BLIND GUARDIAN To Release Live Album In 2018; Orchestral Album To Follow In 2019
"...On
BLIND GUARDIAN's decision to perform its 1995 album
"Imaginations From The Other Side" in its entirety on the band's upcoming North American tour with
GRAVE DIGGER:
Hansi: "I was surprised myself. The point is we have toured for
'Beyond The Red Mirror' a long time now. We do, for the first time, the second leg of a North American tour. And we just thought, 'Well, what chances do we have to set up new songs in a proper way? because we didn't have any time. And since
André [
Olbrich, guitar] seemed to have a conceptual album tour in mind for a while, he came up with that resolution. And, yeah, I somehow liked the idea, and so did
Marcus [
Siepen, guitar]. And then we worked on it. And it appeared to us like the most attractive thing to do. Because people can be pretty sure that they are going to listen to different stuff in comparison to what they have heard last year, actually. And therefore it was a pretty good idea. We prepared a few more songs which we haven't played, so I would say 75 percent of the shows will be different to what we have done twelve months ago."
On why
"Imaginations From The Other Side" was chosen over other albums:
Hansi: "It's a very successful album — maybe the second most successful album of
BLIND GUARDIAN, just behind [1998's]
'Nightfall In Middle-Earth', I would say. There are still a lot of people liking that album most. And the main point for us is it is easier to prepare it than, for instance,
'Nightfall In Middle-Earth' or [2002's]
'A Night At The Opera'.
'A Night At The Opera' would be a nightmare, and I would say, 'Well, give me another six months, at least.' Well, apart from that, it's so intense. It has a vivid live feeling, and that's also different. You spoke about the orchestration and about the epicness of songs, and they contain a little bit of the epicness, but they are still on the thrashy side as well, and I believe that's, in a live situation, pretty good....."
