Customer Reviews

Tales From the Twilight World

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

 

 

While 1990's Tales from the Twilight World is perhaps not as impressive as later Blind Guardian releases, it is noteworthy in that it is the first album where the band totally embraces a power metal sound. Blind Guardians previous albums (Battalions of Fear and Follow the Blind) may have embraced the fantasy themes that are power metal standards, but the music itself was firmly in the thrash/speed metal style.

Tales from the Twilight World is still undeniably fast, but it is a power metal album from start to finish. The lyrical content is still very much in the sci-fi/fantasy realm. The overall songwriting has improved to become more melodic and incorporate more intricate song structures (and some amazing guitar solos). Basically, the Blind Guardian sound we're all familiar with was born here. Songs like Welcome to Dying and Lord of the Rings are fantastic power metal tracks (even though the latter is pretty much an acoustic ballad), and are still considered among the band's best material.

Gamma Ray's Kai Hansen makes another guest appearance on this album, further establishing Blind Guardian's credentials as a major German power metal band.

Overall, the album is not as memorable as Imaginations from the Other Side or Nightfall in Middle Earth (then again, what is?), but it is an important milestone in Blind Guardian's career, and is worth checking out if you're a Blind Guardian fan.

NOTE: The 2007 reissue of Tales from the Twilight World features a much needed digital remastering as well as a pair of bonus tracks. The bonus tracks are demos, and don't really add much, but the remastered sound makes this a must-have for all serious Blind Guardian fans.

I purchased the remastered version of this album after owning a really old copy of TFTTW for a long time and was a bit disappointed. The album really doesn't sound that much better remastered, as apparently according to Hansi, the band did not have time to 're-mix' TFTTW like they did with BoF and FTB. There is minimal improvements in sharpness on this album...they still are there but you probably won't notice unless you REALLY play each song side by side and even then it may not be so obvious.

This is my favorite of the speed metal BG albums and so I was quite anxious to listen to a remastered version of it. In the end, if you don't own a copy of TFTTW and want to: buy this one. If you already have one, don't waste your money unless you are an absolute fanatic of this album.

The two extra demo tracks are somewhat interesting also however--"Lost in the Twilight Hall" sounds quite good surprisingly.

This BG album has alot of the good catchy melodic metal tunes and the epic thrash sound as well.

Sorry don't have much to say it's one of my favorites out of 7 BG albums I own! If you love slayer then you will love BG, especially their earlier work.


\m/ stay metal \m/