Blind Guardian

http://www.myspace.com/blindguardian

I've only owned one album of theirs before, which was A Night at the Opera. Any other fans?

You started with A Night at the Opera? Risky!

Get hold of their middle albums, Somewhere Far Beyond, Imaginations Through the Looking Glass and Nightfall in Middle Earth. Thats the best place to start. Their first three albums are more thrashy, heavier, and their latest are more orchestral, epic, harder to get into.

One of my new favorites,Hansi has a different voice,but with repeated listenings have determined he has a Dio kind of quality,in that he can take a cover and make it his,kind of ..ahem...like someone else I know,a certain Mr Robert Lowe.(shameless,shameless name dropping ) Hansi does an awesome take on Uriah Heep's Wizard and excels on Demon's Don't Break The Circle.Overall,I think NIME might be their best album,they really should do one on the Felllowship or any of the rest of the Trilogy,IMHO that is where their strength lies,like Dio,they are at their best with mystic or fantasy themes.

Yup - agreed.

Good band. . . some times kind of samey - but overall good stuff. I have several.

What's the band that one of the singers from BG left to form. . . ?

That would be Demons and Wizards, along with Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth.

Ah. that was pretty good. But I thought there was another. . . . hmmmm.

Savage Circus? Is that one?

I don't know. . .

Spinning A Twist in the Myth now.

Great disc. Or mp3's - or whatever.

Good music!!!!!

Battalions of Fear is one of my favorites along with Imaginations and Nightfall.

Nightfall was my first - still a great disc.

_Wes wrote:

Ah. that was pretty good. But I thought there was another. . . . hmmmm.

Savage Circus? Is that one?

I don't know. . .

it was BG's drummer, Thomen Stauch, that formed Savage Circus after leaving BG. He's been replaced by Mike Terrana at this point, though.... Savage Circus contains some members from Persuader (guitarist Emil Norberg, vocalist Jens Carlson) and Iron Savior (guitarist Piet Sielck). It's pretty much the direction I WISH BG had gone after NiME, and Carlson is EERILY similar to Hansi.

If you like the Hansi's vocals, I have to strongly urge you to check out both Persuader's catalog and Dark Empire's "Humanity Dethroned" disc, which Jens did vocals for. Persuader is a LOT like a thrashier version of the early Blind Guardian style, and Dark Empire is a thrashy powermetal band that is a beast all unto its own.

_Wes wrote:

Nightfall was my first - still a great disc.

Same here. I bought it when it came out and quickly commenced in collecting the rest of their catalogue. As for their next albuim....I actually wasn't too impressed with Night At the Opera when it came out. I'm a huge Tolkien fan, so I missed the mystical quality of their 4 previous albums. Either way, BG are one of the most talented bands in the metal genre.

"A Night At the Opera" is easily my favorite, followed by "A Twist in the Myth."

Prophet of Doom wrote:

_Wes wrote:

Nightfall was my first - still a great disc.

Same here. I bought it when it came out and quickly commenced in collecting the rest of their catalogue. As for their next albuim....I actually wasn't too impressed with Night At the Opera when it came out. I'm a huge Tolkien fan, so I missed the mystical quality of their 4 previous albums. Either way, BG are one of the most talented bands in the metal genre.

If you are not already familiar with them you might check out the older work of Attacker,they make some references to the Wizard and co on some songs,one of the albums is actually titled "Battle At Helms Deep",also if you visit my power/speed/metal culture site www.myspace.com/thunderlight3 you can find links to other fantasy metal bands,some you may not have heard of,and if you are a Tolkien fan you are cordially invited to visit www.myspace.com/swordofthegods and let me know what you think of my writing project shameless,shameless plugging at work here