Nightfall in Middle-Earth Blind Guardian CD Review

Review – Nightfall in Middle-Earth (CD)

Nightfall in Middle-Earth

Year of release: 1998
Number of songs: 22
Total running time: 65 minutes 29 seconds

Nightfall in the Middle-Earth by Blind Guardian

If you are J.R.R Tolkien fan then you will love this album concepts. This is one of the coolest Blind Guardian albums ever. The complexity of the tracks is vast, and so is the track-list, which counts 22 tracks. About half of them are small interludes or instrumental tracks, and the 'real' tracks are being supported by these interludes, which in turn create a great conceptual album. "Into The Storm" this track has everything a Blind Guardian track should have. The fast parts and the hard vocals, the cool guitar solos, the grand choirs, and the hard and brutal vocals of Hansi, and so much more. The next real track is "Nightfall" and it´s just as brilliant if not more brilliant than "Into The Storm". This track has a really cool vibe, with a nice start and the brutal chorus part. The track also has that medieval sound combined with the power metal that I like. This album is made as if you are reading a great book; it takes you through all sorts of emotions, everything from rage through anger into despair that leads us to gloom. This album hasn´t got a happy end; it´s a rather gloomy end. The music is some of the coolest I have heard from the hands of Blind Guardian, and at times this is my favorite Blind Guardian album, because of the brilliant sound of the music and the lyrics. The fact that the power metal tracks are filled with so much energy and power makes me sit back in amazement and wonder how these four guys do it. How do they come up with some many complex tracks without repeating themselves over and over, I am totally flabbergasted when I listen to this brilliant album. Another great thing about the album is all the bonus information you get through the stories written in the booklet (unfortunately for many it´s written in German). I really like when a concept of this magnitude offers the listener some extra story to read. The lyrics are so great and fit the dark and medieval concept of the album, and also the brilliant music. A track like "Blood Tears" almost brings tears to my eyes when I listen to it. I really don´t know why I like this track so much, I guess it´s because of the mood of the track; It creates such a real scene in my opinion. I think it´s because it has both the calm parts as well as the bombastic parts. Also tracks like "Mirror Mirror" and "Time Stands Still" are brilliant and powerful and offer me so much joy when I listen to them, that I can´t help sing along. Both tracks have cool choruses and killer guitar parts. Some of the softer tracks are excellent as well. Tracks like "Thorn", "The Eldar" and "A Dark Passage" have the feelings that provide the right atmosphere for the very tragic story we have here. And that helps the album achieve the high level of music that is on offer here. In my opinion this album is the flagship of Complex Power Metal. On the other hand this band is the only one I know that plays this kind of music (perhaps Rhapsody could fall under the same category). In my opinion this album has so many things to offer that I really can´t list them all here. With these brave words I will leave you, see you all at nightfall...

Editor: Peter Jerman