Imaginations From The Other Side - Blind Guardian (CD) review

Review – Imaginations From The Other Side (CD)

Imaginations from the Other Side

Year of release: 1995
Number of songs: 9
Total running time: 48 minutes 56 seconds

This is clearly one of the most interesting and most technical albums ever made. I did take me a long time to get into this album. It is very difficult to say what exact style this band and this album contains, it consists many things.

Imagination From The Other Side - Blind Guardian

Most of the songs are Power Metal based, but with many detailed changes combined with a very overwhelming instrumental firework of sounds, resulting in a very complex and detailed sound. I´m Alive is a very fast and bombastic chorus driven track, heavy guitars and tons of energy. The same goes for The Script For My Requiem, coupled with some fantastic orchestral keyboard parts. This song has one of the most brilliant starts ever, it just invites you to go totally crazy. The pruduction is very bombastic, the drums are very much in front, but it works well and overall a very well produced album. The albums slowest song is the majestic A Past And Future Secret, brilliant melody and a medieval atmosphere, a pure classic with a great chorus. The acoustic guitar creates a perfect setting for the song, and the melody stays in your head for a long time after listening to it. Born In A Mourning Hall has some extremely cool melodic guitar leads, and once again the bombastic chorus has a central part. One of my absolute favourites is And The Story Ends, almost dreaming at times, some great changes, detailed instrumental elements and a great poetical lyric about personal problems and struggles. Overall the lyrics are very complex and difficult to understand, so you have to read them more than once. Generally the album is about fantasy tales and epic elements, and themes like spirituality, religion (and abuse of it), balancing between to worlds (good and evil), search for questions and inner peace and the controlled society´s evils. The album has a couple of songs which haven´t got the same melody and drama as the others, but I´m very positive of the overall picture. On the musically side the this album offers some fantastically well played songs. Extremely powerful and detailed drumming, some earthshaking guitar riffs, melodic leads, fast and solid bass, and a voice with much feel, aggressiveness and variation. Blind Guardian has developed a very complex sound, many instruments working together in a huge blend, and the songs are written in a way that makes them sound very bombastic.This is a fantastic album, with a very original and at times extremely heavy elements, but also with lots of melody.
Editor: Peter Jerman