A Twist in the Myth

After a polarizing release last time around, Blind Guardian's next album "A Twist in the Myth" delivers a more consistent release that wouldn't be so divisive, right? ...Right? Well, for some reason "A Twist in the Myth" seems to be even MORE polarizing than the much more understandable "A Night at the Opera." This is also the first album that adds new drummer Frederik Ehmke to the mix. Since Guardian treated their bassists after Hansi stepped down as session musicians, I was kind of surprised they considered Frederik to be an actual band member and didn't just consider him a session musician too. In any case, Frederik is a solid and energetic drummer. He definitely does not have the creativity in his drummer that Thomen had, but he is still a fine drummer with passion and excellent chops.

Why is this album so divisive? Well, I definitely think it's fair to say that the songs on this album are less consistent than you'd expect from a Blind Guardian album. The whole record is certainly solid enough from top to bottom, but there definitely are a lot of songs that I think could have shined even brighter with some more development and tweaks. I can absolutely understand people who say that this is a more generic or cliched album than Blind Guardian should be putting out at this stage in their careers, but I still also don't think this album deserves the trashing it often gets just because it plays it a little bit safer than normal. There's still a lot of excellent material here, and it's not like the album ever really turns awful at any point.

I think the opener "This Will Never End" is actually a really good example of why people point fingers at this record, and where it could have been better. It opens with one of the more biting and fire-y riffs of the entire album, and Hansi's vocals are as strong as always, but this one just really plods along. It really is the definition of a predictable, typical Blind Guardian song. The placement of all of the small solos and transitions...even the way the vocals move from one part to the other...it all makes it seem like you've heard it before. I expect this song to go somewhere else, but it really just plays it too safe and never goes above expectations. "Another Stranger Me" is another song that is just too typical. The verse melodies are so plain and bland. If they were someone's first experience with Blind Guardian, I can easily see them thinking the group was just another dime a dozen power metal band rather than the legends that they are. The chorus is actually a very powerful one but that's the one and only thing that is memorable about the track. The rest is just basic by the books power metal.

While those two are the blandest, a lot more of "A Twist in the Myth' is filled with wasted potential. "Carry the Blessed Home" is so close to being better than it is. The song is a really beautiful performance as elegant as a slow dance, and the whole song feels like it's building to something big. The problem is that the chorus feels like a pre-chorus. Every time I listen to this song, I feel like it's going to eventually kick off even harder...but it just never does. It's a decent little tune that just has no climax. It's a good joke setup with a bad punchline. It's disappointing in the saddest of ways that leaves you desperate for more. The closer "The New Order" is really, really similar. The chorus is fine, but just not satisfying enough. The whole time I listen to the song, I keep thinking, "Alright, this song is really building to something explosive. I can't wait." And then it never comes. Especially since it's the final track of the album, it leaves me sitting there going. "...That's it..?" It's honestly frustrating, and frustrating your listener can almost be worse than making them angry, because they can see something that isn't actually there in their mind's eye.

Fortunately, this album has plenty of tracks that pay off, too. "Straight Through the Mirror" sounds like the band took the same care in building it as they did on so much of "Nightfall in Middle-Earth." The track has some heavier guitar parts without going so heavy that it betrays the song's general mood, and a lot of the keyboard parts do a spectacular job at raising the bar for everyone else. The chorus is catchy and has that explosive payoff that I'm longing for in the songs I mentioned previously. The solo immediately following that chorus help smooth it out, too. It has the atmosphere and craftsmanship that Guardian build a legacy off. "Fly" does everything the name would imply. It begins with a fantastic drum pattern from Ehmke, and Hansi is at his best here. His multi-layered vocals hit at all of the right moments and just climb higher and higher. His vocals have great variation, and he really is putting on some of his best story telling work vocally here. The guitars are equally varied, and there are a lot of creative splashes from them all over the song. The guitars are almost more memorable on this song when they aren't in the focus. It's just a purely fun and enjoyable track. When you hear the word 'fly,' this song gets the job done in painting that image in your mind with music.

"Turn the Page" might be the most fantasy themed instrumentally Blind Guardian ever gets in a heavy song, too. To call this song fun is a gross understatement. "Turn the Page" is just an absolute joy of fantastical greatness. The song never fails to bring a smile to my face. Much like what I said about "The Bard's Song," this song makes it so easy to just close your eyes and be in that fantastical dragon filled world they sing about. Both the vocals and the guitars are some of the catchiest ever, and there's not one single moment in this song where it isn't just a blast. "Otherland" also tells a great story musically. This is a song on "A Twist in the Myth" that builds up and actually pays off instead of falling flat. The song flows from slower to faster really wonderfully. During the chorus, Hansi lets his higher registered backing vocals hold the weight, while he uses a lower register to kind of adlib and add more strength under it. I admit that the chorus does too much of the heavy lifting of this song, but the solo is also electric, and there's enough to the rest that it isn't solely reliant on the chorus. The very end part of the song is where it peaks, too, so it's nice that the song saves the best for last.

"Skalds and Shadows" really is a fantastic parallel for the entire album. It sounds like a continuation of "The Bard's Song" or maybe "A Past and Future Secret" more so. And while "Skalds and Shadows" is good...it just isn't AS good. That's how I feel about "A Twist in the Myth" in general when all is said and done. It is a good album. But it was so close to being better than it is. A good album is obviously just fine, but when you see it had the potential to be GREAT and just couldn't muster it, it really leaves a bit of a frustrated sour taste in your mouth. "A Twist in the Myth" will forever end up being THAT album. You know the one. The one that you see when scrolling through your collection and instantly cherry pick the great moments in your mind. Then you take it off the shelf, dust it off, and go "I really like this one. Why can't I remember more of it?" You sit down and play it only to realize "Oh yeah...that's why..."

Right off the bat, I'll admit I'm a sucker for Blind Guardian. Their epic storytelling, combined with Hansi Kürsch's epic, soaring vocals and the harmonic intertwining of the guitar parts? Genius, magnificent, perfect in nearly every way. But something about A Twist in the Myth just doesn't hit the right note, so to speak. To be quite frank, it sucks. In fact, it's the only Blind Guardian album to ever have earned such a descriptor. So why is it so bad? What could possibly cause such an otherwise-flawless band to descend into sheer mediocrity? It's really just one simple detail, which in turn affected nearly all aspects of the album.

With A Twist in the Myth, Blind Guardian seemly openly embraced the digital age of modern music, dealing a heavy blow to the perceived authenticity of their songwriting formula and the execution of their instrumentation. "Pretentious" is not a word that would normally apply to the kings of power metal, yet it seems appropriate when used to describe the band's 2006 album. It would've all been fine if they hadn't been trying so damn hard to make it sound accessible, or whatever it is that they were thinking.

The guitars sound like they're played through some sort of digital amplifier, giving the impression of a tube amp being pushed to its limits without actually capturing any of the real intensity that would accompany it. Where the band previously would have layered chunky rhythm guitars over arpeggiated cleans, the softer components are replaced by a silly fake organ sound. While Blind Guardian's over-the-top use of multi-tracking and overdubbing had always added to the total song quality, on A Twist in the Myth it's overwhelming and way too busy; it's frequently difficult or impossible to keep track of all the things happening with the guitars at once.

The drum samples are horrible, and I don't think anyone can explain why all percussion is briefly replaced by a xylophone in the insufferable "Fly." Each drum hit sounds like a First Act Hello Kitty set was fused with the generic samples that are prevalent in deathcore.

When it comes to melody, Kürsch's vocals are as strong as ever, but one crucial flaw stands out: His magnificent vibrato is almost completely gone! I have a feeling that I know the cause of this travesty: Autotune. Yes, the useless effect that had already laid waste every other musical genre ever had finally made a major mark on metal when it left its dull, smeary stain of overperfection on A Twist in the Myth. I'd bet money that Autotune is to blame for the robotic, virtually lifeless performances that can be heard on all songs, except for "Skalds and Shadows," which doesn't have these problems. But the flattened feel of Kürsch's high screams give it all away.

So, in case it was missed, A Twist in the Myth sucks and is easily the worst Blind Guardian album ever put out. Its biggest flaw is the band's willingness to experiment a bit too much: From the pitch-corrected vocals, to the crappy sample replacement for the drums, to the odd synth sounds that are frequent yet feel completely out of place, to the excessive overdubbing, the whole thing is really just useless. In fact, I would specifically recommend not to listen to it if I were conversing with any prospective Blind Guardian fans.

The only okay songs: "Another Stranger Me," "Skalds and Shadows," and "The Edge."

I'm not getting into the whole debate about Blind Guardian either finding or losing their form with this album, since I'm not especially interested in what has changed, especially as this was my first listen to the band, after which I backtracked quite a lot into the rather different speed/power albums from the early days. However, I think my personal history with this record might go some way to showing its strengths and weaknesses. I recall buying it on Amazon (second-hand, hehe) and being stunned by its cover art even before I had listened to it, writing a poem while I was at work called 'A Twist in the Shift' about how the water flume could curl its tail around the building and crush it to dust. For anyone who thinks that's fucking weird, I was working at a swimming pool back then and had a lot of quiet time. In any case, when I got round to listening to it the same evening, I remember turning the volume up and up with almost each passing track because I felt that the sound was not coming across the room and hitting me as I would have liked. However, I was totally gripped by the lyrics and barely took my eyes off the booklet the whole time. By the end of the album, my mum came upstairs and asked me what I was playing so loudly, largely because she couldn't hear the TV in the room below.

All this should tell you that a lot of effort has gone into generating subjects for A Twist in the Myth, the lyrical subjects digging deep into epic fantasy and sci-fi, which the cover art backs up in great fashion. I'm not particularly a fan of those kinds of stories, but I must say that the way Hansi Kürsch writes lyrics is very creative, the use of different rhythms at different points in verses generating a moving attraction that refuses to be simple or predictable. The sense of movement from the songs is superb as well, the shorter song structures working much better than the following At the End of Time and staying generally busier than bands like Helloween and Stratovarius. The pace is not actually that fast, but the additions of lead guitar licks, orchestral sounds, and other bits and pieces keeps this running at full speed like some madcap inventor's contraption out of another sci-fi story. As such, there's plenty of excitement to be had.

On the other hand, there are some issues with the sound, which should be indicated by my battles with volume. The main problem is the rhythm guitar sound getting largely smothered by the manifold vocal overdubs, the orchestral additions, and the heavy presence of lead melodies. This all combines with a lack of sharpness in said rhythm sound that de-emphasizes the riffs to the point when I only notice them in starker moments, such as the opening of 'Fly' and 'The Edge'. In part, it's the lushness of the mix that prevents this from being enjoyable purely as a metal album and turns it more into a rock opera, though with plenty of energy and leads to sate our needs. I must agree with anyone who thinks the polished, digital nature of the album is harmful to the overall experience and must have made Kürsch and Marcus Siepen rather upset, since their instruments can barely be heard, the bass emerging at virtually no point but the introduction of 'Straight Through the Mirror'.

Where this album does take some beating is in the arena of lead guitar and full-fat hooks. While his bandmates were crying in the corner over their raw deal in the mix, André Olbrich was probably dancing a jig inspired by his own folky melodies, such is the dominance he has over the direction of some of the songs. His ability to string together unorthodox solos has never been beyond doubt, putting him several steps ahead (in my mind) of prodigies like Timo Tolkki and Yngwie Malmsteen, who always sounded like simply more skilful versions of their peers: here, the manner in which Olbrich is allowed to trill Middle Eastern melodies over the spacey modern bridge of 'Lionheart' and then whoop and caterwaul onwards with celebratory licks is evidence of a man who has left the box behind, for so long has he been thinking outside it. The same goes for the way that the whole band break down into an almost danceable bridge for him to jam in during 'Fly', firing off quick fills that have more to do with classic funk rock than heavy metal, yet are executed so accurately and with such character that it's impossible to view them sourly.

In terms of pure songs, A Twist in the Myth lets itself down slightly, since there is the potential for an album like this to be an all-encompassing experience, which sadly doesn't transpire due to some weaker cuts. The creativity needed to turn miniature epics into winners each time is absolutely mammoth, so a few riff-driven numbers wouldn't have gone amiss to give the brain a break. I've never been much of a fan of ballads and an album like this that gains from its tightness and fast progress from idea to idea probably doesn't need both of 'Carry the Blessed Home' and 'Skalds and Shadows', especially as the first is a bit naff and doesn't get the emotional climax quite right. 'Skalds and Shadows' is a folky Celtic piece that Blind Guardian have made a name for producing, though I'm not convinced it's the finest example by the band. Then again, the choruses of 'Another Stranger Me' and 'Otherland' are probably among the absolute best that you could wish to hear, backed up by some strong moments in 'Lionheart', 'This Will Never End', and 'Fly', while 'The New Order' does its job as a closer, marking the listener's mind indelibly with the lyric "Your soul's like water and like rain it will return".

I'm not completely certain of the quality of A Twist in the Myth, mostly because it seems that this could have been a better album with slightly less effort put in to making it sound huge instead of too much, as the final product shows. I'm a big fan of the atmosphere and the experiments in shredding make any instrumental section highly unpredictable, though not every song is a winner, which could have been achieved if the band were already in the mood to cut down the track lengths. In any case, this is a lot of fun and I'm glad I got hold of it, even if my mum probably isn't.

Whenever a press kit describes a band 'stripping down' their sound or, worse still, 'returning to their roots' on a new album, a part of me wants to hurl. The other part of me has been trained, time and again, to dismiss this claim as a euphemism for the stage in a band's career where they admit they've gone as far as they can go with their ambitions with the album prior. Metallica's infamously accessible Black Album is the first example that comes to mind; I'm sure you can think of many more.

Well, leave it to a band as consistently stunning as Blind Guardian to demonstrate how streamlining a sound can still result in freshly exciting material. Their seventh LP A Night at the Opera still stands as the most ornate, ambitious and ridiculously complex power metal album I have ever heard. Blind Guardian did everything they could to saturate each moment of the album with as much arrangement and detail as possible, and as far as I'm concerned, the effort paid off magnificently. As much as I think A Night at the Opera to be their magnum opus, there wasn't room for surpassing nor repeating it. Think of A Twist in the Myth as Blind Guardian's very own Going for the One; after pushing themselves as far as they could go, they managed to successfully reel themselves back in, all the while covering new territory as they went along. This is Blind Guardian at their most catchy and song-based, and the rare restraint they pulled off here resulted in some powerfully written and delivered material.

It really does make me wonder why A Twist in the Myth tends to get overlooked in favour of its more ambitious neighbours. It was the first album in their history that dared to diverge from the upward trajectory their career had taken for over two decades. It may have been a forced moved considering how exhausted the band must have been after pushing their limits so hard, but it was a risk nonetheless. Especially for a band like Blind Guardian, it seems unlikely the album turned out as well as it did; given that many of their past (and future) albums emphasized the awe of the arrangements, it's easy to forget that they're strong songwriters at heart. "Another Stranger Me" and "Lionheart" are two of the most contagious songs the band have ever penned in their time, and there are several other cuts off the album that could deserve being mentioned in the same sentence. Is it possible not to be swept away by the jovial optimism of "Turn the Page", or the melancholic sophistication of "Fly". Clearly it is possible judging from the opinions some others have expressed towards the album, but to my ears the album's catchiness is pretty irresistible, and cannot be found on anything else the band put out.

Blind Guardian weren't particularly progressive with this album, nor does the style here much resemble true power metal. Genre purists would probably say A Twist in the Myth is generally too slow and rock-oriented to warrant association with power metal. Regardless, it sounds completely like Blind Guardian. It's almost as if they stripped themselves of the pretences of power metal, and instead focused on writing songs regardless of genre. Although detractors and impartial arbiters alike would find common ground in describing A Twist in the Myth as Blind Guardian focusing on the fundaments of verse-and-chorus, these guys have always rocked at writing fantastic choruses. The two singles notwithstanding, "Otherland", "Straight Through the Mirror" and "Lionheart" all stand out for infectious, larger-than-life choruses. It should go without saying that these moments come with the band's signature choral harmonies. Hansi Kürsch gets a larger portion of the focus this time around, and leads the band confidently through each track. His greatest moment here is quite possibly the album's mandatory acoustic offering "Skalds and Shadows", which feels woefully underrated compared with the acclaim of their past minstrelsy. Even with a greater focus on mid-paced songwriting, his aggressive performance injects plenty of life into the music. Most painfully overlooked of all is the bonus track, "Dead Sound of Misery"; although it may be cynically interpreted purely as a variation on "Fly", it surpasses the single with its darker tone, and ties the album together in a way "The New Order" might have otherwise failed to achieve. Long story short; Blind Guardian may have shifted their angle somewhat, but they lost none of the tricks and flair they had picked up over the years.

Such as it is, A Twist in the Myth gets an undeservedly bad rep. Some people have even gone as far as to accuse Blind Guardian of selling out with this album. Hopefully I'm not the only one who knows otherwise. It's not Nightfall in Middle-Earth or A Night at the Opera, nor does it try to be. Hell, it's not even close to their pre-progressive stuff circa Battalions of Fear. What a lot of people seem to forget is that this was arguably a further step for them to take than any of the progressive albums in their career. To continue to satiate listeners with the same degree of bombast was one thing, but to rejuvenate themselves by seemingly going in the opposite direction? By all accounts, A Twist in the Myth should not have worked, nor should I like it as much as I do. And in case my praise is mistaken for preference; I will say I prefer any of the albums they had done prior since Tales from the Twilight World, but that shouldn't be held against the album. Indeed, whenever I've wanted a more grounded experience out of Blind Guardian, nothing but this one will do. It's a shame so many fans don't see it nearly so kindly.

As a big Blind Guardian fan, I was very disappointed by the band in 2006 because of the release of their new album "A Twist In The Myth". I knew that their drummer, Thomen Stauch, had left the band because of the change in their music, making it less fast and more orchestral by adding other instruments like bag pipes, flutes, and a choir company that had not been a part of their musical arrangements in the past. I was afraid that it would turn towards symphonic/power/folk metal.

Like the previous album released in 2002, "A Night At The Opera", we could hear the solid background choir and a lot of keyboard sounds. The difference between the two albums is that "A Twist In The Myth" has a cool rock 'n roll touch that I personally like. Despite all these changes, the band still kept some "typical Blind Guardian features" like melodic and touching choruses, wild and fast solos, and interesting lyrics that can be easily learned and sung at live concerts.

While listening to this album, I could notice the details in their music such as melodic and calm acoustic interludes, lead flute, and bagpipe bridges accompanied by keyboard. Although I don't really like the latter instrument in this kind of music, I must say that it actually fitted in very well and that the all instruments merge together in 11 awesome songs, and all this makes it an fascinatingly good album, but not one of my favorites and certainly not one of the best to my mind.

Really remarkable songs are the songs "Skalds In Shadows", a slow acoustic piece with a very solid chorus and interesting guitar riffs. My favorite song of the album is the song "Straight Through The Mirror" because of the chorus, the guitar solo, and because I really enjoy the bagpipe lead in the middle of the song, but if you want a song to listen to to get an idea what the album is about in general and how the mood of the songs is, you should listen to the song "Otherland", a song full of melodic leads and solos that reminds me a bit of the leads on their first album, "Battalions Of Fear".

All in all, the album is a success, but it's not what a fan would have expected. It's more than recommendable for fans of Manegarm, maybe Eluveitie, and other bands that use folk metal instruments. I can't give them more than 90% because of the sudden change in their style (although I already knew about it back in 2002 ), but I have to respect that and I'm still a big Blind Guardian fan, and you could become one as well if you start listening to their proud "A Twist In The Myth".

This album was without a doubt a fairly large departure from the norm for Blind Guardian. In Imaginations From the Other Side and Nightfall In Middle Earth they established themselves as a symphonic power metal band, but relied on the power metal part more than the symphonic part. With A Night At the Opera they took that sound and modernized it a bit, making it more complex and more progressive than the aforementioned efforts. This album goes in a different direction, making it even more modern and catchier, and if you can believe it less metal and almost more rock and roll. There's a lot less heavy, fast drumming in here and a lot more syncopated beats with really catchy lines.

There are a few straight up metal tracks in this, such as This Will Never End, Straight Through the Mirror, The Edge, and maybe Lion Heart. To be honest, I thought that this was kind of cool. This album is really, REALLY catchy. Songs like Fly, Another Stranger Me, and Turn the Page will be stuck in your head for a long time. The problem is that this album really doesn't live up to the normal Blind Guardian standard. Sure it's fun to listen to, but it's not great. None of the songs are longer than 5 minutes, which kind of annoys me because I love it when bands add in an at least 7 minute epic to either open up or close an album. Instead we have 11 songs that are all between 3 and 5 minutes, leaving much to be desired. The best songs on this album are Carry the Blessed Home, Fly, This Will Never End, and Skalds and Shadows. The ballads on this album are actually really good. After The Maiden and the Minstrel Knight, this is probably my favorite Blind Guardian ballad. Skalds and Shadows is pretty good too, really getting that mid-evil folk song well (though not quite as well as Curse My Name). Fly is easily the best song on this album; it's fun, it's catchy, and it has a kick ass feel that makes you really want to sing along. The chorus is one of my favorites and it is thoroughly stuck in my head. This Will Never End is a really good power metal song that just kicks ass with really good vocals (as usual) from Hansi and a solid performance from the rest of the band. My favorite part is the scream at the beginning of this song that never ceases to raise the hair on my neck.

In conclusion, this is a solid, if not average release from a really good band. I will note that this band is capable of much more than this and fortunately have proved it with their next release after this, In The Edge of Time. While this one has some pretty solid songs and really catchy rhythms and choruses, it definitely leaves much to be desired

Although the general opinion on the previous two albums, Nightfall in Middle-Earth and A Night at the Opera was very mixed, the consensus on this one seems to be that it's mediocre at best, and possibly Blind Guardian's furthest departure from their speed metal roots. While the latter may be true, I find this album far more than mediocre, though clearly not Blind Guardian's best.

This is the first full-length to feature new drummer Frederik Ehmke, and it shows. Gone are the refreshingly unusual drum beats Thomen Stauch frequently used; while proficient, Ehmke's style is much more traditional, the drums never standing out in the album. Still, this is not the main complaint about the album, as it's hardly an issue for most listeners; instead, the slick production and unusually simplistic songwriting are to blame. Unable to take the sound on A Night at the Opera any further, they opted to take a completely different approach, toning down the endless intricacies of the previous album until they reached a simple, unadorned, almost rock-ish set of songs. Those who were intimidated by A Night at the Opera's enormous, constant, busy sound won't find any of that here; this is catchy, stripped down power metal.

However, one problem people had with the previous album remains: many of the song's tend to focus on Hansi's vocals, rather than on the guitar riffs. This is the case here even more than on Nightfall or A Night at the Opera, but here it fits; the songs are infectiously catchy, for the most part. From the dark, theatrical "Otherland" to the fun, groovy "Fly" to the slightly more progressive, moody "The New Order", you'll find it difficult to keep from singing along to the choruses and even the verses. The malevolent rocker "Another Stranger Me", bombastic "Straight Through the Mirror", the obligatory medieval-style ballad "Skalds and Shadows", and the harsh, speedy "The Edge" are all worth listening to as well, making this far from a disappointment of an album. And despite the focus on vocals, it's impossible to miss the catchy solos and classic Blind Guardian guitar harmonizing on "Fly", or the repeating riff pattern in "The New Order"; while lacking a bit, the guitar work is certainly present.

Of course, this album is far from perfect, and some songs simply don't make the cut. "This Will Never End" tries to be speed metal, but with the slick production and focus on vocal melodies, it feels out of place and underwritten, despite a dark, epic chorus. "Turn the Page" tries to be an upbeat, bombastic number, but the songwriting here is clearly not up to par, and it builds up momentum only to let it fall into mediocrity, leaving the listener wanting more. "Carry the Blessed Home" is another ballad that never really goes anywhere, feeling like a complete waste of time. Finally, "Lionheart" is extremely simple and predictable and never really goes anywhere either, a surprisingly unambitious number for the power metallers.

Despite the clunkers, though, when this album works, it really works well, and I don't mind the slick production; though some would say it might castrate the music (and this may be the case with "This Will Never End" to an extent) I think for the most part it works well with the catchy, compact music. This will never be on my top 10 favorite albums list, but it's certainly enjoyable for what it is, and if you're a fan of catchy power metal, I definitely suggest checking it out.

The shortest way to sum up this album is that it's really just a much, much simpler A Night at the Opera. It's certainly not the bands best album, nor is it their weakest, but it has a few of their strongest and weakest points. Firstly, Thomen Staunch is gone, so the insane, wildly overdone drumming is repleaced by the capable (but much more laid back in his approach) Frederik Ehmk. The songwriting as a whole has undergone a massive reduction in complexity, resulting in what I wouldn't hesitate to call Blind Guardians most accessible (but not best) album.

I really do like this album, though I seem to be in the minority for doing so. While as I've stated above this isn't a mind-blowing album, it's a very strong Blind Guardian album, chock full of huge choruses, brilliant (in my opinion some of Hansis best) vocals, terrific guitar work and the trademark catchiness that the band has always had. Songs like Otherland, Turn the Page Fly and Another Stranger Me are all excellent, catchy, clever and fun songs and showcase the simple yet catchy strength of this album. The two ballads, Carry the Blessed Home and Skalds and Shadows show that Blind Guardian still know how to write slow, pompous and atmospheric pieces that fit in with the rest of their superb ballads.

There are a few weaker tracks though, and they're concentrated towards the end of the album. Lionheart, The Edge and The New Order just don't have the same punch the rest of the album has; they're decent enough songs on their own but almost seem like afterthoughts compared to the earlier, much better songs. If those three songs had been cut from the album, no harm would have been done to the record.

Perhaps it's just that I downloaded the album from iTunes, but the production sounds a little...muffled, almost quiet, compared to the earlier albums, and there are several instances when Hansi hits the super-high notes and it sounds fake, for lack of a better word. His high-scream of the opening track sounds more like guitar or keyboards than vocals, and it can get irritating at times.

However, those few complaints aside, this is a solid, rocking album from a band that has defined the genre of power metal for years. Strong moments include Fly, which is a brilliant track all the way through and one of the catchiest the band has ever written; Turn the Page, which I recommend for the same reason as Fly, fast, catchy and rocking, another stellar track. A few weak moments aside, I heartily recommend this album.

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There aren't too many bands out there, especially in the power metal field, who can hold together a fanbase so deep into their career, yet by 2006, Blind Guardian were on the verge of releasing their 8th album and continuing to broaden their own. A Twist in the Myth seems a natural progression from A Night at the Opera, with a huger, even more processed feel to its digital sound, a slew of catchy new tunes, and a fresh young drummer in Frederik Ehmke (not that I'm inferring that Thomas Stauch was 'stale' by this point). Though it retains the heaviness of the past few albums, there is a certain element of accessibility which has crawled into their sound for this release...of all their albums, the songs here might be the friendliest for radio play and it only make sense that with age there comes a toning down of prior excess.

Speaking of which, the album is simply shorter than the last two, running at about 51 minutes for 11 tracks. Of these, there are around 6-7 brazen offerings which remind me of precisely why I love this band. The rest I could live without. Blind Guardian are still delving into interesting works of folklore and fantasy/science fiction lyrics, and there were a few surprises here which I would never have expected, as I've found the band almost always focused on more popular sources in the past.

"This Will Never End" is an extremly strong start to the festivities, a powerful and soaring track with a hint of menace that subtly underlies its chorus. Upon hearing this song, I was quite ready to have my socks blown off by A Twist in the Myth. Tasteful thrashing/speed metal licks wound into tightly strung melodies in the verse, and a chorus that climbs mountains in a breath. Based on the Walter Moers novel A Wild Ride Through the Night, it recounts the story of Gustave Doré, the boy who would cheat death or die trying. "Otherland" shocked the fuck out of me, as it is based on the science fiction series Otherland by the great writer Tad Williams (his fantasy saga Memory, Sorrow and Thorn would make for a great Blind Guardian album all by itself, but this sci-fi/virtual reality epic is also quite engaging until the sadly lacking finale). No surprise then that this is another good tune, carefully building its epic landscape like the elite fellowship of megalomaniacs of the novels who secure themselves away as lords of their virtual domains. I can't point out a specific 'payoff', but the whole track is engaging.

"Turn the Page" is a tribute to nature magic and the passing of seasons, and I didn't get much out of it save for the chorus and some of the glistening lead breaks. There is a folkish frolic about the tune which is certainly consistent with much of Blind Guardian's history, but I was simply not caught in its snare. "Fly" follows, the first single from the album, inspired by the film Finding Neverland, but balances the gaiety of Tinkerbell and Peter Pan with a solid, rocking anthem with an emotional build-up and climactic chorus capable of drawing a tear from even the most hardened enemy of the fairy tale. Possibly the best chorus of this entire album. "Carry the Blessed Home" is the first of three tracks on the album to deal with Steven King's Dark Tower series of novels, the saga of Roland the Gunslinger. It moves like a river through its Queen-inspired gang rock verses and a chorus dowsed in synthesized pipes, but I did not fall deeply for its charms.

From the lyrics (to a lesser extent) video, I've always privately held that "Another Stranger Me" should be Blind Guardian's penultimate tribute to Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, but it's set against another Dark Tower story, The Drawing of the Three, based on the entertaining and flawed Odetta/Detta character. It's easy to understand why this was chosen as a single for the album, it's extremely catchy and rock & roll with a huge guitar melody, swaggering horns and a great chorus. The verse is quite seductive, though the payoff is about as subtle as a brick across the jaw. "Straight Through the Mirrors" features strong guitar melodies and a strong chorus, a song which lyrically lauds the importance of dreams to the waking conscience. "Lionheart" has an opening reminiscent of "Precious Jerusalem" from the previous album, percussive as it slowly drives into its soothing, memorable chorus at :45 which again features a huge rock rhythmic base. The solos here are flighty and wild, with a mystique that stretches above the pumping rhythm guitar chords, and it's the third track based in King's Dark Tower series.

Next come the "Skalds and Shadows", a ballad in the tradition of "The Bard's Song - In the Forest" or "A Past and Future Secret". The version here is fuller than the simpler acoustic found on the Fly CDS developing more power through its orchestration. But aside from the shanty-like acoustic guitar and references to the Norns, I found it little more than a curiosity. "The Edge" gives its chugging some room to breathe across a backdrop of brooding horn synths and scintillating electronics, a pretty intense tribute to St. Paul and his interactions with Jesus, and though it's not a favorite for the album, it's probably one of the more interesting constructions due to its seemingly bizarre of archaic subject matter and modern crushing power. "The New Order" is the final track of the normal release, but despite another big Queen vocal bridge and a grooving riff reminiscent of Sabbath, it's just not that memorable.

There are various bonus tracks one will find on different international releases of the album. My copy has "Dead Sound of Misery", which is essentially an alternate take on the "Fly" single, dealing with a far more interesting subject, the Whore of Babylon. I can't recommend the music over the normal version, it simply isn't presented in such a catchy manner, but if only they could have used these lyrics in place of Peter Pan...

A Twist in the Myth certainly benefits from a large budget Charlie Bauerfeind sound which is the result of many careful pickings over, undoubtedly a huge plus for many younger listeners accustomed to the modern radio they grew up with, but it had me longing for the old days and the sounds of Somewhere Far Beyond and the crispness of Follow the Blind. Still, the songs are the bottom line on any album, and A Twist in the Myth has a handful of winners that I'd include among any extended collection of essential listens. It may be my least favorite from Blind Guardian, but it's still Blind Guardian, and considering the quality control assurance this band maintains, I doubt we'll ever be hearing anything void entirely of mirth and merit.

Highlights: This Will Never End, Otherland, Fly, Another Stranger Me

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Since 1986, Blind Guardian have been stretching the bounds of Power Metal like no other band. They've gone from writing fast, aggressive Speed Metal classics to some of the most grandiose, epic music ever imaginable. This is their most recent album, and the question I'm sure everyone is thinking is does this live up to the standard the band have set with the rest of their discography? Let's see.

Over the past 22 odd years, Hansi Kursch has proven why he's undoubtedly one of the best vocalists Metal has ever seen, and on A Twist In The Myth he shows no signs of slowing down. Throughout the whole album we're treated to the riveting, insane power of his voice in tracks such as 'Otherland', while we can also hear the serene beauty in his voice in tracks such as 'Skalds and Shadows'. An actual choir of 3 people is used for the really huge vocal parts (chorus of 'Otherland', anyone?), but throughout most of the album Hansi's voice is layered 2 or 3 times to achieve that awesome choral effect that we all know and love. Just like in every other Blind Guardian album (besides maybe the first 2), Hansi is the standout member in terms of individual performance.

That's not to take anything away from the rest of the band, however. Guitarists Marcus Seipen and Andre Olbrich once again prove why they're highly underrated in the Metal world on a A Twist In The Myth. They may not have much technical skill, but that's stops them from ever being excessive, and most importantly, they do everything they need to do perfectly. Marcus is his usual self here - a very traditional rhythm guitarist, mostly just playing chords, which works really well. Andre is also a pretty traditional lead guitarist - playing the main riffs and performing every solo. His solos are never technical or very fast, but are always double or triple layered to create that oh so epic effect. The solos throughout the album are always melodic, and fit every song very well. As is common knowledge, long time awesome Blind Guardian drummer Thomen Stauch left before the recording of this album - luckily the new drummer, Fredrik Ehmke, is simply fantastic. His style is slightly different to Thomen's; his beats are less samey (not that that was ever a bad thing with Thomen), but still the incredibly fast technical insanity which somehow manages to always fit in the music and never become overpowering. Like most Blind Guardian albums, the bass isn't audible throughout most of this, but when it is it's doing some decent stuff, adding a welcoming lower end to the sound.

The production on this album is, as is expected at this point, very good, besides the drumming sounding a bit muddy at times. So with that out of the way, the fact the individual performances on this album are top notch, and the fact this is a BLIND GUARDIAN album, you must be wondering about the low-ish score I've given this album. Well, you shall be enlightened.

On first listens, the only glaring faults with the album are the songs 'This Will Never End' and 'Carry The Blessed Home'. 'This Will Never End' is simply a terrible opener. From the (admittedly insane) F#5 to A5 to F#5 scream which didn't once fail to give me a headache when listening to it through headphones to its stale chorus and boring lyrics, it has to be the worst Blind Guardian album opener of all time. 'Carry The Blessed Home' simply bored me to tears, sub-par stuff. In the long-term however, the problem with this album is it just sounds like we've heard it all before, which makes everything unspectacular.

Throughout the album, we're fed the same chord progressions, guitar solos and vocal harmonies we've heard a million times before. While it has a delicious chorus, 'Straight Through The Mirror' fails to leave any sort of impression due to the fact I've heard it all before. The riffs in 'Another Stranger Me' sound very recycled. 'Skalds And Shadows', while being a lovely song just feels like it had little thought put in to it. Even the non-Metal, folky song 'Turn The Page' sounds like generic Blind Guardian of old. By the time the album reaches its closer, 'The New Order', it feels like the band have just straight-up half-assed their songwriting. While all of the aforementioned tracks (and the rest of the album besides 'This Will Never End' and 'Carry The Blessed Home') are all high quality, the only tracks that really stand out here are 'Otherland' and 'Fly'. 'Fly' is awesome with its slightly progressive nature, basic lyrics, lack of central hook and vocals which bear this lovely magical quality, while 'Otherland' is just 100% pure total ownage for 5 minutes and 15 seconds (awesome start, great verses, fantastic chorus, good solo, awesome ending...you get the deal). Dare I say 'Otherland' is one of Blind Guardian's best ever tracks.

So there you have it, A Twist In The Myth. Of course, my overall rating is pretty low, as this album is a lot better than most metal albums out there, but it's just underwhelming/not very good compared to the rest of Blind Guardian's discography. If you're new to the band this is a good choice as it showcases all the strengths of the band and is fairly accessible, but Blind Guardian fans, don't get your hopes up too high for this one.

It has been said that the only way for metal to die is for its soldiers to defect from its ranks. Metal cannot be killed by outsiders.

Blind Guardian are killing metal, it seems. They've defected from the ranks. There has been an outbreak of the commercialis selloutus virus in the ranks of metal, and Blind Guardian have caught it. Symptoms include lackluster songs, extensive filler, and cutesy posing. The only known treatment is heavy doses of olskool Iron Maiden, olskool Sodom, olskool Bathory, olskool Manowar, and Painkiller. Even then, once one has caught the commercial virus, it is almost impossible to get rid of it.

All jokes aside, I've had A Twist in the Myth for aeons. I bought it after growing to love Blind Guardian's back catalogue, including speed demons like Somewhere Far Beyond and Tales From the Twilight World, as well as more symphonic works such as ANATO and NIME. I listened to it once then didn't listen to it for several months. I listened to it again, then didn't listen to it until yesterday. Now I realized why. The Guardians have sold out major league.

Where to begin? That's fucking hard. To start, they've simplified their songs incredibly. Gone are the progressive structures of songs like Battlefields, And Then There Was Silence, Time Stands Still (On Iron Hill), and many others. Gone are the relentless speed attacks of songs like Traveller in Time, Welcome to Dying, Valhalla, Guardian of the Blind, Time What is Time, and many others. Replacing it are songs with idle modern rock beats, subdued riffs, lamed singing (and I mean lamed in the literal sense of disabled and weak), and simple verse-chorus-verse structures. Gone are lyrics depicting artfully tales from Stephen King to Tolkien to King Arthur. Replacing them are stupid lyrics about nothing in particular, unless you consider stupid 5 year old shit lyrical fodder. I consider it empty musical calories.

Of the songs that don't follow the worst of the above described archetypes, it's mediocre at best. Not a single song here inspires greatness; not a single song makes you wanna bang your head. In fact, I listened to the album 3 times in a row yesterday, desparately trying to find something to remember it by. NOTHING. Nothing sticks to my ears. Except when it gets especially annoying, like Another Stranger Me. Excuse me, but remember when they had good song titles and lyrics? Like Battlefields, Blood Tears, or Past and Future Secret? Well you will find none of that here. You will also notice that the last 3 songs I mentioned are evocational and flooring. Well you will also find none of that here. The songs on A Twist in the Myth seem, well, rather blank and empty. Empty musical calories. And final nail in this album's coffin is that they're not even enjoyable or dumb entertainment, unlike, say, Dark Funeral or Iron Savior, where the lack of any particular originality doesn't matter because it's fast and headbangable. You headbang to the aforementioned bands, and you don't care what's coming out of the speakers. You can't headbang to A Twist in the Myth. It's not even dumb metal entertainment. It's not even dumb metal. It's just dumb.

The real shocker is that this came after A Night At The Opera, which was a fucking incredible album, especially with headphones. Never before has a band sold out so quickly. Even Demon Burger drew out the process for a few albums. BG just did it suddenly. And that's why this clunker is particularly stinging. It's dumb commerciality coming right after their least accessable album. What gives?

Every band seems to go through a mid-life crisis. If a band survives for a long enough period, that is. Typically this crisis consists of the band saying something like, “We’re going back to our roots.” What this really means, as history has shown, is this, “We’re denying our musical evolution to do something that’s already been done.” Again, as history has shown, this rarely works out well. The classic material sounds great but the new stuff that tries to sound that way fails to do so miserably. Sometimes a band will do a better job of it on a follow-up album. Sometimes this signals the beginning of a long period of musical darkness where the band wanders aimlessly, either continuing to look for its old sound or desperately searching for the next new thing, without finding either. If we’re lucky, it’s a one-time experiment that the band realizes has gotten them nowhere, and on the next album they pick things up again.

A Twist in the Myth is like that, but we don’t know what’s coming next. Trying to go back to the old sound is not going to work without completely abandoning what they gained in the making of NIME and ANATO, and they haven’t done that here. This whole album sounds like a collection of B-sides from ANATO, songs that didn’t make the cut for that grandiose experience. This Will Never End, Otherland, Fly, and Lionheart sound like material that was cut from ANATO, Lionheart especially.

The two songs that come closest to achieving the older sound are Straight Through the Mirror and Skalds and Shadows. Skalds and Shadows was a good ballad and I think it fits in well with other ballads this band has done, even with this production, but Straight Through the Mirror is the one that receives top marks here. With clearer, sharper production (with a much harder edge), this song could easily have appeared on Somewhere Far Beyond or IFTOS. Even with Hansi singing in his new generally softer way, this would have been fine. As a mid-paced, chorus-driven song with some potentially interesting guitar parts (potentially, that is) it could have made the cut. As such, I believe this is the best song on the album. It is the one that comes closest to the band’s stated goal of going back to their old ways.

They didn’t have to sacrifice intricacy or complexity to do this, but much of this album reeks of just that. This is not a collection of B-sides, though it sounds like it could have been. It is a legitimate album by the band, yet the problems abound. First, his new singing style is not really that great, though it works on some of these songs. Even on ANATO when he was going for an operatic sound, his edge remained. The saying that Hansi’s voice is an acquired taste remained true. On this album it’s too clean, too accessible, almost to the point that he’s sacrificed what made him a unique singer. He retains his ability to sound like a minstrel from the Rennaissance, so all is not lost, but this is not nearly as dramatic as past works.

That dull production isn’t helping either. Many seem to think the production here is great, but to me it sounds muddy and bland. I don’t know what’s wrong here, but it doesn’t sound very good, whatever it is. The guitars are rather soft and the drums are just hanging in there, lacking power. The vocal tracks are okay but they sound slightly muffled, even with his clean voice.

And lastly, where is the bang that should end this album? There is no spectacular, over-the-top closing song. Every album before this has finished off with a rousing song that takes the momentum of earlier tracks and blasts the listener with a climactic explosion. That was a pompous description, but it’s accurate, and here you can really feel the absence of a great ending song. The New Order doesn’t cut it, being just another track on an album that continues to play long after the listener loses interest. Even after all that, we’re given a bonus track called Dead Sound of Misery, the somber version of Fly. I prefer this one because the lyrics are darker, giving the song a different atmosphere, but it doesn’t begin to make up for the lack of a great closer.

This album is not even Blind Guardian on autopilot, it is Blind Guardian attempting to become accessible to a wider audience by incorporating a duller, rockish sound. They remain unique thanks to their Rennaissance and Medieval tendencies, but this is nothing like the glory of past albums. Iron Maiden had a similar collapse after deciding to “get back to their roots” but they ended up suffering for a decade because of it. I hope that doesn’t happen to BG, I hope this was a one-off, a fluke, because they can do much better. If they had continued with the massive work they did on ANATO they would have been better off, despite the taxing nature of recording such music.

There is a rather sizable number of albums that could be classified as good, but for some reason don’t cross over into being amazing because of a lack of staying power. Often these song collections will come across as great upon the first few listens, especially if there have been a few long years in between it and the last release. But for some reason will lose its intricacy after a few months. Perhaps the anticipation of a new album, in itself, causes the ears to hear things that are not there.

In the case of Blind Guardian’s latest offering “A Twist in the Myth”, most of the early champions of the album hailed it as an amazing return to form, most particularly that of “Imaginations from the Other Side”, which many recognize as their crowning achievement. This notion is not without a sense of extreme irony considering that original drummer and Blind Guardian mainstay Thomen Stauch left the band to create his own project in the image of the very same album. This unusual peculiarity is further heightened by Thomen’s inability to stay committed to that project and thus leaving 2 versions of his former band carrying on without him.

For those who have heard Savage Circus’ amazing debut but have somehow not gotten around to listening to this album, the differences between them are a lot bigger than one may suspect. While the former is almost a perfect carbon copy of Blind Guardian’s early 90s sound, this is mostly a revamped version of “A Night at the Opera”. The energy level is not nearly as high, and there is more reliance to dense vocal harmonies and instrument overdubs. Essentially this album tried to relieve the crowded arrangement that the previous album was heavily criticized for and replaced it with a cleaner, but more stripped down version of the same quasi-rock opera style of power metal.

Ultimately what “A Twist in the Myth” lacks is power, both in sound and songwriting. Some of the early songs attempt to match the riff happy speed metal sound they had in the 90s such as “This will never end”, but that strong sense of energy found in their earlier albums is nowhere to be found. “Otherland” and “Fly” are the best examples of this album’s occasional success in recapturing the pomp and circumstance of “A Night at the Opera”, and actually individually sound better with the squeaky clean production and lack of excessive instrument crowding.

Much of the rest of what populates this album is passable rock influenced metal. The choruses are mostly catchy, the leads are relatively pleasing to the ears, but nothing really jumps out as being that over-the-top power metal goodness that is usually expected out of these guys. It has zero to do with any of the players on here, even newcomer Frederik Ehmke, who actually does a decent job despite looking like a Scott Ian impersonator. It is all on account of the songwriting sounding stale, dry, and ultimately anti-climactic. Songs like “The Edge” and “Straight through the mirror” are pretty solid but are nowhere near what these guys are capable of.

The only song on here that really recaptures the spirit of the old glory days is “Skalds and Shadows”, which is a lighter, faster, and livelier take on the epic folk sounding ballad that put “A Past and Future Secret” into my personal 10 greatest metal ballads of all time list. It is a small constellation to me as a Blind Guardian fan to know that after 20 years of making great power metal emulations of sci-fi and fantasy classics, that the person who scored “In the Name of the King” had the good sense to include this in the movie’s soundtrack. After 2 years of owning this album, this is the only song that I regularly include on my computer play lists while at work.

Potential buyers of this album should look for this below full price, preferably something in the $10 or less range. There is more going on here that is good than bad, but this is not the amazing return to form that everyone hailed it to be. Most of the great songs on here can be found on the “Fly” single, so those with limited budgets are encouraged to pick that up instead of this. Newcomers to Blind Guardian who wonder what the band would sound like with a modern production but the older speed metal style are encouraged to check out either Savage Circus or Persuader, both of which are closer to this band’s metal roots than this is.

"Stop, be quiet now," and listen to Blind Guardian's "A Twist in the Myth." It is mind blowing how great this cd is in almost every aspect. From Hansi Kursh's mind blowing power metal vocals, to the amazing guitars played by Andre Olbrich and Marcus Ehmke. This power metal release is the closest to perfect that any band in 2006 has ever been. It can only be described in one word. Epic. There are many elements of greatness in this cd, including the song lyrics which are very complex and have so much meaning behind them. It really let's you know that Blind Guardian is making their music from their heart, and staying true to themselves as a band. This cd also clearly shows their progression as band, and their becoming more musically tight and together than their "Nightfall in Middle Earth" days.

The disk starts out with the powerful "This Will Never End." The five minute song starts the cd off with a bang, and sets the tone for the rest of the album. In my opinion, it is one of the best songs on this release, and also one of the best Blind Guardian songs in general. The lyrical themes, in typical Blind Guardian fashion, are about a journey and telling the tale in the lyrics about the journey.

The only problem I have about "A Twist in the Myth" is that some of the songs sound very much alike. For example, the music in the opening vocals for the song "Dead Sound of Misery" sounds almost exactly like the music and vocals for "Fly." When I first heard the song, I got very confused and I thought that it was just another version of "Fly." It really makes me question why Blind Guardian would have two songs that sound almost exactly alike on the same release.

Another single off of the album is "Another Stranger Me." The song is very reminiscent of the old and classic Blind Guardian style of their music. It is very solid, well put together, and greatly composed. The main idea in this song stears away from the usual tale, and focuses on self discovery and finding yourself through the doubts in mind. It has more of a classic metal guitar riff going on throughout the song, and it makes you stop and focus on what is being said, and tying it into the cd as a whole. Also, Blind Guardian have a bit of a folk metal influence on this cd in the song "Skalds and Shadows." The song is performed with acoustic guitars, and it is very toned down. It is very reminiscent of classic folk music, and the lyrics are quite simple and they tell a tale of a skald's dream.

In conclusion, I reccomend "A Twist in the Myth" to all metal lovers. It is a very well composed and put together release by Blind Guardian. It shows that the band, through their many releases, is still progressing, and will continue to make good music as they go on. From the lyrics, to the music, to the band themselves, Blind Guardian's musicianship continues to inspire other bands, and this release is no exception to that.

Mid period Blind Guardian reigned supreme above the rest of the power metal scene for various reasons. Excellent, energetic choirs interplaying with both Hansi's very medieval mournful clean voice and his rough cries of anguish and fury. Plentiful memorable and majestic melodies and choruses mixed with aggressive thrashy parts. Blind Guardian was the perfect mix of speed metal and symphonic power metal. Added to this were the lyrics, far superior to the ‘ride above the valleys of steel’ standard tripe, the Bards actually sang epic fantasy/medieval tales of courage and tragedy.

After the huge and complex Night at the Opera Blind Guardian clearly decided to create something simpler, more accessible and memorable and ‘return to their roots’ whilst keeping many elements of their new sound. Remaining from Night at the Opera is Hansi’s new all clean happy voice, excellent production (thankfully) and the lack of the emotion and medieval atmosphere present in mid period Guardian. Gone are the big choirs, orchestral touches, long tracks and epic feel. Returned from the old Blind Guardian… roughly nothing really except for shorter simpler songs. There’s a distinctive happy more rock ‘n’ roll feel here closer to the likes of Helloween and Edguy than anything Blind guardian have put out before. Sadly blind Guardian really aren’t very good at this style. There are a couple of catchy choruses which are probably the best parts of this album, especially the incredibly strong vocal lines in Otherland. Ultimately this album needed to be at least as catchy as most of Blind Guardian’s back catalogue to compare to them, and it really isn’t.

The lyrics here are often embarrassing and the catchier the song the more horrendously childish and annoying the lyrics tend to be. Forget the dark, tragic, epic fantasy of the Silmarillion and King Arthur. Now we have childish songs about the power of imagination which sound like something from Barney the Dinosaur. The language is also very simple and childish, how many people over 10 use the phrase ‘make believe’? Some examples of the lyrical delights this album has to offer include ‘Once I've touched the rainbow, The man on the moon will appear’ and ‘It's nothing else but fantasy, It's make believe, make believe’. These lyrics aren’t funny like Rhapsody or Manowar, they’re just plain bad. In an interview promoting this album Hansi mentioned his desire to write a song about Harry Potter, after listening to this you won’t be surprised.

There is one very touching, original and emotional song on this album. Carry the Blessed home, as Hansi’s last song about the Dark Tower and the end of Roland’s quest, it falls short of the masterpiece it could be by being too short and simple, yet it’s still very powerful and my personal favourite on the album. The ballad Skalds and Shadows is perhaps Blind guardian’s weakest acoustic song, but it’s a difficult legacy to live up to and is still rather excellent, though the acoustic version with Fly has a stronger medieval campfire feel.

Though disappointing, for any major fans of happy power metal or people who just can’t get enough of Blind Guardian, this is a worthy buy. If you really want to see what this band is capable of at its best listen to Nightfall in Middle Earth and Imaginations from the Other Side.

Blind Guardian has been moving away from their speed/power metal roots for a long time. So when I heard they were going to incorporate some of this writing on A Twist in the Myth – I was skeptical. I like the progressive nature of newer Blind Guardian, but I loved the older power metal roots that they used to play. So I was preparing myself for a let down. So when I bought the disc - I wasn’t let down, but I wasn’t blown away either.

A Twist in the Myth does however incorporate something from every time period of Blind Guardian’s career. There are parts of songs that lean towards the speed/power metal vibe of old, along with their progressive parts and even some folk parts (which is where I tend to zone out with Blind Guardian). So the writing of A Twist in the Myth has multiple sounds that Blind Guardian has smoothly created into a fluidly sounding album that neither deviates from the path nor stays on it. It’s almost clever in its construction.

Musically, as before, A Twist in the Myth is a mish mash of styles from Blind Guardian’s past. The music if full of melody (as most of Blind Guardian material is) with both guitarists being well skilled on the frets and how to throw down a good melody. Guitar wise, I feel though that this album is missing a lot of good power chords or riffing to help structure the songs…especially on the melodic songs like Otherland. Otherwise the guitar parts are well written and performed. I just really wanted a kick ass riff to come ripping through a song or two – and I never really go that.

The drums are there to help structure the songs but unfortunately Blind Guardian’s new drummer isn’t as skilled as their last and the moments of speed/power metal are not as tight due to his lack of experience in playing that kind of music. He does however make up for his “noobie” status by performing all (or most of) the folk and extra instruments in the songs. He does a great job playing the flute – if I do say so myself.

Hansi Kürsch was born in the wrong time. He should have been born in the 16th Century so that he could have been a folk singer. His voice is very well fitted to be singing progressive power metal music. He has a range that is quite unbelievable (especially when one looks back on their first album and Hansi sings a thrash influenced style). There are moments where his voice can break glass and there are moments where he lowers his voice and creates a very dark atmosphere. He is really the shining star of Blind Guardian and he makes his mark on A Twist in the Myth.

I love reading power metal lyrics. A Twist in the Myth took it to the next level when I realized that the song “Fly” was about Peter Pan. Only power metal can take Peter Pan and make a kick ass song about him. Most of the lyrics are based in the realms of fantasy but occasionally there a personally driven song and even a modern thought song.

Overall, this is pretty standard progressive power metal fodder. It’s well done prog power but essentially it’s nothing great. The speed metal moments are a nice thought but they really aren’t what Blind Guardian used to be. Blind Guardian are progressive power, they do it well, but they really shouldn’t tempt me with promises of reverting to their older faster style.

Songs to check out: This Will Never End, Fly, Another Stranger Me

Blind Guardian delivered quite a few differentiating albums with the lackluster "Nightfall In Middle Earth" and the overly orchestrated and overproduced "Night at the Opera." This album is another different one, lacking the somber, atmospheric mood that NIME did, and the overly bombastic air that ANATO did. The songs are shorter on average, whereas on previous album they always averaged to 6-7 minutes each. In essence, this is a very slightly stripped down and more basic version of the previous album. The guitar tone is odd, but I like it...although it's not as crisp as on earlier ones. Still better then the tone on Nightfall, I'd say. The drumming is not as inspired as the work by our Thomen Staunch, who's currently pounding away in Savage Circus. And Hansi's voice is good, but I can't say it's as masterful as their older works, or even his preformance on ANATO.

Now, there are some really cool songs here, such as "This Will Never End", "Otherland", and "Fly." "The Edge" is delightfully dark and somber. "Another Stranger Me" is pretty good, and gets props for having a catchy chorus. "The New Order" is alright, and the chorus is glorious and inspiring. But for the most part, the songs here are faceless. "Straight Through the Mirror", "Carry the Blessed Home", "Turn the Page", "Skalds and Shadows"...none of them really stick in my head much, and the music is unmemorable. I try to like "Lionheart", but it just doesn't do that much for me in the end, sadly.

This album is rather odd, filled with electronic blips and beeps and even a few slight folky passages. While the epic and grandiose feeling of the songs from ANATO is not present here, the album is still overproduced and cluttered with too many different sounds. It's a bigger mess then the previous two albums were, for pete's sake, and that's saying something. Blind Guardian have not returned to form here nor continued in the style from ANATO and Nightfall. This is a whole new style, and I have to say they didn't do it that well. I can give it props for having a few cool songs here and there, but that's not enough for a Grade A album. No, no not at all.

When near half of your album is uninspired and does not leave a desire to listen to it again, though, that doesn't exactly bode well for your reputation. Blind Guardian are way too progressive now, and seemed to have lost some of their spark from early albums. I wish I could call this a good album, but overall it's far too flawed and progressive for that. Blind Guardian is certainly not going in the right direction here, so far from their glory days. It's a tragedy. I guess all towers fall eventually. Let's hope that Blind Guardian has another good album in them. But this wasn't it.

Oh man. I see I have to be the voice of reason here.

This is Blind Guardian's best? That's the worst joke I've ever heard. Blind Guardian was an undeniable force to be reckoned with in the past. Now, they're just falling into trends, and dumbing down their sound. This is far and away their worst album. However, it isn't pure junk - but, their best? Absolutely absurd.

Firstly, stick a fork in Hansi, because he's done. I don't know if he's losing his edge, or if the producers in the studio just decided to layer his voice with a million synthesized harmonies just for the sake of over producing this vocal performance to death. At times it becomes so prevalent that his voice sounds fake. Indubitably the worst performance ever heard from Hansi - and again, I don’t really think it’s his fault necessarily, it’s the horrendous overproduction.

Next up, where is the signature guitar tone and style? This is a furthering of the Night at the Opera sound. Sounding more progressive, even more radio-friendly (watch the video for Another Stranger Me where the band dresses like a bunch of screamo kids, this might indicate something is amiss to you). I don’t have any gripe against a more progressive sound, per sa. But that’s not what fans want - nor is it what Blind Guardian is good at.

Speaking of which, there is more keyboard use than ever before. For symphonic sounding parts and hiding in the background during choruses, etc. It’s really a credit to many of the other aspects being dumbed down, using the keyboards to fill the harmonic and melodic gaps left by the guitar work.

Less of a complaint than the others, but determental nonetheless to the album is the absence of Tommen (of course, it’s obvious at this point why he left the band) - because Tommen did have a distinct style that added distiction to the band over all. His replacement is completely average.

In the bridges, the band reaches back to it’s former sound, but it’s few and far. Other than a heavier application of keyboards to fill space, this is essentially the same structural execution and song writing as A Night at the Opera - which isn’t a good thing. Songs like Fly completely cater to mainstream tastes, with hard rock sounding verses and vocal melodies, and lethargic playing. Aside from that, there is one final flaw on this album - the songs just aren’t very memorable. What? How is this possible? Blind Guardian that isn’t catchy. Say it ain’t so! ... well, it is.

There are only two songs I would ever sit down and listen to, though they’re not necessarily up to par for the former legendary power metal band. Turn the Page, although being heavy on that synth harmonizing, it is an extremely catchy song, and has some parts which are good as the old material. Skalds and Shadows pulls off nicely the folky awesomeness we all loved on albums of yore.

The bottom line is, fanboys will be fanboys, and they’ll eat up anything that Blind Guardian shits out. If you liked Battions of Fear though Nightfall in Middle Earth, you probably will be majorly disappointed.

2006 was a great year for metal music, classic bands like Iron Maiden, Slayer, Sodom, Metal Church and other old school metal acts showed us that they can create amazing music even after a 20 years long career, but only Blind Guardian could make the best album of this year and maybe their best album ever.

"This Will Never End" has raw riffs with destructive double bass drumming that leading to the powerful and epic singing of Hansi Kursch. Hansi sounds incredible, his voice sets somewhere between melodic screams to deep and clean singing and it fits the songs very well. "Otherland" has such majestic chorus and phenomenal melodies in the verses that it will stuck in your mind for a long time, and of course, the best solo I heard in 2006.

The riffs, oh my god, THE riffs are just so catchy and adding so much to the atmosphere. First of all, each song has a lot of different and catchy riffs, and I'm not talking about the regular catchy power chords and then some notes repeating themselves, most of the songs feature some of the most majestic and ambitious metal compositions ever recorded. There are powerful riffs (the opening track), acoustic and clean picking ("Carry The Blessed Home", "Skalds And Shadows"), hard rock riffs ("Another Stranger Me"), catchy Japanese harmonies ("Fly") and much more that I just can't describe well enough with words. Varied album? Of course!

In conclusion: "A Twist In The Myth" is my favorite Blind Guardian's album and one of my favorite metal albums ever! This album is a classic that you must have if you are into metal music or want to get into it. This is one of those special albums you won't get bored of even after several listening, I listened to this album over than 20 times and I still love it. Each time when you take a ride on this masterpiece you will feel the rare shiver from musical excitement in your back and you probably gonna be amazed for a while by the incredible genius of the majestic atmosphere.

Highlights: "This Will Never End", "Otherland", "Turn The Page", "Fly", "Another Stranger Me", "Skalds And Shadows", "The Edge", although I really love all the songs here, I find those I mentioned above are the most brilliant."

And so Blind Guardian’s new album A Twist in the Myth is upon us. It’s one of the most anticipated albums of the year and Blind Guardian’s first album without ex-drummer Thomen Stauch. Stauch was important to the band’s sound in the past, which leaves us wondering about the consequences of his departure.
Unfortunately, the answer to that isn’t a positive one. It’s hard to imagine that anything that came from Blind Guardian could be so unimaginative and boring, but that’s how I feel about their new album. It’s easily their worst album and probably the biggest disappointment of 2006.

It’s not that I don’t like the band. I like every album the band has ever made, more or less, and I appreciate the band’s unique style. My qualms simply have to do with the music, and it’s not easy to pinpoint exactly what is wrong. I’d say there are problems on all levels. What kills this album is not just the songwriting; the whole band turns in disappointing and uninspired performances. The rhythm guitar is wearisome and generic. Solos sound like re-used material from their past catalogue. The new drummer is no step up from Stauch and Kürch sounds worse than ever with his over-the-top style and overly-processed vocals. I’m not sure what the fuck he’s trying to achieve, but it’s about as satisfying to my ears as a cat being chased around by a vacuum cleaner. What’s worse, the guy is in your ears every second of the experience - ever heard of an instrumental break?!

Musically, it’s a mix of old blind Guardian, maybe some Nightfall in Middle Earth and a lot of A Night at the Opera. Unfortunately, it draws upon the bad influences from A Night at the Opera, namely the over-the-top bombast, vocals and unnecessarily complex songwriting. This isn’t exactly background music – and it doesn’t make a whole lot more sense should you be paying attention to it. I think the fans are divided into two camps: those who enjoy the more simple melodies pre-A Night at the Opera and those who appreciate what the band has become after that album. There’s really not much to like here for the fans who didn’t like A Night at the Opera. Everything from production to musicianship and songwriting is a muddled mess – just as before.

Though I’ll give it to them, Twist in the Myth is incredibly consistent as an album. And by that I mean consistently boring. No song is any less boring than the other – a dubious achievement. The album would have been easier to accept had there been some highlights, but there aren’t any. At least then I could have skipped the crap songs and just put the good ones on infinite repeat and pretend this was worth a damn. For that reason, I feel there is no point in getting into a track-by-track review here since I would basically be reviewing the same song over and over. Besides, there’s a limit to how often you can use the word “boring”.

It may be relevant to compare the new Blind Guardian to Tomen Stauch’s new band Savage Circus. Their debut Dreamhouse Manor had everything I feel is missing in the new Blind Guardian. It was a passionate and catchy album with incredible refrains and melodies and a Kürch-copy far superior to the original. It had variation too, which A Twist in the Myth does not.

If Blind Guardian could just become consistent at making good songs again, I’ll be the first fan to return. Until then, A Twist in the Myth shall serve me as a sleeping pill for those long sleepless nights.

Yep, this is it. This is the album we all knew Blind Guardian could make, and that they have come just shy of making so many times before. Their best work? Hell yes, and that's pretty impressive considering how long they've been around. I mean, really, how many bands can make an album this good after being around for 20+ years? Maybe a few, but how many bands actually record their best material at this stage in their career? None, not even Iron Maiden.

This really is the best thing they've ever done - and we're talking album-of-the-year caliber here (no small feat in a year that has seen albums from living legends such as Iron Maiden, Tom Petty, Deicide, Bob Dylan, and Slayer, not to mention career-best releases from Cannibal Corpse, Devin Townsend, and Strapping Young Lad). It's as grandiose as A Night At The Opera, but it's not so overdone; it's as compelling as Nightfall in Middle Earth, except it doesn't have the cheesiness, the interludes, and the bad production that dragged that album down; it's as catchy as Imaginations From the Other Side, except more so; and although it lacks the agression of their earlier albums, it makes up for that by being loaded with ridiculously good melodies.

And that's what makes this album amazing: the melodies. There are so many different parts in each song (as usual for this band), but this time it's all catchy all the time. Remember how previous Blind Guardian songs used to have those passages that would be stuck in your head for weeks? Now imagine an album that was comprised entirely of passages like that, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what this album sounds like - and I'm exaggerating only slightly.

As usual, we get amazing performances by each band member. The new drummer is fantastic, the leads are phenomenal, and the rhythm is as tight as could be. But it's Hansi's vocals that steal the show. This guy is really a force of nature - I mean, it's a wonder he can still talk after all these years of doing that insane Axl Rose screech, let alone sing. But sing he does, and sounds better doing it than he has on any previous album. True, his style has changed a little bit since the old days (it's not quite as harsh as it was prior to ANATO), but it works perfectly here. The harsh screeches pop up here and there, but his performance on this album is closer to what he did on ANATO (except more melodic, soaring, heartfelt, and epic).

And what he's singing is a lot better on this album, as well. Fantasy/Lord of the Rings/knights-and-dragons lyrics are pretty much unbearable, and while Blind Guardian's music has always been good enough that I could overlook that, I'd have enjoyed some albums (especially Nightfall) a lot more if the lyrics hadn't been so undendurably cheesy. Well, on this album, the lyrics are much more introspective and vague, which actually works in their favor. The fantasy themes are still there, but they are much less overt. That's a good thing.

In closing, I should probably point out that this review is coming from the point of view of someone who doesn't really care much for power metal. I've always found it a bit too cheesy and, well, effeminate. But Blind Guardian is a different story. They're heavier and more aggressive (have more balls) than most bands in their genre, Hansi's vocals are less feminine, and they possess the ability - so rare in this genre - to write tight songs that showcase their significant talent without descending into wankery. And so, from a band that has long towered over every other power metal band out there, we now get an album that tops anything they've ever done. Get the hell to a store and buy this.

Until this point in their career, Blind Guardian's blend of power metal had been becoming more elaborate with each album, along the way dropping the speed element in favour of symphonics and more epic song structures, which culminated in the massively-layered A Night At The Opera and the subsequent live album and DVD.

One of the first things that you'll notice upon giving this disk a spin for the first time is that the songs are far more guitar-driven than on ANatO, and much of the choir energy is kept in check and reserved for specific portions of songs. This is especially evident in the catchy and energetic mid-paced song Otherland, which has a very Imaginations-era vibe with a chorus that pulls out the epic choral type of vocal that was present in the last album. The band is in top form, however; as usual, Hansi's soaring vocals and Andre's trademark riffwork are brought to the forefront, and the change in drummer hasn't caused as much of a negative impact on the band's performance at all.

The song structure has been brought to a much more traditional pattern, as well; the verse/chorus structure is prevalent here, and the average song length is about five minutes or so. A possible downside is the lack of variety on the album compared to Nightfall in Middle-Earth and A Night At The Opera, since many of the songs on ATitM share common characteristics such as the previously-mentioned structure. It's this sense of sameness that keeps some tracks from really standing out to me, but the rating still is 82 (A) - because what I do enjoy out of the album, is very good and classic Blind Guardian.

By far my favourite track from the album is Another Stranger Me - helped out by a passionate and full vocal delivery, inspired guitarwork and interesting lyrics, this rocker has definite potential to become a setlist favourite for the band. (The catchy-as-hell descending solo lead at around 3:04 is an example of how the twin guitars of the band continue to be noteworthy) Other choice cuts include Fly/Dead Sound Of Misery (While they're essentially mirror versions of each other with far different lyrics, the music of the latter has a far darker tone as well), Otherland, Turn The Page and This Will Never End. (The album's tail end seems to stand out less, but it's solid nonetheless)

Those who expect A Night At The Opera II will go in disappointed; there's no epic track here in the vein of And Then There Was Silence, nor are there the exquisite song structures that fans of later-era BG will have been accustomed to. It's a good, solid and rocking album either way, though, and BG fans should at least give it a good listen.

Blind Guardian is a band that has been around for more than twenty years, and have a countless amount of albums, singles and demos. Some people, I'm sure, have thought that sometime this band would die out and become like Metallica, but with this release, they have all been proven wrong again.

The band has yet again evolved beyond their earlier albums, and having no repeating sounds or tracks. The sound of the ablum itself is a mixture of the old sounds, from the Somewhere Far Beyond era to Nightfall in Middle Earth era mixed with the newer, more epic sounds of A Night at the Opera. Hansi himself even said that the album would have a mixture of all the albums' sounds in one, and he wasn't lying. This Will Never End has the raw, gritty guitars of Tales from the Twilight World, Otherland has the epic from A Night at the Opera, Turn the Page has a very 'Mirror Mirror' theme to it, and so on. Not all of the songs, however, have inspirations from the earlier albums, as songs like The Edge and Fly are songs that have gone in a new direction, which is the pure combination of the old and new sounds.

The major advancement on this album over the previous ones are the vocals. Hansi has a clear, crisp voice, which echoes on beautifuly on every song. The choirs are back as well, although not abused as much as they were on ANATO. Carry the Blessed Home displays Hansi's voice the best, as it's a soft, rockish ballad which is very touching, and Hansi's voice helps convey all the emotion within . The guitars are something to be heard now as well, because now you can hear the Marcus (rhythm guitars) and the solos are fantastic, some of the best ever in a Blind Guardian album.

In closing, this album, A Twist in the Myth, shows that the Bards haven't forgotten the old ways and old sounds, and are still using them, but also incorporating them into their newer styles, and accomplishing great musical things with them. This also proves that Blind Guardian will not die with time, but only get better. Blind Guardian improves and evolves with each album, and this is no exception.

It's official - Blind Guardian is the most consistent band in metal history. For over 20 years they've been going strong and have, to this day, not produced a single album that ranks anywhere below simply amazing. I was a bit skeptical of A Twist in the Myth at first; although I adored the song Fly when it was released, I was just having trouble understanding how a band could possibly last as long as Blind Guardian and still have fresh ideas. Once again, I was proved pleasantly wrong by the German power/speed metal band, and they're back to please power metal fans for the eighth time.

A Twist in the Myth seems to be a combination of their later power metal style and the symphonic metal style of A Night at the Opera. While the "metal" sounding instruments are obviously the focus of the music (unlike ANATO) it still bears the multiple vocal and choral harmonies that Hansi used four years ago. This produces a sound that is both heavy, epic, and very melodic. Altogether, it is unforgetable, especially in songs like This Will Never End, a depressingly melodic yet upliftingly epic track. Turn the Page is packed full of singalong vocal melodies and an almost folk-like atmosphere. And of course Fly, the aforementioned single, throws out incredibly diverse sounds ranging from their fantasy-based power metal to a brand new type of melodic serenity.

On the other hand, Blind Guardian hasn't lost their metal edge. Lionheart and The Edge are both menacing metal tracks full of chugging riffs and powerful dynamics. Another Stranger Me mixes up the album with a hard rock sound after the ballad Carry the Blessed Home.

Over all, A Twist in the Myth proves that ever after two decades, not every band becomes susceptible to St. Anger syndrome. Blind Guardian does what they do best but in a brand new way. Every song is ace in its own right and there's no doubt that there will be a fair share of fans considering this the best Blind Guardian album yet.