In a new interview with Dead Rhetoric about Blind Guardian's new album Beyond The Red Mirror, frontman Hansi Kürsch addressedthe confusion surrounding the recent introduction of new session bassist Barend Courbois

Dead Rhetoric: It’s always been the four of you guys, now you’re a quintet. What made you take the leap and add Barend to the band?

Kürsch: "You know what? It was just a misunderstanding in general. It was just meant to be an introduction for people who wanted to know something about the bassist. We thought, “We’ll use this opportunity to introduce him via our Facebook and homepage.” People misunderstood. He has the same status as (former session/touring bassist) Oliver Holzwarth. It was a complete misunderstanding and I was like, 'Something is going wrong here!' Jason, our webmaster, was completely irritated and confused by this as well. I misunderstood him and said, 'Of course we’re going to promote him and introduce him.' He was somehow thinking about the confusion which might be what created it, but I didn’t see it, so I said, 'Spread the news. All good.' It was obvious to me that he’s not the fifth band member, and he’s fine with his status, like Oliver was. We don’t need that. Even though I doubt I’m going to play the bass again, it’s still the four of us."

Dead Rhetoric: I’m glad you cleared that up. Amazing how easily things get misconstrued on the internet.

Kürsch: "The internet is having the lead in confusing people and making more of a story than there is. I read the story over and over again, and we just announced Barend, or 'Bear' as we call him, has the same status as Oliver. He played the bass on the new album, and he is also taking part in our concerts. It was just an introduction and yes, you can consider him the Blind Guardian bass player, as (live member) Michael Schüren is considered our keyboardist. I don’t have a problem with that in general, but it’s just amazing to see how things spread quickly, and how they are misunderstood, and what people are creating out of it. Some people start complaining about it, and even if he was the fifth member, that’s our decision. But he’s not (laughs). If we feel so, we can do so. Why not? What’s the problem with it?"

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With the support of one of the most loyal fan bases in the worldwide heavy metal community, Beyond The Red Mirror, the tenth studio album by epic metal’s most exalted storytellers, Blind Guardian, has attained the highest first-week US sales numbers for the band in the history of their existence and has debuted at #132 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, #3 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, and #6 on the Top Hard Music chart.

In Canada, Blind Guardian nearly doubled their first-week numbers from 2010, resulting in Beyond The Red Mirror debuting at #49 on the Top 200 and #4 on the Top Hard Music charts.

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.

Featuring artwork by long-time collaborator Felipe Machado, Beyond The Red Mirror is 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’’)

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:

Beyond The Red Mirror album stream: