Blind Guardian - A Twist In The Myth Review
Posted by Evocator Manes on 10.10.2006
German power metallers back again.
Blind Guardian A Twist In The Myth
2006
Nuclear Blast
7.0
After A Night At The Opera, the band took a well-deserved break of sorts. Amid projects of a more classical nature, because nothing beats 60 tracks of orchestra pits, the drummer quit, the lead singer did vocals on the less and less worthwhile Demons & Wizards project, they left longtime label Century Media for the Nuclear Blast label, who is acquiring a very impressive roster, and everyone tried to figure out what to do with the band.
There was no question that they couldn't go beyond A Night At The Opera. The dense and intricate layering of that album was so immense and staggering that it took several listens to even come to grips with, let alone enjoy. One can admire the grand scale of it, as one admires perhaps a very tall building, but as a day-in, day-out fixture, it did not succeed so well. In a way, it was too good, but in another way, the colossal scope of it made it virtually inaccessible.
It is hard to say, but the band has not gotten better since Nightfall In Middle Earth. They have progressed, certainly, but improved, no. It's hard to find a better one-two punch than Imaginations From The Other Side followed by Nightfall, but that was their peak and the last album that one could truly grasp onto and enjoy as a rocking out companion. Sure, Opera was art and nothing but, but once gone there, there is no going back. Now every big chorus and grandiose and epic song structuring leads back to art. Art is art for its own sake and doesn't care about rocking out. It is near-fatal for a lot of bands to go there, but especially poisonous for metal bands.
Thankfully, this album isn't hugely mired in that. There are some rocking numbers, such as the single Fly, but Kursch's delivery is all smoothness now and all sung in the same style. Queen-like choruses on some songs are good. One every single song? Not so good. There are only so many huge big rock star choruses that people can take.
Musically, this has all been done to death. One listen and it sounds like Blind Guardian, through and through, balls to bone. Every single one of these arrangements has been done before by this band and while it is done very skillfully, it is also a bit old hat, especially the singing/harmonizing guitar part...in every single song. Probably the best song on this is Skalds And Shadows, a gentle throwback number that calls to mind old medieval times and gets a bit away from the annoying standard Blind Guardian trends as mentioned above.
The art goes right into Dungeons & Dragons territory, with dragons on the cover and the Lord Of The Ring inspired wastelands shot. The lyrics are in and out of fantasy land and all faithfully reprinted in white block letters in the insert. The band is oddly superimposed over what looks like circuit boards and cyber-oriented items in the centerfold. Credits are also present and accounted for.
The 411: It is hard to decide where this fits in. It is almost a conscious combination of Opera and Nightfall, at times still too dense to grasp, but also going into tamer fare and several more blistering numbers, perhaps in an effort to appease fans of the old style as well as to satisfy their artistic urges in the new direction. Blind Guardian has not released a bad album yet and this certainly wouldn't qualify, but neither is it a great one. Fans should enjoy, but those new should start with either of the one-two punch mentioned in the review.
