SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND - 1992 / BLIND GUARDIAN

METAL HAMMER ESPAÑA Nº5. Esta vez, nada menos que el famoso cuarteto de Krefeld (Alemania), BLIND GUARDIAN, y el que fue su cuarto trabajo de estudio, SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND.

Enlace:

SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND - 1992 / BLIND GUARDIAN - METAL HAMMER ESPAÑA

Gracias por leer y gracias sobre todo a mi amigo IGNACIO VARELA NEILA, quien me prestó el disco en su día, hace muchos años ya, y me dio a conocer al grupo.

ENGLISH

METAL HAMMER ESPAÑA Nº5. Turn this time to no other than the famed foursome from Krefeld (Germany), BLIND GUARDIAN, and what it became their fourth studio effort, SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND.

Link:

SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND - 1992 / BLIND GUARDIAN - METAL HAMMER ESPAÑA

LABEL: VIRGIN RECORDS

RELEASE DATE: 29th of June, 1992

MEMBERS:

HANSI KÜRSCH: Vocals, bass guitar

ANDRÉ OLBRICH: Guitar

MARCUS SIEPEN: Guitar

THOMAS STAUCH: Drums

TRACKS:

TIME, WHAT IS TIME?

JOURNEY THROUGH THE DARK

BLACK CHAMBER

THEATRE OF PAIN

THE QUEST FOR TANELORN

ASHES TO ASHES

THE BARD'S SONG I (IN THE FOREST)

THE BARD'S SONG II (THE HOBBIT)

THE PIPER'S CALLING

SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND

VIDEOS:

TIME, WHAT IS TIME?

JOURNEY THROUGH THE DARK

ASHES TO ASHES

THE HOBBIT

SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND

Less than three years ago, BLIND GUARDIAN released THE GOD MACHINE, their last full length with new songs to date. A very good effort, if you ask me, and this remark is only relevant for the fact that this is the first record by the germans that I'm interested in and I have paid full attention to since, let's say, IMAGINATIONS FROM THE OTHER SIDE, from 1995.

This band is worldwide known for its very personal, pompous and epic brand of power metal, but it wasn't always like that. Said power metal tag is not very often of my liking, not because of what I consider it mostly represents (something I don't have any problem with), but for having been stretched to the ridiculous, ranging from early HELLOWEEN's heaviest works, or Blind Guardian's themselves (let's restrict this to the european brand of this subgenre, which more often than not turns out to be more accesible than its american counterpart), to an endless plethora of sugarcoated bands which, somehow, fit the concept. To cut a long story short, I do not think a band like SACRED STEEL has much to do with another one like RHAPSODY (or whatever moniker it has now), and yet they share the same pigeonhole most of the times. Not to mention the saturation this market experienced during the second half of the nineties.

The thing is that the guys from Krefeld, after five almost flawless first records, have been devoted to a kind of heavy metal which, while is true that is far from being unbearable to me, or to fit in the previous forgettable end of power metal, is not for me. Truth is, I wasn't fair back in the day to such a commendable album (for many reasons) like NIGHTFALL IN MIDDLE EARTH (1998), which I have become increasingly fond of as time has gone by, but I think is The God Machine the record with which they have gone back, to a good extent, to a more straightfoward and heavier style, much more in the vein of those first five records, leaving so many embellishments aside. Because, although it's been very long and it may be a very distant thing to bear in mind (considering the Blind Guardian who long ago blew up any kind of prediction concerning a large scale success), Blind Guardian were a speed metal band with no hesitation when it came to flirting with thrash metal here and there, no matter how capable they were of evolving and showing traces of what would come next.

Current Blind Guardian. From left to right, Siepen, 
drummer Frederik Ehmke (since 2005), Kürsch
and Olbrich

SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND (1992), their fourth effort, is what I consider the highlight from those wilder early years, retaining the speed and the savagery of the first three records, but with better songs, while dropping some epic and progressive nuances (already shown on TALES FROM THE TWILIGHT WORLD, from 1990) which would become more than evident on the already mentioned fifth album.

It was produced by KALLE TRAPP and the cover, courtesy of the recurrent and very famous ANDREAS MARSCHALL, perfectly conjures the band's usual paraphernalia, so very much linked to TOLKIEN's work and fantasy literature. They also join forces with IRON SAVIOR's leader, PIET SIELCK, and, above all, with the omnipresent KAI HANSEN (for the third album in a row, if I'm not mistaken), someone who was pivotal for the band during its early years. They both collaborate on the album.

TIME, WHAT IS TIME?, a song based on the film BLADE RUNNER (RIDLEY SCOTT, 1982), opens fire with a little bit of everything: from the sublime and unexpected classical intro to speedy and frantic sections, going through some mellower parts which even feature clean guitars and some effects. Stand out moments are the furious rhythm guitar behind the first solo (from 2’40’’) and, in contrast to it, the more melodic and brilliant middle section during the second (3’53’’), before everything gets fast once again.

Blind Guardian go far beyond (I could not help it) with JOURNEY THROUGH THE DARK, one of their best tunes ever, and also one of the most violent. There's hardly any slowing down here and the refrain is sheer happiness, with STAUCH (a one of a kind drummer who sadly left the band long ago, due to discrepancies concerning the band's musical direction, I guess) mercilessly destroying his kit. And beware at 2’05’’, when HANSI and both axemen join to sing the line I'm on my journey through the dark. You just have to get goose bumps. The long guitar solo section (as far as I know, the solos are something OLBRICH alone takes care of) is also one of the most accomplished ones out of all the Blind Guardian albums I listen to. This song is about the work of english fantasy writer MICHAEL MOORCOCK (THE ETERNAL CHAMPION, 1970).

The band in 1992, with Olbrich, Kürsch,
Siepen and Stauch

The band's three previous albums had turned out to be almost perfect and, in my opinion, there's no single song on them which I feel prompted to skip. On this, as conflicting as it may sound, there are songs which are superior to any on those records (and this most likely applies to Blind Guardian's discography at large), but at the same time, is the only one among the first five on which I find expendable moments. Those begin with BLACK CHAMBER, a very short piano piece which does not last a whole minute and that I deem inspired by distant and more baroque QUEEN adventures (it's about the universe created by the recently deceased DAVID LYNCH on TWIN PEAKS), which could pass as a decent interlude wasn't it because the mostly boring THEATRE OF PAIN goes next. Not that I loathe this song, not at all, and it has its moments, but is brimming with effects and orchestral stuff the band would use and abuse in the future, and I consider it the most forgettable moment within the band's glorious first era. As for the song's subject, it deals with what was found on the book THE MERMAN'S CHILDREN (1979), by POUL ANDERSON.

From this moment on, the record climbs back (and even surpasses) to its previous heights, beginning with THE QUEST FOR TANELORN (which goes back to Moorcock's universe) and its eerie acoustic intro and the brutal outburst which takes place at 50''. The chorus is too epic for my taste, and even a tad sugary, but not as much as to deteriorate the final product, and as a plus you get an otherwordly instrumental section (which might remind of the Helloween of old, for this is where Kai Hansen happens to play).

But nothing like the fierce ASHES TO ASHES, another speedy song in the vein of Journey Through The Dark, in which Hansi's bass guitar gets a more dominant role. The refrain makes you feel as in the middle of some kind of ceremony, because the main sentence (ashes to ashes, dust to dust) is part of the burial services in some cults. This doesn't happen by chance, for the singer uses this song as his own way to deal with his dad's passing (curiously enough, there's another tune on The God Machine, LET IT BE NO MORE, which does the same for him concerning his mother). Just in case all that wasn't enough, Ashes To Ashes only gets better once it reaches its third minute.

Time now for the two songs which share the THE BARD'S SONG title. The first one, IN THE FOREST, is a melancholic acoustic piece (apparently inspired by a videogames saga called THE BARD'S TALE) that happens to be quite evocative of the album's front cover. I have no problem with it whatsoever and I've always liked it, but I also think that everything regarding this song has long escalated way out of hand, to the point that it's become one of the highlights of the band's shows ever since, and more often than not the only song from the record to be played live, which is plain sad, for almost every song on it is better than this one. Its namesake, THE HOBBIT, to begin with. This is a scorcher which sums up pretty well Blind Guardian's devotion to Tolkien's body of work. In its first and more mid-paced half, Olbrich shines with a great guitar solo (which even brings MIKE OLDFIELD to mind, from time to time) over Siepen's open chords. The second half is even better, when the band chooses to speed things up for a while before finishing the song with some more acoustic guitars.

A young André Olbrich

THE PIPER'S CALLING is a short instrumental played on pipes (it has sections of the march known as THE 79TH'S FAREWELL TO GIBRALTAR, by one JOHN MCDONALD) which I could skip without hesitation, due to the same reasons I mentioned when I talked about Black Chamber, but it works just fine as an interlude this time around, and pretty much as the intro to the title track. Leaving, perhaps, Journey Through The Dark aside, SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND not only is the best song on the album, but in the whole Blind Guardian canon. A speed / thrash flurry of the highest order to which nothing I can write could ever do enough justice. For longer than seven minutes, Olbrich and Siepen risk a likely tendinitis with a priceless display of speed and technique (and passion for their craft). Both help Hansi with their accomplished backing vocals and the first one fills the whole song with short solo parts here and there. I love the bells during the chorus, the effects and even a short breather which brings the pipes back and that it only serves the purpose of bringing the band back and even stronger. Everything, with no exception. But nothing as much as the half minute of instrumental shredding which goes between 5’18’’ and 5’48’’, give or take, with Olbrich making his axe squeal almost literally. Kudos to Stauch, once again. One hell of a steamrolling drummer. This song is based on the book THE DARK TOWER, by famed american writer STEPHEN KING.

The album ends there, but subsequent reissues brought some demos and bonus tracks, among which there was a forgettable classical version of Theatre Of Pain (the weird compilation album called THE FORGOTTEN TALES, from 1996, has another, entirely classical, version of this song which is much better than this one and even than the original song), another one of the Queen song SPREAD YOUR WINGS (I do not like the original and this one does not fare much better), but above all, a brutal rendition of the song TRIAL BY FIRE, by SATAN, which managed to make up on its own for the deficiencies of the other bonuses.

Blind Guardian circa 1988, shortly after changing
their name from Lucifer's Heritage

I'd like to mention that I attended one of the band's shows back in 2022, and they played this album (among other things) in its entirety, as a celebration of the record's 30th anniversary (FULL METAL HOLIDAY / 2022), although the dedication of some of the band members on that very occasion was not on par with such a magnum opus. Blind Guardian also re-recorded this album in 2024, as SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND REVISITED, and given what little I have listened to, it all sounds flawlessly from a technical standpoint, but as expected, the energy and spontaneity of the younger days is largely missing.

But back in 1992, Blind Guardian began to become huge in other markets and they also were on the brink of reaching their first big summit with Imaginations From The Other Side. Funnily enough, never ever had they been as close to their former glorious selves as they are now, in my opinion.

Thanks for reading and special thanks to my buddy IGNACIO VARELA NEILA, who lent me this record back in the day, thus introducing me to the world of this talented band.