News concerning the Bards

[Twilight Legionnaire]

This message was posted by Curufin, the administrator of the Official Blind Guardian Forum, on said forum. It is an e-mail sent to him by Hansi Kürsch, lead vocalist of the band.

Hello Drew,

I have also emailed Pedro and Jason about this, and I want you to post this on our forum too. The other bandmembers and I got together sometime last week and talked about our futures and the future of Blind Guardian. After much discussion we have decided that Blind Guardian will be taking an extended (and much needed) break. This break might be permanent, but if we feel like coming back to it later, we may.

There are a few reasons for this. Thomen has his two projects he's working on, and it seems that he is enjoying his work more with these bands than with Blind Guardian. It is also harder for us to work with him since he is living in Spain with his wife. The other big reason has to do with our new album. After writing some stuff on the new album, it has become obvious that we are not as interested in the music and our motivation isn't there.

Jon and I will still be releasing Demons & Wizards part two. As I said before, one of my favorite tunes is "Touched by the Crimson King". We have come up with a name for this second album too. Jon really liked our idea of naming our live album "Live", and so we have decided to name Demons & Wizard's new album simply "2".

Andre and I will also still release our Orchestral project, but we're not sure when.

As for the material we've already written on our new album, we might release it as one last single later this year, that depends on if we can all get together to record.

I hope you can help the fans on the forum understand why we must do this. It has been a lot of fun, and our fans will always be the true bards!

Regards,
Hansi

[Sknight2112]

I have two of their albums, great band, too bad...

[dupinguez]

can't believe that, tell me that it's an april fool pleaasseeeeee

I looked quickly bg's forum and there's no posts about it ...

[Elazul]

Oh damn...
Blind Guardian is one of my favourite bands... :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake:

[Leo]

Oh I don`t like that!!!!!!! That was Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!!!!!!!!

[NeonVomit]

That would suck. They're a great band, some AWSOME songs! Real pity:(

[Twilightsymphony]

Sorry, but i cant find a thing about this on other pages, so i may continue disbelieving until there are some facts

Would be sad though...

[Electric Eye]

On the official BG web page is news by Hansi, dated April 3rd (so too late a bit for April 1st) that Thomen left the band.
Nothing about breaking up, but still, it sounds sad...

[Twilightsymphony]

If anyone is interested: That one was a fake letter. Apart from Thomen leaving the band, there doesnt seems to be really much to be concerned about... well, at the moment of course :>

[Mormegil]

That sucks, Thomen is an awesome drummer.

[MaFiaBoY]

That sucks, Thomen is an awesome drummer.

Indeed, the worst news for a while. But I think he has other projects in his mind and is gonna kick our ases sonn :headbang: But I'm a lot more worried about BG, I doubt they find another drummer as great as Thomen is.

[Twilightsymphony]

well.. Jörg could...

[Twilight Legionnaire]

If anyone is interested: That one was a fake letter. Apart from Thomen leaving the band, there doesnt seems to be really much to be concerned about... well, at the moment of course :>

Yes, the first one was an April Fools' joke someone posted on their forum, and I wanted to check the reaction over here and laugh a bit

As for Thomen's departure, it is true. I don't feel like laughing anymore. One of the best drummers out there, damnit.

[NeonVomit]

True, Thomen is incredible.

But don't despair, there's plenty of great drummers out there who I'm pretty sure would love to play in BG... and im pretty sure none of them will be blood drinking female ones

[Elazul]

Blind Guardian strikes back with a new unknown Drummer



They have also a very cool new website.
Lets wait for the new album next year

[Elazul]

Hi bards,

This time it fortunately is on me to deliver some good news. Very good news in fact!

The seemingly endless time of waiting for a new drummer and speculations who could possibly be the new one has finally come to an end. We have found what we have been searching for…

A few weeks ago an unknown guy who introduced himelf as Frederik Ehmke applied for the job as a drummer in a fairly firm manner. His vital, expressive and skillful performances of some B.G. classics ("Journey Through The Dark“, "Time Stands Still“ and "And Then There Was Silence“) blew us away completely . Pretending not to be convinced we invited him to do a shoot out recording session under real production terms to check out if the creative chemistry would also work out fine. After finishing these recordings it was obvious to us: Frederik is going to be our new drummer!

It was essential for us to find a musician, who on one side would be able to integrate old Guardian trademarks in his play, but on the other side would also be confident enough to bring in his own vision of the Blind Guardian drums in a tasteful and, for the music, suitable way. Frederik is a calm and handsome fellow, who’s aware of his abilities and who also knows what he wants. For us he is the lucky draw.

We are convinced you will be as impressed by his drum performance as we are. Now we are looking forward to starting the next album production. There is a good amount of work ahead of us but we are absolutely ready to go. You can expect a very interesting album with strong songs on it. We will keep you informed.

Later,
Hansi

[Twilight Legionnaire]

Forgot to update my own thread, heh. I had seen the awesome news though.

[NeonVomit]

For those guys to be 'blown away' that new dude really must be something special!

Let's see what he's like on tour next year then! Can't wait!

[htcdude]

Didn't get into em much, i won't miss 'em

[Twilight Legionnaire]

For those guys to be 'blown away' that new dude really must be something special!

Let's see what he's like on tour next year then! Can't wait!

Yeah.. I've got to find some samples from his prior bands.

[htcdude]

What are his prior bands?

[MaFiaBoY]

Seems he was a quite unknown guy, those samples may be very hard to find, if there is any...

[Just a Vampire]

:errrr:
that shouldn't happen

[Twilight Legionnaire]

I could find two bands that he have played in: Schattentantz and Interstellar Overdrive.

Schattentantz's music is called Neo-Middle Age, in their own words, middle age in new clothes (Mittelalter in neuem Gewand, correct me if the translation is wrong.)As much as I could find they have a demo and a debut. I downloaded some samples and so far it seems like he is a good choice. If you want to see how he looks or download some samples this is their homepage.

Interstellar Overdrive is a cover band which mostly covers pink floyd songs, and if I'm not making up, they have an album called Performing Pink Floyd. I couldn't find any samples or songs, so I can't comment on it. And this is their homepage.

Both homepages are in german, so don't get mad at me if you can't understand german. group in no time. These are my opinions though.

From what I heard I can say he's a quite good choice, and from what I saw I can say he should fit the group in no time. I'm happy that Alex [Holzwarth, Rhapsody, BG's Guest Bassist's brother]wasn't the choice, he could go mad and start playing Rapzodiac.

[htcdude]

Never heard of em. Ah well.

[Twilight Legionnaire]

Never heard of em. Ah well.

I doubt anyone here or on the Blind Guardian forum has. That's why he's labeled as "unknown"

[Elazul]

Some more news from Blind Guardian.

By the way here is the cover of the new single.

Progress and setbacks
2005-12-23

A sign of life just to let you know that Christmas is getting closer and we are still not done with recordings, yet. But, and that is the good news for the album, we are still on schedule. The description "on schedule" can be loosely interpreted when talking about a Blind Guardian album production. There is only a small amount of guitars which need to be completed, some bass, a lot of vocals and even more mixing. We are targeting an early February deadline. I am very sorry we have not been able to involve you more so far, but we are so focused on the album that we hardly find the time to eat. I have become a skinny beauty during these days. I promise to provide you with some studio shots as soon as the new year has started.

The single we mentioned a few months ago has been completed and I wouldld like to provide you with some information about it, only the important stuff and of course only the true stuff. There will three songs on the single: 1. Fly, 2. Skalds and Shadows (acoustic version), 3. In A Gadda Da Vida.

"Fly" is a quite surprising title for a Blind Guardian song, one could think. But it lyrically fits very, very well. This song is about inspirations and how they can influence your art, your life and other people's lives. I, myself, was inspired by the movie "Finding Neverland" when doing the lyrics. The music is mindblowing. It certainly describes how we look at music and how we see ourselves as musicians. We love to explore and assimilate. Though the song is different, it is pure Blind Guardian. I, personally, consider it to be amongst the best songs we have ever written. It is new!!! It is fresh!!! Whether you like it or not, you will have to admit that you have never heard anything like that before. Not from Blind Guardian and neither from any other band on this planet.

The acoustic version of "Skalds and Shadows" stands completely in the tradition of songs like "The Bard's Song" and "A Past and Future Secret". Charlie and Frederik came up with a very cool percussion arrangement and on top of it Frederik played some mindblowing flute melodies. We are very happy with the result and we are working on a more orchestral version at the moment, which is supposed to become part of the album. This purer version will only be on the single. The word "skald" is probably not very common, but is nothing else than the ancient nordic description for their bards. The nordic Edda poems have mostly been invented by Skalds and they also have kept these stories alive by traveling around and telling the stories to other people. I, as a fan of "Die Nibelungen" and of Tolkien's work, was mostly thrilled by the Saga of Volsung, which the song lyrically partly scratches - as well as the mission of the storyteller.

As probably most of you have figured out, "In A Gadda Da Vida" is a cover version of the Iron Butterfly smash hit. Although we like stoner music - we dared to turn it into a modern speed metal tune. This song of course will only appear on the single.

The single's cover artwork has been done by Anthony Clarkson. He did a great job. The motive is pretty much Blind Guardian. I am sure you will love it.

What else can I tell you? We have not decided how the album will be entitled. Due to lyrical issues I am brainstorming with the word "myth", but that does not necessarily mean it finally will be used for the title. The two strongest titles from my point of view so far are "A Twist in the Myth", or "Borderline Myth". None of them can be seen as confirmed. Sometimes you wake up and you just know: that's the title to go for. Mostly it is just the question of the right inspiration...

We saw your discussion about the possible style we may have chosen for the new album and I just would like point out the following one more time: we will not deny our roots, but we at the same time will not make a step back and we have no intention to stand right where we have been with the last studio album. The album will contain 11 very strong songs, which all differ strongly from each other. There's heavy metal, there's more rockish metal, there's more progressive metal, there's more intense metal, but there is no rip off! We do not sell out. "Selling out" could be a cool title, too, by the way. Ah, damn!, someone has used it before, I think.

The single will give you an idea of how much the songs on the album will be different from each other. To explore and invent something new - that's the thrill!!!

After describing all the progress we have been making I must inform you about a setback for us. Almost immediately after I have posted my report about the progression of the new album to Jason and Pedro, I have caught a cold. My appointment with the doctor delivered bad news: it is the regular seasonal virus including a terrible middle ear infection. On top of it I am struggling with severe sinusitis. It obviously is impossible for me to keep on working on album stuff in such a condition. It would be a waste to perform these great songs with a sneezy nose. Therefore I am facing an interruption of approxamtely four weeks before I can continue my recording session. Since most of the other recordings are completed this means we are going to lose the next month.

After a long discussion with Nuclear Blast we all have agreed on the unfortunate fact that a delay of the album release would be the best thing to do at the moment. Due to the importance of the album for Nuclear Blast and Blind Guardian we do not want to risk anything by pushing things. To avoid any further complications we have decided to go for a late August, or early fall album release. Since the single is completed and there is no need for a delay in that matter, we will keep the date for the single release.

As soon as I am ready to continue the recordings I will let you know. I know that this is terrible timing and we are aware that you are desperately waiting for the new album, but apart from the promise you will get high quality music in the end, there is hardly anything we can do right now. As for the announced shows in May we will do everything possible to play them. We will keep you informed.

Finally, and on a more positive note, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a successul year 2006.