Blind Guardian
At the Edge of Time

Foreword

Wow.

This three-letter word would suffice, but I think I wouldn't earn my imaginary bread with so little (and they would kick me out of DeBaser as well).

Let's say right away that I am a great admirer of the Bards from Krefeld. Great admirer not to say fanboy (after all, if there's a band for which my fanboy vein would pulse, it would certainly be Blind Guardian along with a few other lucky ones) so have mercy if this review will be too subjective (and overly verbose)...

In Previous Episodes

The Guardian delighted us, at the end of the '90s, with what are probably the absolute masterpieces of their discography, namely: Imaginations from the Other Side and the Silmarillion-inspired concept Nightfall in Middle-Earth.

Both, besides their indisputable technical skill and musical originality (especially in that Power Metal which replicates itself in a thousand identical ways in recent years, remaining a definition that always feels a bit tight for the Bards - as well as any other) were characterized (for the joy of both hardcore Tolkien fans and others) by that "fantasy" that tastes of Epic and Myth, philosophy, literature, and the usual power/speed matrix (which, although characteristic at the beginning, has now increasingly been lost along the way) mixed in an enviable artistic expression that's as diverse and eclectic as ever.

Following these two masterpieces are the intriguing, yet controversial and possibly a bit pretentious A Night at the Opera (the last Blind Guardian album under Virgin Records before the switch to Nuclear Blast) and the beautiful (but perhaps at times a bit bland) A Twist in the Myth.

4 Years Later

In recent years, Blind Guardian gave us a taste of what was brewing with Sacred, a song written for the namesake video game and reintroduced in the new work in a chic and reworked fashion (Sacred Worlds, in fact). And it is precisely with this last track that our journey at the edge of time begins:

9 minutes, a powerful orchestra blended with a song already heard but only now appreciated in its full maturity... an important clue to understanding what we can expect from At the Edge of Time

Tanelorn takes us to the most characteristic dimension of the Teutonic group: Hansi draws out screams that hark back to the band's roots, and the song itself is a worthy heir to that "speed" mentality that remains, of necessity, material of another era and which has thus been rendered in a way similar yet dissimilar to the band's historical repertoire.

Road of no Release would be another (excellent) piece in pure Guardian style, were it not for that (positively) unusual detail characterized by the piano, the backbone of the track's melody and the absolute protagonist of its epilogue, leading into that marvel that is Ride into Obsession, a track that always harkens back to the old-school speed and turns out to be quite thrashy, albeit with a unique approach that makes the song one of the album's most engaging even after just one listen, standing ovation deserving for the riffs of André and Marcus in this respect.

After this very fast and exciting ride, we return to another of the Guardians' trademarks: the magical ballads with a slightly Celtic flavor that have contributed significantly to the group's success: thus in Curse my Name appears another inevitable incarnation of the spirit of The Bard Song, A Past and a Future Secret, Harvest of Sorrow, Skalds and Shadows, and so on, and the result is, needless to say, stunningly evocative.

Instead, Valkyries is a bit the natural continuation of the creative path the Bards have embarked on over the past ten years, a song that feels like a very heavy and solemn progressive rock (and that perhaps has very little "metal" to it, especially compared to the rest of the album - excepting the mandatory ballad), along this line also the albeit harsher and more choral Control the Devine, carried forward by an exceptional main riff and a rather exotic acoustic guitar in the finale, a fitting prelude to War of the Thrones:

The piano returns in grand style, followed by a fantastic vocal performance by Hansi Kursch and a masterful orchestra that drags along a song that perhaps, at first listen, can give us those sensations already described above when talking about Curse my Name... but upon closer analysis one discovers a completely atypical composition, almost a piece of a soundtrack by some genius composer combined with one of the most unique voices in the global metal scene.

At times perhaps more "lovingly predictable" is A Voice in the Dark, the first single extracted from the CD (excluding the "base" of Sacred Worlds as mentioned previously) a very successful song on a technical level and one of Hansi's vocal performances that most hark back to the old school... although, perhaps due to its position in the tracklist (it is between two truly exceptional "colleagues") I don't feel it can completely represent this great At the Edge of Time (but after all, it was the only viable choice for the single role, along with very few others).

We are at the end: it's already clear how I feel about the Blind Guardian and this album in particular, so I won't beat around the bush: Wheel of Time is, in my opinion, the band's best work since Nightfall in Middle-Earth. Originally a purely orchestral composition, this song is somewhat the epitome of everything: there's Bright Eyes, there's Battlefield, there's The Bard Song, The Curse of Feanor.... yet it's all new, unheard of before. And, like the entire album, it's something beautiful.