After a late night that started early I slept in today and awoke refreshed and ready to take on the world. Having taken on said world (I went for brunch) I’m now back and ready to provide you some musical exploration.
Disc 1763 is…Imaginations from the Other Side
Artist: Blind Guardian
Year of Release: 1995
What’s up with the Cover? Holy shit – what isn’t up with the cover? We have a mystical portal, presumably leading to the mysterious but rather vague universe known as “The Other Side”. The portal is held open by the mystical energies of a magical lute crackling with energy, and guarded by a trio of miniature dragons. The two on the bottom look like they’re snapping at each other, but I think it’s just foreplay.
Speaking of miniatures, the portal is guarded by a couple of statutes. One of a heavy metal wizard playing the aforementioned lute, and the other some faceless wraith or tattered king type.
Not enough awesome for you? Let’s throw in a book, and a quill and ink, practically screaming at you that you are about to be treated to a bunch of fanciful stories.
Neat.
How I Came To Know It: A month or two ago I was exploring the interwebs looking for bands that liked to sing about Lord of the Rings. This began innocently enough, when I bought an album by the band Summoning called “Minus Morgul” (coincidentally also released in 1995) and thought “how much of this kind of stuff is out there?”
Turns out, quite a lot. The search led me down a Youtube hole where I tried out about 15 metal bands. Most didn’t stick, but the big win was Blind Guardian. The album that drew me in was (fittingly) “Nightfall in Middle Earth” but I bought it and “Imaginations from the Other Side” the same day and “Imaginations…” got rolled first. So here we are.
How It Stacks Up: I have three Blind Guardian albums and I’m on the lookout for seven more (yes, seven). Of the three I have so far, “Imaginations…” comes in at #2.
Ratings: 3 stars
“When I was your age, television was called books,” admonishes Peter Falk’s grandfather character in the Princess Bride before sharing a fantastical tale featuring “fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles”. If this doesn’t sound too bad to you, and you like your heavy metal served up fast, furious and with a side of the theatrical then you are likely to enjoy “Imaginations from the Other Side”.
Musically, the record sounds like three-quarters European power metal, and one-quarter ancient folk ballad. This may not be for you, but there is no denying the energy they pour into the music.
The drums are relentless and snap with a crisp authoritative thwack throughout (kudos to drummer Thomen Stauch). Andre Olbrich’s guitar solos soar as you would expect from the genre, and vocalist Hansi Kursch has one of metal’s great voices. On the metal tunes, he flies over the mix like a dark angel, every word filled with dread import. On the folksier numbers he sounds like he’s singing around some medieval campfire, sharing some ancient folk tale passed down through the ages. I imagine his power could scare away hungry wolves in winter or – even better – invite them to join in with their haunting howl from somewhere deep in the snow-blanketed woods.
As for what they sing about, Blind Guardian are unashamedly in touch with their inner nerd. On “Imaginations…” they double down on all things fun and fantastical. This is a record with more literary and folklore references than you can shake a stick at, often tossed together randomly and rapid-fire on a single song. Here’s a fine example from the title track:
“Do you know
If Merlin did exist
Or Frodo wore the ring
Did Corum kill the gods
Or where’s the wonderland
Which young Alice had seen.”
That’s a lot of references, and if you didn’t catch them all then I suggest you read more. Blind Guardian certainly do, and the title track seems to be about how delightful it is to escape life’s drudgery in the pages of a book. Agreed.
However, as you can also surmise from that stanza, while Blind Guardian clearly have passion for their subject matter, the lyrics themselves aren’t terribly poetic or inspiring. The musicianship and themes of the record consistently outperforms the words that accompany them.
Nevertheless, the record grew on me over multiple listens, which is always a good sign. Once you surrender yourself to the barrage of sound and the ever-climbing anthemic song structure you are quickly hooked.
The record also has some impressive crunch. “The Script for My Requiem” is frantic and heavy in equal measure, crunching away at an impossible speed. The band is incredibly tight, and it feels like going fast in a performance car – breathtakingly thrilling but in total control, as it hugs every corner.
My copy of the album is a special edition CD set with the original record, as well as a remastered one that features a couple of bonus cover tracks. The original record has a bit more thump, and the remaster is a bit brighter with more separation of sound. I liked them both, but think the remaster benefited from the separation and highlighted the band’s strengths.
The two covers are awesome. The first is the Uriah Heap classic, “the Wizard” which I think I loved just as much as the original, and maybe more. The other one is a cover of Michael Schenker Group’s “System’s Failing” which I didn’t previously know, but quickly came to love as Blind Guardian shows off the bones of the original classic as well as their own unique sound.
Lots to recommend here and despite sometimes clunky lyrics, this record delivers a whole lot of awesome.
Best tracks: I’m Alive, The Script for My Requiem, Born in a Mourning Hall and from the bonus tracks “the Wizard”
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