Skullbanger’s TJ Fowler sat down with Blind Guardian vocalist Hansi Kurch and guitarist Andre Olbrich to talk about their new album Beyond The Red Mirror. They also talk about the band’s use of choirs, orchestras, and even a little Dragonlance and Dungeons And Dragons.

Blind Guardian recently uploaded the first new album trailer for their highly-anticipated tenth studio release, Beyond The Red Mirror, due out in Europe on January 30th, February 2nd in the UK and February 3rd in North America.

“It is impossible for us to choose a song that represents the whole album. The upcoming single needs to be seen as an appetizer - "Twilight Of The Gods" is perfect, because it reveals incredible dynamic and contains great melody lines”, shares vocalist and lyricist Hansi Kürsch.

Four-and-a-half years in the making, the follow-up to 2010’s At The Edge Of Time (which debuted at #2 on the German album charts and at #1 on the American Billboard Heatseekers chart and #108 on the American Billboard Top 200 Albums chart) is scheduled for release in Europe on January 30th, and February 3rd in North America.

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"

Hansi calls the album’s first single, "Twilight Of The Gods", “a neck breaker . . . the pure definition of all that the band stands for: it is innovative, melodic and brutal.”

 

 

The mini-CD single includes two live tracks recorded at 2011’s Wacken Open Air festival in Germany and can be pre-ordered as a digi-pak or in blue or white vinyl at this location