurs throughout the piece, "And Then There Was Silence" is virtually rhapsodic as it progresses from one idea to the next. The ebb and flow of the composition is indelibly linked with the source material; although the band have often evoked an operatic impression, it's only here where I can truly imagine the music being adapted for the stage of some grand performance house. It manages to cover an entire range of emotion in less than fifteen minutes, from anxiety to tenderness, from heartbreak to triumph, finality and lingering sense of eternity. To describe it would entail the finest sort of hyperbole. It is power metal raised to 11 in every regard; the amount of substance packed into this album's closing monument to require many hours of listening in its own right.

I think Blind Guardian would have done themselves a disservice, had they tried to surpass the excess of Blind Guardian. They fell ever so slightly over the brink of madness with this one, and the polarized opinions are proof of this. The accessible turn they later took with A Twist in the Myth is confirmation that the band agreed they had finally struck the limits of their sound. To be honest, I don't blame with the people who can't get into the album's demanding excess. It's far from immune (or innocent) from criticism, but many of the things people dislike the most are a proof of the rare extent to which the band pushed their music. To date, I've yet to find another album in power metal that matches it in sheer scope and depth.

Following the splendid "Nightfall in Middle Earth", Blind Guardian managed to release another impressive metal album!

Maybe the earliest impression I had the first time I listened this album was a bit wrong... The production was incredible, the sound perfect, but the songs lacked something. I missed a bit the spontaniety and power of "Imaginations from the Other Side", and the great balance between melody and energy of their previous release. "A Night at the Opera" was maybe a bit too excesive, too full of details... And maybe even too progressive!

But after a few listenings, I realized what a great album "A Night at the Opera" is... The digestion of the songs is slow, but once you've managed to get into them, you'll enjoy inmensily the listening of this heavy carrousel of compositive genious, virtuousity and tons of epic feeling. This is maybe the most intense Blind Guardian album, their most melodic, and complex one.

The albums flows in a mangnificient way, offering great songs, and although one track at the beginning (Under the Ice) and some tracks at the end (The Soulforged and Age of False Innocence) are a bit under the quality of the rest of the album, the final impression is really good. This crazy waste of details, production values and impressive guitar melodies is rare in metal today... Maybe a bit excessive, like I said, but impressive anyway!

Instrumentally, Andre Olbrich and Marcus Siepen are just spectacular here... The trademark Blind Guardian guitar sound is here again, and even better than before. Just hear the instrumental interludes... Wow! The last recording of Thomen Stauch with the band was also impressive, showing what a great drummer he was... And Hansi Kürsch's voice is the most renowed element of the bunch. He sounds a bit different in comparision with previous albums, primarily because he sings in higher notes, reaching levels that were unknown from him, but keeping the same rage and feeling. He sings higher and a bit less dirty tan before (making a very well mix with the stylish music...), but not with the ugly, almost totally clean and girlie vocie he used later in "A Twist in the Myth".

Bes tracks: How Far Jerusalem (a "in your face" track, spectacular beginning...), Battlefield (one of the most epic moments of the band... The chorus is just incredibly powerful!), Wait for an Answer (happy metal at its best!), Punishment Divine (a curious mix between the classic speed metal style of the band and their progressive modern orientation...) and And Then there Was Silence (the longest Blind Guardian song, and maybe their most progressive composition...)

Conclusion: despite its wrong tittle, and its horrendous cover artwork, "A Night at the Opera" is an excellent album. In my opinion, it's not so good like the previous "Nightfall in Middle Earth" for a pair of weak tracks, but it's the most spectacular, well produced, complex, detailed, epic... And progressive Blind Guardian album! Very recommended to every progressive metal fan!

My rating: ****

I once heard Avantasia's "The Metal Opera" and was disgusted and overwhelmed by bad feelings about it. It was really cheap metal used for those who wants not so much from music.

But I do want a lot and I think I found it in "A Night at the Opera". Almost like Symphony X, but still different. But you not, this "fantasy" style of prog metal is always similar one to another, so we should overlook these coincidences. Same case as with jazz, same background, but these little things that makes it special are important.

I really feel like in Opera, atmosphere is furious and you really feel that you're part of this play. The problem is that I'm not sure if it's for everyone. This is nothing calm, you'll not be allowed to rest for a second and taking pauses, or the worse, leaving during this would be not polite. And is this music polite after all ? Well, it's offering a lot for your senses.

5(-), offering a lot, demanding not so much, melodic and done in true metal style (metal equivalent of prog rock), one of their best albums, what else should I ask for.

Kicked me right out of my power metal depression, this one. Fundamentally different yet refreshingly similar to its often-times rather formulaic peers, A Night at the Opera proved that it's actually possible to go beyond the dry, speedy riffs, sappy, upbeat melodic workouts and progressively sillier and more brothers-in-arms-like battle cries of the choruses. In my eyes, it just sucks the life and individuality out of so many of these bands, leaving a diluted mess of metal it's hard to connect to at any level.

Blind Guardian is markedly different, yet very much the same as the rest of the school of German speed/power/heavy metal on this album. While perhaps being slightly easier on the speed part, you find all you'd expect from such a band here, so there's no escaping that fact. But Blind Guardian takes it all one step further and dares to break free of the structural conservatism, jumping from mood to mood, tempo to tempo and even style to style just as effortlessly you want your prog heroes to do it. There's a free-spirited, collective spirit of exploration and curiosity that makes the metal here reach new levels of composition and harmonic depth while still being true to its identity. It also helps that Hansi Kürsch has been blessed with one of the rarest qualities in power metal, namely a unique and dynamic voice.

It's a sweaty, complex (even without wild time signatures and untraditional song-writing) set of songs that face you when you turn the volume up for A Night at the Opera. Unapologetic epic pretensions, layer upon layer of almost perfectly coordinated vocals, harmonies, riffs and swirling melodies. Orchestral keyboard arrangements, medieval minstrelsy, symphonic pretensions and deadly power from hard-hitting riffs and dynamic drumming that hits you right in the gut. At times, the depth in the layering and the wall of sound it produces reaches almost face-melting values, positively soaring with life and energy. Bombast is the word, so if you can't bear that, stay miles away from this record. It's close to bursting from it.

And in the end, that's the only thing that keeps me from awarding this the full five stars. Sitting through the ten songs here is quite exhausting. The experience just leaves you drained after being pounded by wave after wave of all that thick, thick music.

Remarkably high quality throughout the whole album, with no true low points.

4 stars.

//LinusW

Oh my, I can't say that I wasn't warned! I had read on ProgArchives about this album as having a huge sound that had to be heard to be believed. But there's no way to prepare for this. It's massively, epically, comically, stupendously huge, and the onslaught lasts for an hour!

It's like being punch drunk and sort of enjoying being pummeled, but a part of you also wants it to end--knows it has to end.

Let's see...we've got massive Queen-like choirs throughout, tons of hammering double-bass, ever-present dual guitar (sometimes it sounds like four or five lines), pretentious lyrics, and on top of all that, lots of orchestra hits to add even more emphasis.

I'd talk about some of the songs, but they really do sound a lot alike. Maybe it needs more time to grow, but most times I put it on, I get that drowning feeling and have to come up for air. I suppose if I had to pick one, it would be the 14 minute closer, And Then There Was Silence, which gives me a digestible chunk when I'm in the mood to be musically pummeled.

All in all, certainly a unique album. Judging by the cover, I wouldn't see much difference between this and Pendragon's Masquerade Overture, but upon listening, they couldn't be much more different.

It's strange--I don't really like to listen to this album, but I do think it's cool that it exists. It answers an important question: What happens when take over-the-top metal and then go a few notches higher?

Now I know: A Night at the Opera happens, and now that the matter is resolved, let's hope bands in the future decide against answering it again.

I'm certainly not the biggest fan of this band, in fact I only listen to "Imaginations From The Other Side" anymore as I feel it's by far their best. Having said that, these guys are pros and everything i've heard from them i've enjoyed somewhat. And this is no exception. This is perhaps their most Symphonic and Progressive album and I applaud them for changing gears here.

"Precious Jerusalem" opens with drums as these double tracked vocals with guitars kick in. Not a fan of this song or the next one called "Battlefield".The latter kicks in quickly with urgant vocals. "Under The Ice" might be my favourite. I like the guitar early on. Great sounding instrumental as well after 3 1/2 minutes. "Sadly Sings Destiny" has a cool guitar intro then a barrage of drums joins in.Vocals follow.Good song. "The Maiden And The Minstrel Knight" is mellow with reserved vocals. A Classical vibe here too. It kicks in before 3 1/2 minutes.

"Wait For An Answer" hits the ground running. Some killer guitar 4 1/2 minutes in then the vocals return. "The Soulforged" is more the like the first couple of tracks. Not a fan. "Age Of False Innocence" sounds really good when it kicks in after a minute. "Punishment Divine" is intense after 2 minutes then the guitars light it up a minute later. Good tune. "And The There Was Silence" is the over 14 minute closer. It has it's moments but I would only rate it as good. I do like when it calms down 3 minutes in with fragile vocals. It's just nice to hear for a change I guess.

Power-Metal fans probably already own this but if you don't you should check it out.

I guess it's no surprise Blind Guardian named this album after Queen's most critically acclaimed one (though it is a bit presumptuous) - after all, the main difference between this one and its predecessors is the band's deliberate use of decidedly Queen-like vocal harmonies, Queen-like mass overdubs, and a thorough injection of Queen-like pomp rock. To be honest, it doesn't make Blind Guardian's latter-day musical approach any more palatable to me, but I guess if you're really into power metal and really into Queen then it'll probably appeal to you. To be honest, I'd rather just listen to the better tracks off the original Night at the Opera again.