It's with great pleasure that I review that album, cause its a classic for me and it brings back a lot of "souvenirs". I consider it a pure jewel from a period when metal was almost dead. But bands like Blind Guardian and Gamma Ray where there to keep the flame alive, and although we speak of the True Metal revival, we sometimes fails to thanks the one that kept metal alive during this perilous times. They're are of course other bands, like Helloween, Iron Maiden, Rage and many many others... Thanks to all of them. They have proved that the metal spirit cannot be torn apart... and like Hammerfall would say : "A metal heart is hard to tear apart"

Blind Guardian singer Hansi Kursch is well known by anyone and I guess there's no point for me to describe you how great his voice and his vocal abilities are. He also is very original and have a very particular voice, one that might need some time to get accepted, but once you've heard a few hours of Kursch singing, he instantly and magically will enter the ranks among your favorite singers, that I have no doubts about. Blind Guardian play melodic speed metal, entirely inspired on Heroic Fantasy, their music is mixing the power of metal and the magic of fantasy quests. The mix is sometime very unusual, but they have something in their sound, a little magical element that distinguish them from all the bands I've heard so far. The guitars are very melodic, coupled with strong riffs and fiercely fast drumming. Probably one of the first to play melodic metal with such a fast drums in the background. The overall is a pure jewel of epic metal music and an unforgettable heroic fantasy dream. When I close my eyes and listen to Blind Guardian, I found myself fighting evil forces with Dragons by my side, casting spells of great power or fearlessly raging on the battlefield, cutting Trolls, Orcs and other monsters into pieces with my swords... that but also having the impression of being part of a huge quest, in which I travel through time and space, jumping from a dimension to another, seeing my friends fall in combat, and avenging their souls... well... It's like I'm inside the role playing games I was playing when I was younger, although I'm just listening to music. This band is definitely the only one that can produce such an impact amongst RPG fans that's for sure, it wouldn't surprise me to hear that BG is actually used as a background music during long RGP sessions.

Blind Guardian have written other excellent albums, and maybe Imagination From The Other Side is as good as this one... not for me, but I know that it's the case for many people. Hansi's performance on Imagination From The Other Side is for sure superior than on this CD. But the songwriting here is amazing, you could almost say it's progressive speed metal.

The production is not perfect when you hear it today, but let's not forget than this CD is from 91, so I guess it's more than normal. The CD itself is 10 tracks, with one instrumental track where there's what I consider the best guitar melody I've heard... too bad it only occurs once (in Weird Dreams) and that they didn't exploit the opportunity to write a full song around that melody. Almost all my favorite songs are in this piece, Traveler In Time, Good-bye My Friend, Lost In The Twilight Hall, The Last Candle.... of course some other of my favorite BG songs are within Imagination From The Other Side and other albums as well...

Lately BG have been quite absent, and their last album, which followed Imagination From The Other Side was really a medium one... too much atmosphere, not epic enough, or maybe simply not metal enough. I'm hoping that BG will come back with a huge album soon, and I know they have what it takes to achieve that. For all metal fans, especially if you love Heroic Fantasy but also melodic and very epic music. This is a must in everyone's collection if you ask me.