Blind Guardian – Nightfall In Middle-Earth

Picture this: it's 1998, you have been reading and loving Tolkien's work for a while, and "The Silmarillion" is your favourite book out of his output.

Also, your favourite band is about to release a new album. Internet is not as widely available as it's today, so you have limited information about it.

Anyway, you are going to buy it blindly!
On the day of the release, at your local record store, you're handed over a baroquely lush, greenish hued cover with a familiar scene: in the bowels of a hellish and bleak fortress, a female elf dances in front of a dark lord crowned with 3 shiny jewels, while a wolf stands just below, about to jump on them.
"Nightfall In Middle Earth", reads the title.

Your heart skips a beat.

Inside, you are witness to how your favourite band reaches its maturity and stylistic summit, and manages to create what will be yet another touchstone, a reference and guide to any future power metal band.

The band took the already increasingly epic sound and songwriting of "Imaginations From The Other Side" a step further, and managed to create the perfect blend of heaviness, epics, symphonic and heartfelt songwriting embodied in 11 songs, some of which became, and still are, live staples at the band's shows.

My favourite power metal album for years to come: 24 years later, it's still chiseled in my mind and heart.

The sheer power and epic of "Into The Storm", "Mirror Mirror" or "Time Stands Still", the progressive hues in "Noldor", the sorrow, grief and pain in "Blood Tears, "Thorn" or "When Sorrow Sang"... Every single song here is a masterpiece that consolidated the resurrection of metal's popularity at the end of the nineties and rightfully turned Blind Guardian into legends, overlords and (pun intended!) guardians of the European scene.

I would like to mention that Blind Guardian has reached her artistic peak with this album. Everything that came after that was not bad, not necessarily mediocre, but also not excellent. I would like to dwell
on two songs: “Nightfall” tells of the moment when the Elven family of the Noldor, led by their King Feanor, takes farewell to his lords, Valar, and voluntarily goes into exile. The reason for this was Feanor's hatred of the Vala (God) Melkor (later called Morgoth), who killed his father in order to reach the Silmaril (Stones of Light). Previously, Melkor, together with the spider monster Ungooanth, had destroyed the world tree of the Valar and mocked it out of their homeland. Blinded by anger and hatred, Feanor does not listen to the advice of the Valar, but does not notice how much he begins to resemble Morgoth .
This complex story is told in an enchanting half-ballad, for which others would have used three different songs. The song does not miss its effect even live, you only hear the choirs of the fans... For me ,
“Mirror Mirror” is THE Blind Guardian song par excellence. Bombastic power meets queen-like guitar leads and epic vocals-the magic of this song must be felt. It tells the story of the Elven King Turgon, who hoped to escape the war with Morgoth's troops and the destruction of his land in his mansion on the seashore. Then Vala Ulmo (a kind of sea god) advised him to quickly find another seat inland, as the war would soon reach his country. Turgon followed the counsel of the Vala and built the Fortress Gondolin deep in the woods, the most beautiful castle of the Elves ever before it was stormed and destroyed by treason.
Characteristic of this concept album is the fact that no one glorifies the struggle and war as such. Rather, the consequences of the war for those affected, to whom the Elves were as guilty as their adversaries are described.
To conclude with a quote from “Mirror Mirror”: “Gone's the wisdom of a thousand years/A world in fire and chains and fear”... sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? Just follow the news...