Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle Earth
Virgin
Melodic Speed Metal
22 songs (65'42)
Release year: 1998
Blind Guardian, Virgin
Reviewed by Sin

A lot of people prefer "Imaginations From The Other Side" than "Nightfall In Middle Earth". But for me, this opus is the most complete and mature Blind Guardian album. The mix, the precision involved so everything would feel right, from guitars to the diversity of arrangements make this album the ultimate product of one of the biggest, if not the biggest melodic heavy metal band.

The concept talks about a part of Tolkien's Middle Earth (not the Lord Of The Rings, but a part of Silmarillion) and it almost feels like you can feel Tolkien's mythical writing style embedded in the music (unlike the Bob Catley horrible disc also called "Middle Earth" which doesn't reflects the spirit of master Tolkien). But lets talk about music shall we ? ... The album is separated between songs and little intros which project the listener into the Silmarils realm. The first song Into The Storm opens this opus with its unforgettable chorus and its prodigal power. Follows what could be the best track on the album, I named Nightfall, which starts very calmly to finally arrive to a chorus that no one will ever forget. Actually its difficult to take out songs of the album as all songs are almost of the same level. Hansi Kursch's voice is unique, and its enough to listen to Eldar to realize it. I also love Thorns which resemble Nightfall in the way its been structured but with even more power and majesty. Its true that the songs are a bit slower than in Imaginations, but that's exactly in that area that Nightfall In Middle Earth complete perfectly its predecessor by proposing a completely different album. Need I continue to convince you ? This masterpiece is amongst the mythical albums that marks the metal universe with a unique print, and which will still be alive and fresh for the next 100 years. If you don't own this jewel, you know what you need to do, and if you have it, you can like me listen to it over and over again till the end of times.

Killing Songs :
Every songs are killing, but my favs are : Nigthfall, The Curse Of Feanor and Thorns.
Sin quoted CLASSIC
Other albums by Blind Guardian that we have reviewed:
Blind Guardian - The God Machine reviewed by Ben and quoted 90 / 100
Blind Guardian - Beyond the Red Mirror reviewed by Goat and quoted 90 / 100
Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond reviewed by Goat and quoted CLASSIC
Blind Guardian - At The Edge Of Time reviewed by Kyle and quoted 86 / 100
Blind Guardian - Follow The Blind reviewed by Goat and quoted 86 / 100
To see all 17 reviews click here
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