Blind Guardian Are Just Andrew Lloyd Webber Now
Okay, fine. I was never a Blind Guardian fan. Shit, for the most part, I was never really a power metal fan. The entire genre seems to be predicated on asking the question “What if Survivor was slightly faster and heavier?”, and my personal answer to that question has always been “Who gives a shit?”.
Nonetheless, my interest was piqued by the press release about Blind Guardian’s new song, “This Storm,” and album, Legacy of the Dark Lands, for several reasons:
- The band were now being referred to not as Blind Guardian, but, rather, as Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra. At first I was all “Wait, are there two Blind Guardians now?,” but no, the re-brand is because Legacy of the Dark Lands is orchestral. Huh okay.
- Guitarist André Olbrich and singer Hansi Kürsch “worked alongside German bestselling author Markus Heitz” to develop novel the novel Die dunklen Lande [The Dark Lands], a novel set in the 17th century that “contains the prequel to Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra’s opus Legacy of the Dark Lands.” Obviously that’s unusual too… at most, sometimes a metal band will try to tie in a narrative via a comic book, because pictures, but here Blind Guardian… er, Blind Guarian Twilight Orchestra were actually asking fans to read! (The book hasn’t been translated into English yet, though. So if you want the full story, get crackin’ on the German Rosetta Stone lessons.)
- The press release promises that Legacy of the Dark Lands will “be one of the most ambitious projects in metal history,” which is a bold claim, even for a press release, which is generally nothing but bold claims.
Okay! So I listened to the song. And, uh… it’s orchestral, all right! The re-brand makes much more sense to me now. ‘Cause this just a straight-up Broadway show tune. And not one of the fun ones. Like, Phantom or Les Mis or some other miserably melodramatic shit.
But, uh… hey maybe you’ll be much more impressed with this than I was?
Listen below. Legacy of the Dark Lands will be out November 8.
