Saturday, February 9, 2019

Blind Guardian: A Night at the Opera



Iron Maiden's Golden Era is generally considered to begin with "The Number of the Beast" and end with "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". This would consist of 5 albums and would not include their first two releases as a result. Now, "Iron Maiden" and "Killers" are fantastic releases, but fans can generally agree on the "Golden Era" beginning with Beast. Blind Guardian, in my opinion also went through a very similar Golden Era. And much like Maiden, after their first two releases their next 5 albums, IMO would form this era, beginning with "Tales from the Twilight World" and ending with "A Night at the Opera". That's not to say the first two releases are not special or anything after this album are inferior.

"A Night at the Opera" was my first true experience with the band (although I bought this, NFIME and SFB at the same time) and my love for Blind Guardian was born. This release has everything you could ask for when it comes to Blind Guardian. I've heaped so much praise on their style and music that I won't go into detail on what we already knew would be present. However, one nice change we hear on this release is the length of the songs, which are a little longer on average, but of course BG, would never let that become an issue of having the perception of dragging on too long. All it means is that you get to enjoy some classic hits for a little longer than normal. The other amazing aspect of this album is that it almost feels like Blind Guardian have become their own Orchestra with the amount of keyboards, sound effects, guitars and vocalists that are heard throughout the album. To harmonize all these components together, is akin to a great conductor leading a score with the Metropolitan Opera. Amazing.

Highlights: "Jerusalem", "Battlefield", "Under the Ice" "Wait for an Answer"

Rating: 4.5

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