Six excellent albums in a row entirely contained within a decade is a virtually unimiginable feat yet Blind Guardian have done it without ever relying on the same tools for success. Unfairly lumped in the flowery European power metal subgenre due to certain aesthetic choices despite sharing very little musical DNA with those bands. Blind Guardian were always more aggressive, darker and much more ambitious than any of their peers. Starting off as a young band that genuinely understood what made their idols Metallica great, that being their melodic sensibilities and sense of grandeur, Blind Guardian ran with those ideas as far as they could and were not interested with the singular minded rhythmic onslaught that others derived from Metallica. Albums like Battalions of Fear and Follow the Blind featured fast riffs and death metal inspired double bass drumming but as a vehicle for the melodies to shine from. Come Somewhere Far Beyond the band had started to experiment with acoustic guitars and the inclusion of folk melodies while still maintaining the ferocious pace of their previous releases. Imagininations from the Other Side sees Blind Guardian fully embrace those ideas and shed away the “speed metal-isms” in favour of a much more brooding album that relies more than ever on the band’s fantastic sense of melody.
Many of the song titles mislead the listener into believing that these are whimsical songs about dragons, magic and drinking ale in dwarven tarvens. while the fantasy influence is undeniable, the themes presented here revolve around the decline of sanity, isolation, fear, mind control and more importantly partial triumph in a broken world. To create the universe in which the album operates in, the band don’t incorporate new influences or gimmicks alien to them but rather emphasize the acoustic guitars, the harmonized melodies and push the focus towards the tremendous vocal work on display. With this the band relegate the riffs to a position of lesser importance serving as a base for the lead guitar and singing. Generally in most bands this tends to spell catastrophe as metal by definition revolves around the principle that the riff is king, Blind Guardian avoids this pitfall as despite their relative lack of importance, the riffs are just as good as they have ever been. Flemming Rasmussen the mastermind behind the massive production of Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets really allows the riffs to shine through these highly dense arranegements without perturbing any of the other elements. Hansi Kürsch’s bass is tucked within the guitar tone and only serves to amplify it’s potency. Thomen Stauch’s drumkit pounds loudly as his double bass and imaginative fills imbue this album with so much energy, refusing to tone down his playing for even a second during the softer and slower parts and incredibly never feels out of place or overactive. Though on a few passages across the album, he lets go of the drums to play on more “traditional” percussion to great success. André Olbrich who takes a much more prominent role, stealing the show between his vast repertoire of riffs, leads and acoustic guitar playing. His soloing is extremely varied, capable of shredding during the more cathartic sections yet for the most part, focuses on creating lead guitar melodies that are foundational to the song structures rather than acting as icing on top. Marcus Siepen takes on a smaller role per his own admission but his harmonies take a lot of these melodies to another level. The acoustic guitars that dominate some of these songs aren’t foreign to the band’s melodic and harmonic language but showcase a part of it that wouldn’t function with distorted electric guitars. Dispersed throughout the album are some background effects that round out the massive sound on offer here.
The songs are centered around gigantic choruses with large vocal harmonies, hyperactive guitar playing and all sorts of leads and synths added on top. None of these choruses are in any shape or form bright, cheerful or uplifting. These are grandiose expressions of sorrow, strife and isolation though each chorus on this album is complex and dense, the main melodies are never buried nor do they come across as being confused and are extremely memorable with little details emerging with each subsequent listens. What’s surprising is that despite the importance allocated to the choruses on these songs, there are no actual verses. Each chorus is connected by a myriad of riffs, breaks, full on thrash parts, acoustic guitar melodies, climatic breakdowns and more. This makes the inevitable return to each chorus different and contextually changes them.
While the obvious focus is on the aforementioned choruses, there are no useless moments or lulls throughout the album. the solos that take up considerable space throughout the record never fall into gratuitous shred or annoying squeals in the distance but really highlight how unique this band’s sense of melody truely is. Every single moment of this album is full of momentum whether it be the constantly evolving riffs in the beginning of “Born in a Mourning Hall” or the sudden change from quiet and discreet acoustic guitar to long and verbose distorted guitar riff interplaying with the synths.
Ultimately there is no clear cut winner between Blind Guardian’s early output as all those releases are uncontested classics of the genre. Though Imaginations from the Other Side is the only one that shows glimpses of their other material and thus serves as an excellent entry point to the band’s discography. Blind Guardian are the uncontested kings of European power metal and this album only cements their case.
