BLIND GUARDIAN - A Traveler’s Guide To Space And Time 15-CD Box Coming In February
Save up your Christmas money for February when A Traveler’s Guide to
Space and Time, a strictly limited edition
BLIND GUARDIAN box set with
15 CDs in 13 high quality digipacks and only
8000 copies worldwide, is
released.
Germany, Austria and Switzerland have a release date of February 1st
and the rest of the world on February 4th. The box set can now be
pre-ordered from your favorite record shop!
Looking back over Blind Guardian’s career from the here and now in
2013, you see a success story gone global, the likes of which very few
other German metal bands have ever experienced. This band from Krefeld
has been just about everywhere, conquering the North American market in
the same way as they stormed the charts in Asia or packed concert venues
in South America and even South Africa. From their (at that point
purely) German beginnings with debut album Battalions of Fear (1988),
followed by their first international recognition with the second album
Follow the Blind (1989) and the euphoria which went round the world when
Tales from the Twilight World (1990) and Somewhere Far Beyond (1992)
came out, right through to their masterpiece of composition in A Night
at the Opera (2002), the name of the band developed to become an
unmistakable world brand. There are lots of reasons for this, but no
doubt much of it is down to the extraordinary skill of everyone
involved, their virtuoso dexterity and that gift for bringing mystical
themes in tune with unusually complex metal directives. Something else
which really makes Blind Guardian stand out is the way they have always
kept so close to their fans. Even more proof of their unconditional
commitment to the huge fan-base is being released now; A Traveler’s
Guide to Space and Time, a strictly limited edition deluxe box set with a
total of 15 CDs in 13 high quality digipacks, which the musicians and
the record company have been working on together for almost a year. A
particularly long time to create a compilation you may think, but a
glance at just how much this box set encompasses explains why their
conscientious and time-consuming preparation took so long.
A Traveler’s Guide to Space and Time not only includes all the
albums released during the so-called Virgin years (the record company
brought out all the bands’ records between 1988 and 2004) but also all
their previously unreleased demo recordings, rare bonus tracks and
alternative versions of famous pieces from this era, and all of them
have been remastered and some even remixed. To be precise; it includes
the seven studio albums Battalions of Fear, Follow the Blind, Tales from
the Twilight World, Somewhere Far Beyond, Imaginations from the Other
Side, Nightfall in Middle-Earth and A Night at the Opera, and on top of
all that you get the live albums Tokyo Tales and Live as well as The
Forgotten Tales compilation, all of them now with 2012 mastering and
some of them with new mixes. Above and beyond that, Blind Guardian have
dug deep into their archives and come up with some real treats: in
Imaginations Through the Looking Glass for the very first time the
phenomenal concert they put on in Coburg, Germany in June 2003 appears
in audio format on two CDs. And another first, in a special edition of
Nightfall in Middle-Earth, the musicians also present the legendary 1998
studio album without any breaks (including a new mix of “Blood Tears”).
This precious box is rounded off with An Extraordinary Tale, which
includes so far unreleased demo versions of the pieces 'Welcome to
Dying', 'Lord of the Rings', 'The Bard’s Song (In the Forest)', 'The
Bard’s Song (The Hobbit)', 'Theatre of Pain', 'Trial by Fire' and 'I’m
Alive' and the never before released, around 90 seconds longer version
of the song 'The Quest for Tanelorn' as well as the comparatively rare
number “Harvest of Sorrow”.
So, there is so much to find, enjoy and rediscover in this outright
opulent deluxe box which is accompanied by a 20 page glossy booklet
(size: 27cm x 27cm) containing comments from the members of the band and
more than 100 rare and mainly unpublished photos belonging to the
musicians. A limited edition and numbered Blind Guardian art print on
special paper (sized 27cm by 27cm) and a guitar plectrum engraved with
the band’s logo have also been added to the box. Blind Guardian are
rightly proud of this glorious package. “With A Traveler’s Guide to
Space and Time we document how much has Blind Guardian developed between
1988 and 2004 in, as I see it, a particularly impressive and vivid
way,” explains singer/bassist Hansi Kürsch who, together with original
members André Olbrich and Marcus Siepen, still controls the destiny of
this amazing group. Kürsch adds: “The brand new mastering also makes
sure that all 15 CDs are on the same level as far as the dynamics are
concerned so theoretically you can listen to the whole box at one go,
without having to adjust the volume level at all.”
Of course this jam-packed compilation also includes all the
compositional climaxes and milestones along Blind Guardian’s career
path; 'Majesty' from their debut album Battalions of Fear was the first
time the band presented their unusual song writing combined with the
boundless energy which still makes Blind Guardian stand out so much
today. 'Traveler in Time' from Tales from the Twilight World then puts
the band’s epic approach into focus. 'The Bard’s Song' has developed
into a real classic, creating that perfect symbiosis between band and
audience at concert after concert and reinforcing the folklore element
within the typical Blind Guardian sound.
Of course, in this box, Blind Guardian also present the sublime
title track from the album Imaginations from the Other Side with its
capable mixture of anthemic power metal and progressive directives, as
well as the downright cinematic number 'Time Stands Still (At the Iron
Hill)' from the album Nightfall in Middle-Earth. The experts reckon the
fantastic 'And Then There Was Silence' from A Night at the Opera was the
icing on the cake of those Virgin years and you can hear it in all its
glory on A Traveler’s Guide to Space and Time.
With A Traveler’s Guide to Space and Time Blind Guardian stay true
to their reputation of not doing anything only halfway. As always with
this band you get the full-on thing, on both the composition and
technical production sides. This box is also full of rare photos from
the musicians’ private collections as well as previously unreleased demo
recordings, once again documenting how far this group will go to give
their fans the best possible product. And as Hansi Kürsch put it: “We
poured our heart and soul into A Traveler’s Guide to Space and Time
making it a well worthwhile box for our fans which fully meets the
demands we make of ourselves as well as those of our fans. And that is
exactly what we were aiming for.”