You simply cannot be a fan of European metal without having heard of Blind Guardian. The band are such a staple in the continent’s heavy diet, that now you could find German elders in the street knowing a couple of songs from the band at least. Blind Guardian are massive, and their current tour has justified that nothing is stopping them from getting bigger. And we had to travel to the USA to find a moment of their time.
Kicking off their US tour at the ProgPower USA festival, the band were gearing up to play their classic ‘Imaginations from the Other Side‘ album in it’s entirety for the first time, 21 years after it’s release. It may have taken a while, but such a classic piece deserves to be presented in such an audacious light to the legions of adoring fans from the United States, who don’t see as much power metal as the European continent does.
But that’s not the only reason we wanted to catch up with the band. Despite the fact that Blind Guardian have nothing to prove to anyone anymore, their album work keeps getting better and better. Their most recent opus ‘Beyond the Red Mirror‘ is a testament to that, and rumours are whirling around the camp that some big things are coming from the band sooner rather than later…
We speak with guitarists Markus Siepen and Andre Olbrich to find out what’s happening…
Listen to the full unedited interview or read the transcript below:
Guys, thank you very much for speaking to The Metalist today. It’s very much appreciated, very happy to have you back in America again. How long has it been since you’ve been here?
Markus: One year! [laughs]
Oh! [laughs] Still it’s very good to have you back! First question – you are playing the entire ‘Imaginations’ album tonight, is it the first time you are going to be playing it?
M: In it’s entirety, yes. We played pretty much all the songs before, but normally there are like 2 or 3 of the songs from that album in the set. It’s the first time that we’ve really played the whole thing, and I have to say it’s fun to do it!
During the rehearsals, it was also the first time that we actually rehearsed the whole album. It was fun, it worked…it has a pretty good flow!
I mean it’s a pretty damn good album! I think it’s over 20 years old now, does it feel like that?
Andre: No. I mean it still fits very well in the whole metal music scene. At the time when we released it I think we were a little bit ahead of the times. It had a lot of innovation, and a lot of our fans were really surprised because it was the first time we played around with mid-tempo songs like ‘Modred’s Song’ and ‘The Story Ends’. Lots of people were confused, let’s say, but now it’s become a classic album! A lot of the Blind Guardian evergreens are on it! It’s really fun for our fans I think.
M: It’s a timeless album you know? It stood the test of time, as 20 years later we are still playing that stuff, and now we are playing the whole thing!
It’s pretty cool how it’s so well received. I saw you guys at your Wacken show and it’s pretty amazing how many people show up and sing along to all the old classics even though they are 20 years old!
So the next question is, some people say you are the pioneers of German power metal – or at least that Blind Guardian has had a big impact on power metal. You’re in America, where the genre is not as popular here, how are you received here?
M: The reception here is very good, but I don’t think anybody in Blind Guardian actually consider us a power metal band. Obviously we have power metal songs, we also have thrash, epic, you-name-it metal [laughs]…thinking in such categories is kind of limiting yourself. If you think of yourself as a power metal band, and that ‘I’m not supposed to do this’…well if we feel like doing ‘it’, we’ll do ‘that’.
But the reception here is very, very good. It’s been like that since day one. Fans are very passionate, and it’s great to be back here.
On your first tour of America was the band nervous about how you would be received?
A: No, not really. We would always look at online platforms and we saw the reactions. There were always very supportive comments from Americans wishing for us to come over and tour the States, even in the 90’s when we were not released in the country. People would import albums, and they knew Blind Guardian.
When we played the first tour in 2002, the venues were already packed. People knew the history of Blind Guardian, especially in the 90’s when traditional metal in the US was kind of dead. We were putting out good albums, so of course people knew about us and they were listening to the music.
Even after all this time you are still coming back! Do you find the venues are getting bigger on each tour here?
M: Some are getting bigger…some are getting fuller! [laughs]
Maybe a bit sweatier?
M: [laughs] It’s always fun!
So it’s been a year and half now since ‘Beyond the Red Mirror’ was released. I guess the tour will be wrapping up soon in support of the album?
A: Yea, this is the last big part of the tour. We have been on the road for almost one and a half years now. We think that’s kind of enough! We have played all over the world, and it’s been one of the most successful tours so far. Highlights were of course the festivals. Wacken was the final big piece in front of almost 80’000 people, and it was broadcast on TV, and we were really happy about this.
It must be quite a cool feeling to see 80’000 people sing ‘The Bard’s Song’ back to you!
A + M: Oh yes, it is!
Do you still get that feeling where you are just like…’Whoa’…
M: Always. We don’t play in front of that many people every day, and when you do it and they go nuts and sing that song, it’s goosebumps. We’ve played Wacken like, 7 times, 8 times maybe? It doesn’t matter though, whenever you go there and you get this reaction from the crowd, it’s still amazing.
So the next question is that you’re wrapping up the tour for ‘Beyond the Red Mirror’, so what’s next for Blind Guardian? We’ve heard rumours of an upcoming orchestral album…
A: Well first thing we are doing is releasing a live album. We recorded many shows, I think maybe about 80 on the tour…Hansi and me were listening to a lot of stuff at the beginning of the year and we chose songs, and a live album will be released at the beginning of next year, and then we continue to work on the orchestral album.
We have to do many vocal recordings, and we always have to make sure Hansi is in good shape to record. In the middle of a tour his voice would not be up to it. He needs a little break, and then when his voice has been rested we can go back and do the studio work as we want the best performance for this album. The new orchestral album should be released in 2018.
The songwriting for the orchestral album is done. Right now I am focusing on the new metal album when we return home, so we are parallel on both projects.
So you’re working on two albums at once!
A: Yes! While Hansi is in the studio [for the orchestral album], I will be working on the new songs for the new studio album, as we want that out latest 2019.
So two albums a year apart?
A: Yes, just so we stick to our usual four year cycle!
It’s interesting, you’ve had a four year album cycle for quite a while now…is that intentional or does it kind of just happen like that?
M: It just happens you know…when we put out an album we tour for almost two years. We don’t work on any songs. We have to be home again and we have to get touring off our chest. We need two years for touring, then we need a year, year and a half to write the stuff, and then we need additional time to record everything and there you go, four years!
Sure, if you’re touring for two years straight you must need a bit of a break…it’s exhausting!
A: In our experience, we tried to write songs during a tour, but the songs came out kind of boring. The material sounded too much alike, and also sounded like the melodies we would play on the stage in the evening. We always want to go the distance, we always want to take the next step and we always want to be innovative.
I think Blind Guardian stands for innovation. The fans expect new elements, new ideas, and that’s what we want to provide. So we take the time and we think it’s better to release a quality album every four years than an average album every two years. That doesn’t work for us.
Was the songwriting process for the orchestral album a little bit different this time around? As in you have to think of instrumentals rather than guitar parts…
M: Yes of course the songwriting was very different…and that it started more than 15 years ago! We took our time to really go in to detail, and I had to learn a lot of things with the orchestral programming and how the orchestra worked. We had to understand over the years, it was a really long process but now we are really in to it, and I think we’ve done an extraordinary album!
Do you think the album’s sound is going to be worth 15 years of work!
A: I think so! A think it will be a brilliant piece.
I guess there is a lot to look forward to in Blind Guardian for the next couple of years!
A + M: Absolutely.
Fantastic. Guys, thanks again for speaking to us today, really appreciate it!
