Legendary power metallers Blind Guardian has announced new guitarist Barend Courbois, who makes his first appearance with the band on the upcoming opus, The Red Mirror. 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).

“This was the longest production I have ever been involved in”, the Dutch musician explains. “As we all know, the recordings took a total of two years. The music is so versatile, which is just what makes the style of Blind Guardian so unique.”

Regarding his own style, Courbois is quite confident: “I play in a very powerful, but also melodic way,” he explains. “You could compare me to John Deacon. Something that Queen-fans Hansi Kürsch and Gitarrist André Olbrich really like.”

Frontman Hansi Kürsch confirms: “Barend is top. He is the ideal bass player for us and has a lot of musical understanding. He is variable and multifaceted, but still able to create all the power we need. And the fact that Krefeld is so close to the Dutch border makes our liaison really easy.”

Music has always been in Barend’s (who studied bass at Lyceum in Arnhem) blood. His father Pierre (74) is a world-famous jazz drummer and still performing on stage and had played alongside superstars like Jean-Luc Ponty and Ben Webster. At the age of four Barend started playing drums himself, at age eight he first picked up the bass and for quite a while enjoyed bagpipes as well. No wonder he feels right at home everywhere from rock and metal to jazz and funk.  

The way he got in touch with Blind Guardian is not as spectacular as one might think. “One day I got an unexpected phone call from producer Charlie Bauerfeind, whom I had met at a project we both were involved in the early 90s,“ the bass player recalls. “He asked me, if I was available during the next six months, to tour with a major metal band. He wouldn´t tell me the band´s name at first though.”

Just one day after agreeing to this new engagement, Barend Courbois met Blind Guardian in Krefeld, only to find himself on tour two weeks later. “I was a total wreck before my first gig: It’s a real challenge to play Blind Guardian songs, but I love it!”

Blind Guardian will release their highly-anticipated tenth studio album, Beyond The Red Mirror, in Europe on January 30th, February 2nd in the UK and February 3rd in North America.

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.

 

 

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: