Situated in a small village outside Krefeld, Blind Guardian's privately owned studio hosted us for a day. The meeting took place on Saturday, November 3rd, 2001. During that day, we had the opportunity to discuss with the band about their new album and have a sneak preview (pre-hearing) of what is about to follow.
At the time this report is being written, the new Blind Guardian single is ready for release. It will include a 14 minute long song about the Iliad, much in the orchestral style the band adopted for their latest album, Nightfall In Middle Earth. In the same vein, the ballad Harvest of Sorrow, originally intended to be included in an EP to follow Nightfall In Middle Earth, is the second track of the single. For the first time, Blind Guardian decided to include in their cd a multimedia track as well (at this moment, the contents of this file are a surprise for the fans). The official release date is November 11th.
The full album will be released in early 2002, as announced on their official site. The recordings are almost complete, and the band is ready to start working on mixing and production. The sound of the new songs varies from heavy Imaginations From The Other Side riffs to more orchestral Nightfall In Middle Earth style songs. There is lots of creativity and originality present as usual, but the basic lines have the typical Blind Guardian stamp on them. The final outcome sound will depend a lot on the mixing sessions. The band does not want to end up with an album sounding like one of their previous releases. They all agree that they want something else, something new. If we do the same thing as in 'Imaginations' or as in 'Nightfall', useless comparisons will be inevitable.
As usual, Hansi Kürsch, the main Blind Guardian lyrics writer, read a lot in order to compose the lyrics for the new songs. Many of the songs follow fantasy themes. After a contest on the official Blind Guardian site, Dragonlance (from the famous Dungeons and Dragons rpg world) got to be featured in one of the new songs, dealing mainly with Raistlin's character. There is also a metal love song present, telling the story of Tristan and Isolde. And of course, the album's major song, And Then There Was Silence. Hansi mentioned that he got fascinated when he discovered the depth of the Iliad. He sees behind the usual epic battle scenes and decides to focus on the tragic figure of Cassandra, the seeress who was damned to foretell the future and never be believed.
A major concern for the band, a topic that was very frequently discussed, is music piracy on the internet. Their newest song (And Then There Was Silence…), leaked on the net soon after it was produced. This lack of control over the distribution of their own work was disturbing for them. Nevertheless, Blind Guardian feel secure of their fans loyalty and are planning to make use of the internet, through several projects to appear on their official homepage and irc channel soon.
Blind Guardian will be again in Greece in May, to give 2 (or maybe 3) concerts. They remember the craziness of the Greek fans and are looking forward to play here again.
