Review of the Album "A Twist in the Myth" by German Power Metal Band Blind Guardian

German power metal band Blind Guardian throughout their long career certainly has not disappointed fans around the world even when they drifted away from their thrash metal beginnings of their earlier albums. This is true of their 2006 album called "A Twist in the Myth." The one lineup change for this album is that drummer Frederik Ehmke replaces Thomas Stauch who left the band in 2005 because of being dissatisfied with the musical direction that the band was going in.

There is even more of an emphasis by vocalist Hansi Kursch to use more harmonic style vocals as if he is singing as part of a choir. Is this a bad thing for him to do? It depends on how you look at it. If we’re talking about personal growth and a desire to explore new approaches and avenues, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Those of you that are big fans of the band’s first four albums will be disappointed by what you hear on this album. If Sabina Classen is the best German female vocalist in thrash metal, Hansi Kursch in spite of his accent shows that he is more than competent to sing harmony vocals. He also has a very good low voice. The only attribute he does not have to a degree is an extremely high pitched voice which may not matter in his case.

The album’s cover shows a dragon that is flying through the air and sees that there are trees that are barren. They have no leaves on them because the land has been ransacked and burned. The band has been having cover art like this since 1995’s Imaginations From the Other Side.

The song Carry the Blessed Home continues in the band’s tradition of having ballads. In 1990, the band’s first real ballad was the song Lord of the Rings. In that song, there was no harmony vocals and it was just Hansi singing. In this song that we are discussing, it is sort of a power ballad. Another Stranger Me is a song that discusses some very complex, yet basic human emotions. We know when that seed of doubt creeps into our minds and we feel that we cannot escape this fear, anger, hate or doubt because we are trying to escape the room with the wrong key.

The first song called This Will Never End sounds like 1980’s Mercyful Fate combined with power metal. The song called Otherland lyrically is vastly different from what we have seen from these guys. The song speaks of a world in which others are in charge and they pull the strings. If we enter this world, we must be careful not to offend them or break the rules. Whoever enters this world which is thought to be fake, they are working hard like slaves to the grind and being subject to oblivion. However, there is an inner district which allows them to rest for a while. Skalds and Shadows is a ballad song calling on people to embrace those nights that turn out to be miracles because visions are accomplished and recognized. The song lyrically goes back to the fantasy based lyrics we saw in the album Nightfall in Middle Earth. The last song called The New Order is a song that talks about opening a door to new path, a path filled with more love, peace, and harmony. Faith will get humanity through the most difficult of times. As the song says: praise the new order. The dragon that the brave warrior slayed and got rid of can also mean that he came to terms with his haunted, tormented past. A Twist in the Myth is slightly better than 2002’s A Night at the Opera and that’s a good thing. However, it still is not as good as the albums released between 1988 and 1992.