BLIND GUARDIAN — Nightfall in Middle-Earth (review)

BLIND GUARDIAN — Nightfall in Middle-Earth album cover Album · 1998 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Time Signature
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Genre: progressive/symphonic power metal

Hailed by many as Blind Guardian's best effort, "Nightfall in Middle-Earth" is a bit over the top for my tastes. Well, that is, musically, there's nothin as such wrong with it. I really like how the band makes use of elements from a wide variety of musical styles and traditions, instrumentations and effects. The Queen-inspired choral arrangements also work quite well, and the musicianship in general is stunning.

That being said, I think the album lacks the speed metal energy of the predecessors. There is still some, and that works fine, but it also takes something away from the Blind Guardian sound - then again, I applaud the band for being in a constant process of development, and, choices have to be made, and Blind Guardian has chosen to cut back on the speed metal to make room for the symphonic aspects.

The thing that really gets to me on this album are all the non-musical interludes - especially those that contain narration and voice acting. That's simply just too cheesy for my taste. I simply find them annoying - thank god I can skip them on my iPod.

This still is a good album. No doubt about that. Musically, it certainly is magnificent. But the interludes ruin a bit of the experience for me.

It will probably appeal to fans of power metal, but I think that some people will find it to be too much in terms of epicness and pompousness.
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