BLIND GUARDIAN russian site : History of the Band Blind Guardian

"... The band me and Andre played in before was called Lucifer's Heritage and we started in '85 when we both met at school, and we afterwards found out that we were both very interested in metal. I mean, he knew that I was in the metal scene, but it wasn't so obvious that he was a metal fan. But once we found out we joined together, and we did that band Lucifer's Heritage, and from the beginning, we had the ambition to become professional musicians, and we had certain different musicians who came and go. So it was not always like Marcus, Andre, Thom, and me. But after a while, rather soon in '86, we joined together in that lineup. Before we joined together, we did two demos. One was called Battalions of Fear, and the other one was called Symphonies of Doom. And, of course on Battalions of Fear you mainly could listen to songs which have been on the Battalions album in different versions. Well, that was in '86. And in '87, we got the first record deal with a company called No Remorse Records, a young, independent label in those days which later on became bankrupt, which saved our asses. (laughing) Yeah, with the first album, Battalions of Fear, we already had a certain success in the German underground, but nowhere else. From that point on, it continued. We played the first concerts all over Germany, and we drew a lot of attention by this small amount of fan ship we had, so we could raise that up until the point of today...."
(from Hansi's tale about band forming)

Thus at this moment the band consists of following bards: Hansi Kursch – vocals and sometimes bass guitar, Andre Olbrich – lead guitar and backing vocals, Marcus Siepen – lead guitar too and rhythm guitar, the drummer is Thomas Stauch. The band came into existence in a small German town Krefeld (their recording studio is still in the suburbs of this town) under the influence of RPG and metal band Helloween.

BG 1985

Two demo-versions of "Symphonies of Doom" and "Battalions of Fear" released in 1985 were quite successful for this band, especially the latter. After that bards decided to change the name of their band into something less drastic than "Lucifer's Heritage" and so the new name became Blind Guardian.

Having signed a contract with No Remorse Records in 1986 they released their fist album named Battalions of Fear. To my mind the album was pretty good. The influence of Tolkien’s trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" was quite obvious in that album, especially in Majesty. There are also titles related to it: By the Gates of Moria and Gandalf's Rebirth. In my view the best compositions are Majesty, Run for the Night and The Martyr.

Released in the following year Follow the Blind (1988) was a little bit weaker. Kai Hansen from Helloween took part in the recording of this album (at No Remorse director’s will). You can hear his voice as a backing vocal in "Valhalla" and "Banished from Sanctuary". Perhaps it’s their weakest album: Hansi did not start his vocal trainings yet, his voice was quite coarse, and Kai’s vocal didn’t actually cheer up the band. Besides the album’s style was too uniform and monotonous. In my view the most powerful compositions are "Banished from Sanctuary" and "Valhalla".
This is the way band looked like after FTB:

However new album released in 1990 Tales from the Twilight World opened a new era in the history of this metal band. Album included compositions that joined the heaviness of the traditional metal and melody that developed absolutely unique Blind Guardian’s style of music. The cover-art was created by Andreas Marshall, a veteran of cover-art design for popular metal bands. I note that this album is my favourite of all BG’s albums. From this very album the band found its own style, and for the fist time for BG a ballade The Lord of the Rings was performed that elevated band’s class several levels up. The most powerful compositions from this album are The Lord of the Rings, The Last Candle and Lost in the Twilight Hall. The album also included live version of Run for the Night from Battalions.

Having signed in 1991 a contract with Virgin Records (for No Remorse went bankrupt) Blind Guardian released in 1992 their, probably, one of the best albums - Somewhere Far Beyond (1992). Melodic ballades in this album are mixed with quite heavy classical metal compositions. The Bard’s Songs had to become the singles but, unfortunately, they did not due to the lack of promotion. Another acoustic ballade by Blind Guardian – In the Forest turned to be even better than the first one. The album also included two cover versions – Queen’s Spread Your Wings and Trial by Fire by Satan. The most powerful compositions from this album are, naturally, In the Forest, also Theatre of Pain and The Hobbit.
This is the way band looked like after SFB:

One year later following the Deep Purple the band recorded live album in Japan named Tokyo Tales (1993). Album consisted of records made during the BG’s Japan concert tour. I’d like to mention especially Banished from Sanctuary and Majesty in live performance.

Next album recorded in 1995 was called Imaginations From the Other Side; it was released with the help and under the guidance of Flemming Rasmussen, who helped some albums of Metallica to appear before. IFTOS is considered by many to be the best album in all history of BG. Indeed, stunning medieval songs A Past and Future Secret, The Script for My Requiem (it’s a great favourite of mine!!!), Mordred's Song and amazing Imaginations from the Other Side prove this statement while others are not that great. But anyway the album is really very good.

In 1996 Blind Guardian recorded Forgotten Tales that apart from old hits included some new, known as To France, Surfing USA, Spread Your Wings and Barbara Ann. The last ones were just performed by the band, not composed. Some more details you can find in Hansi Kursch’s interview for Rock Brigade magazine. As a rule after album release the band organized a world tour named “Forgotten Tour”. It’s worth to note that this album was first to be officially distributed in France.

And finally not so long ago on 27 April 1998 their new album Nightfall in Middle-Earth was released, the biggest album by the number of compositions. As it follows from the title album was created on the base of works created by J.R.R. Tolkien, mainly Silmarillion. Inside legal CD box (by hearsay) you can find some chapters from Silmarillion that were used for creating lyrics for the songs. Lately Hansi Kursch sings more rather than plays bass guitar, and that’s why during the tour that followed the album release bassist Oliver Holdswort was invited to join the band temporarily.

“What plans has the band for the future?” - you may ask. I can only say that by hearsay, some vague words in interviews such picture could be seen. First of all, three songs that didn’t get in Nightfall – ballade Harvest of Sorrow and two heavy compositions - Of Elves and Dwarves and Turin Turambar are already recorded and will fit into new album as bonus tracks. Then band plans to record one or two conceptual albums. One will probably be dedicated to “Arthur’s Death” by Mallory or “Nibelung’s Ring”. After IFTOS the band possibly has some medieval songs that didn’t get in the album. On the other hand new album may be dedicated to “Akkalabet” (Fall of Numenore). And finally old dream of Hansi and Andre – to write rock-opera based on "The Lord of the Rings"! Besides we should consider all that excitement about the first screening of Tolkien’s trilogy! Rumours are numerous: they start from BG creating soundtracks and finish on Hansi playing a role of Citadel’s guardian ;)
Concerning release date it is very likely to say that new album will not come up before the end of 2000 – beginning of 2001.

Here you can read (on russian) more complete but slightly incorrect history of Blind Guardian. There again (on the pages of russian rock magazine) you can find a review of BG’s last album - Nightfall in Middle-Earth.


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