Blind Guardian, The God Machine

After delving deeper and deeper into the epic symphonic realm, which culminated with Legacy of the dark lands, an entirely orchestral album that lacks metal almost completely and is one of their most ambitious and grandiose works, Blind Guardian have done a 180 in their newest release and returned to an earlier rawer sound.

Hansi described how much pressure he felt under with the previous project and what a great relief it was to finally be able to achieve that goal of theirs, so once the orchestral album was out of their system, they felt the need and freedom to return to their good old brand of power-thrash and released a straightforward, simple record, The God Machine. Simple by Blind Guardian standards, of course, as the unmistakeable harmonies, overlapped choruses and frenzied guitar solos are present all throughout the record.

The God Machine is an intense journey, that rarely lets up, the gentle sorrowful Let it be no more being the only exception. It’s heavy, fast paced, aggressive and epic. Always epic. There simply is no other way when it comes to Blind Guardian.

My favourite track is Damnation. With its staccato quick verses and the epic melodious chorus, as well as the reference to the incredible The Kingkiller Chronicles, it’s grandiose, powerful and ransacking. The only issue I have with it is that I’m not sure how safe it is to write songs about the Chandrian. It didn’t turn out so well last time, you know. Let it be no more is beautiful and touching, while Violent Shadows is a tumultuous affair, with an aggressive Hansi, shredding guitars and fast paced drums. And on the other side of the spectrum sits Secrets of the American gods, which has been hailed as The God Machine‘s best track, but failed to captivate me personally. It’s good, I’m not going to disagree, but I find it a bit uneventful for its length, even repetitive at times, and erring more on the cheesier side of BG.

No Blind Guardian review would be complete without a special mention of Hansi Kursch. AKA Mr. “making the world right note by note”. At times coarse, at times piercing, but always glorious and powerful, Hansi delivers an excellent performance, as is the norm with him. And where mere mortals would be left gasping for air, he thrives and belts and screams and just generally kicks ass. Yes, I adore Hansi Kursch and I am terribly biased when it comes to him. You should’ve gotten used to it by now 😛

Now that we’ve had two releases at opposite ends, an entirely orchestral and an entirely metal one, I can wholeheartedly say my favourite version of Blind Guardian is the one in the middle. Everything between Nightfall in Middle Earth and Beyond the red mirror is a masterpiece in my opinion and as far as I’m concerned, they could stay in that area forever and I would never complain. However, The God Machine serves as a good counterpart to Legacy of the dark lands and the band and the fans seem to have needed this more traditional straightforward album. So even though it lacks some of the nuance and complexity of the aforementioned works, it would be a travesty to even suggest it’s not a very very good release.