Customer Reviews

Nightfall in Middle Earth

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have listened to this album about seventeen times since I bought it a few days ago. It is the best album on epic power midevil metal I've heard. Rhapsody comes in second, but they aren't as serious as Blind Guardian. This album is a concept album, like Rhapsody's three. It's based on a Tolkin novel. It has all the elements of quality metal, good speed, as well as terrific vocals. Then it has great midevil sounding music, like player flutes and minstral guitars. Very different... if your into just speed metal then get Iced Earth or old Metallica, but if you like epic story telling and fantasy movie like soundtracks then these types of bands are for you. I can't say enough about this band. They are just quality midevil metal. If you like Dream Theater's music and classic Queensryche's story telling and Iron Maiden's metal, then you'll like these guys.

Okay, I'll admit it! When I first bought this Metal CD, I was a bit reluctant to listen to it because I'm not that much of a metal fan, I thought that all metal bands were a bunch of screaming yahoos and had filthy and obscene lyrics in their songs. When I listened to this album, boy was I ever wrong! This heavy metal album isn't just any heavy metal album, it's an epic fantasy metal album, and this epic fantasy metal album is based on one of the greatest fantasy sagas of all time, "The LOTR Saga". It is based on the first novel in the LOTR saga called "The Silmarillion" , and man, dies Blind Guardian ever do a good job of interpreting this novel through their songs!! My favorite songs on the album are "Nightfall" (in which you can clearly visualize the lament of the Noldor elves), "Time Stands Still at the Iron Hill" (which excellently depicts the epic battle between the Dark Lord Morgoth and Fingolfin), and "A Dark Passage", which I like to call "Smash Down the Light!" which clearly expresses Morgoth's rage and dark desire to pour out his revenge upon the forces of the Light! I must recommend this album to all fantasy and heavy metal bands alike! Definitely buy this album! Oh, and if your a bit like I was and don't like metal, and think this is just a typical metal album with obscene lyrics and screaming so loud and ugly that you can't understand a word of the song, don't worry, Blind Guardian doesn't do this type of stuff, and when there IS screaming, it's there to express a character's lament or rage in "The Silmarillion".

If you don't know who Blind Guardian is then this isn't the album for you. If you like metal and epic storytelling from midevil times like J.R.R. Tolkien and D&D then this is right up your alley. More of a story concept type album than a rock album like their other ones. I just discovered this type of music after being sick of american metal and its fading quality. Metallica is dead, these guys and bands like Angel Dust, Rhapsody, Kamelot and Iced Earth have taken the reigns of metal and continued on where american artists have sold out. I look forward to buying their other albums.

Classic album, there is no weak track on this one. However, I ordered this album for only 10 dollars a while ago - and now it's 30!

Just when I've convinced myself that Blind Guardian's 1995 album Imaginations from the Other Side is not only their best album, but the best power metal album ever, I listen to the band's 1998 epic Nightfall in Middle Earth and have to rethink my decision.

When I think about epic metal, this is the album that immediately comes to mind (the 23-minute title track from Symphony X's Odyssey is a close second). Nightfall in Middle Earth is not just epic, it's EPIC. This is what Blind Guardian had been building towards for 10 years. The album, in case you hadn't guessed, is based entirely on the works of legendary fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien, specifically his The Silmarillion saga. Not only did Blind Guardian faithfully adapt the source material, they included brief interlude tracks with sound effects and voice actors to help set the mood and ensure the story's progress. They did it well too, in case you were thinking of the uber-cheesy narration that Rhapsody kept inflicting on their listeners. All of the interludes on Nightfall in Middle Earth sounded as if they came straight from a major motion picture. And the actual songs are simply incredible. They're all extremely well written and well orchestrated power metal songs that are every bit as good as the stellar array of material on Imaginations From the Other Side.

Nightfall in Middle Earth is arguably power metal's finest hour, and nothing short of a must-have power metal album. Once you experience it, it will no doubt become the standard by which you judge all other power metal albums.

Well anything Blind Guardian records is going to rul

Blind Guardian, the brilliant German Metal band, have created a true masterpiece with this album. 100% about J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Silmarillion", the album is, like the book, very emotional and sad, yet powerful and glorious. Here you'll hear songs about Ungoliant and Morgoth, about Feanor's crimes and curse, about the elves' battles against Morgoth... the lyrics are excellent, very powerful and sad, most of them being from characters speaking in the first person, instead of a narrator talking about them. This is IMHO easily the best album of 1998, and one of the most amazing I've heard in all my life. Try it if you like Tolkien, or good music. If you don't like Metal, don't worry... buy it anyway. Trust me.

NIME is the best cd I have heard to date... xenofall is correct... american metal is essentially dead. all the great metal (except iced earth) comes from places like germany, italy, and scandinavia...