• New Music Reviews
• |
• Archives
• |
• News
• |
• Submissions
• |
• About
• |
• 
• |
• 

January 2025

• Labyrinth: In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye
• Bonfire: Higher Ground
• The Big Deal: Electrified
• Landfall: Wide Open Sky

December 2024

• After Lapse: Pathways
• Illusion Force: Halfana
• Powell-Payne: Voilá

November 2024

• Sunstorm: Restless Fight
• Storace: Crossfire
• Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King
• Lionville: Supernatural
• Starchaser: Into The Great Unkown
• Empires Of Eden: Guardians Of Time
• Lonerider: Down In The Dust
• Seventh Crystal: Entity
• Neal Morse & The Resonance: No Hill For A Climber
• Beardfish: Songs For Beating Hearts
• Impellitteri: War Machine
• Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter

October 2024

• Casandra's Crossing: Garden Of Earthly Delights
• DGM: Endless
• Daytona: Garder la Flamme
• Fate: Reconnect 'N Ignite
• Frost*: Life In The Wires
• Aries Descendant: From The Ashes Of Deceit
• Fans Of The Dark: Video
• Radioactive: Reset
• House Of Lords: Full Tilt Overdrive
• Cleanbreak: We Are The Fire

September 2024

• Sinner's Blood: Dark Horizons
• Serious Black: Rise Of Akhenaton
• Eclipse: Megalomanium II
• SteelCity: Reverence
• Hydra: ReHydrated
• Heartwind: III
• Gabrielle De Val and the Dragonlords: Tiger
• Find Me: Nightbound
• The Nail: The Nail
• Timeless Fairytale: A Story To Tell
• Stryper: When We Were Kings
• Phil Mogg: Moggs Motel
• Pure Reason Revolution: Coming Up To Consciousness
• Jordan Rudess: Permission To Fly

[ More Music Reviews ]

Blind Guardian: Memories of a Time to Come

Power Metal

4.5/5.0

Website Facebook Twitter YouTube
EMI/Nuclear Blast
by Craig Hartranft,  05.27.2012

Affectionately known to fans as simply 'the bards,' those traveling minstrels Blind Guardian pause to release their first compilation album, Memories of a Time to Come. The 16 song two-disc set, 31 songs in the digital edition, covers their 25 year career offering some their best songs, picked by the band themselves. This review considers the two-disc set.

Blind Guardian: hail the Bards.

For this collection, 12 of the songs have been remixed, but three have been re-recorded including Valhalla, Bard Song-Hobbit, and And Then There Was Silence. Only one song, Sacred Worlds, was left untouched. Considering their extensive catalog, there's much to choose from. One wonders how difficult it was for them to select. Yet, there's some great ones here even some personal favorites including Traveler in Time, Nightfall, Mirror Mirror, and Somewhere Far Beyond. All these fall in the collection of new mixes.

For me, the wild card in Blind Guardian has always been the vocals of Hansi Kursch. His style swings between singing and grizzly metal screaming, more the latter. Frankly, I just dig the music, and simply forbear with Kursch.

But the issue with the compilation is not the vocals, but rather Blind Guardian's epic career and positive impact upon heavy metal. Eschewing modern metal trends, Blind Guardian in 25 years has made their tale-telling melodic power metal a standard by which many should be measured, but few can compare. Memories of a Time to Come is a good introduction for the novice. I suspect diehard fans will find it acceptable, but too finite. Therefore, for pure Blind Guardian gluttony, fans should get the expanded digital edition, which also includes the Lucifer’s Heritage demos (the early incarnation of the band).

Blind Guardian's Memories of a Time to Come is an acceptable and entertaining collection of seminal songs from their 25 year career, suitable for the initiate and longtime fan.

Alphabetical Index

The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]