Blind Guardian are celebrating the release of their highly-anticipated tenth studio album, Beyond The Red Mirror with their own brand of wine, the Red Mirror Merlot. Originated in the Spanish growing area Aragon (where wine has been cultivated for more than 2000 years now), the wine has a total of 14% of alcohol and according the vocalist Hansi Kürsch, it fits the new album perfectly: “The wine is just as playful and fresh and has the same depth. We are all passionate red-wine drinkers and the Red Mirror Merlot has a fantastic taste.”

You can order the Red Mirror Merlot here.

 

 

Four-and-a-half years in the making, the follow-up to 2010’s At The Edge Of Time was recorded at Twilight Hall Studio in Grefrath, Germany and produced by Charlie Bauerfeind (Saxon, Hammerfall, Helloween), Beyond The Red Mirror showcases Blind Guardian’s long-awaited collaborative work with three different classical choirs: one from the Czech Republic (Prague), one from Hungary (Budapest), and one from the United States (Boston). Two grand orchestras - each featuring 90 musicians – also lend their brilliant talents to the new recordings with absolutely spellbinding results.

The album features new guitarist Barend Courbois, who in the course of his career he had played over 4,000 shows and recorded over 60 albums. He worked together with musicians like Adrian Vandenberg (Whitesnake), Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society, Ozzy Osbourne) and Atma Anur (Journey).

Transporting listeners via a mysteriously powerful red mirror into an otherworldly dimension that includes tyrants, gods, and the Holy Grail, the ten songs comprising Beyond The Red Mirror’s story lines revolve around the young protagonist we first met twenty years ago in the 1995 tracks "Bright Eyes" and "And The Story Ends".

“A story between science fiction and fantasy,” explains Blind Guardian vocalist and lyricist Hansi Kürsch. “The story begins with our 1995 album, Imaginations From The Other Side. The two worlds described therein have changed dramatically for the worse since then. While there used to be several passages between the worlds, there is only one gate left now: The Red Mirror. It has to be found at any cost.”

Asked to describe the band’s guiding principles for the creation of this new release, Blind Guardian guitarist André Olbrich shares: “We want to surprise and impress with our music. Nowadays, music tends to be arbitrary and predictable. But we want to keep developing our music.”

Opening with a tidal wave of surging emotion courtesy of a spine-tingling choir Beyond The Red Mirror unleashes its first gem, "Ninth Wave", a consciousness-expanding palette of landscapes and moods bearing the message of an urgent mission still seeking resolution. Closing with an explosion of heroic harmonies and choral glories with a nine-and-a-half minute, self-contained saga "Grand Parade" (called “the best song we have ever written” by Olbrich), the grandiose, uplifting, and ingenious storytelling in Beyond The Red Mirror is guaranteed to leave you breathless.

Come 2015, you will soon experience why Blind Guardian are so influential in their genre and without equal in the pantheon of heavy metal music. Featuring artwork by long-time collaborator Felipe Machado, Beyond The Red Mirror will be available in the following formats:

 

 

- Jewel Case (artwork above, 10 songs)
- Limited Edition Digibook (11 songs)
- Double LP gatefold vinyl (11 songs)
- Earbook (artwork below, 12 songs plus illustrations, photos, and liner notes)
- NB-Mailorder-Earbook (12 songs plus illustrations, photos, liner notes + bonus 10’’)

Pre-Order at this location.

 

 

Beyond The Red Mirror tracklisting:

"Ninth Wave"
"Twilight Of The Gods"
"Prophecies"
"At The Edge Of Time"
"Ashes Of Eternity"
"Distant Memories" (bonus track on limited editions + vinyl)

"Holy Grail"
"The Throne"
"Sacred Mind"
"Miracle Machine"
"Grand Parade"

"Twilight Of The Gods" lyric video:

Teaser trailer: