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Track Listing: Traveler in Time Welcome to Dying Weird Dreams Lord of the Rings Goodbye My Friend Lost in the Twilight Hall Tommyknockers Altair 4 The Last Candle

This album has to be the most difficult Blind Guardian album to objectively review. It is a short album (only 40:50 without the bonus tracks) with two out of nine tracks that can be called obvious filler. Vocalist Hansi Kursch certainly didn't give his definitive work on this album; his most emotional performance came on "Imaginations From the Other Side" where one could hear him push his vocals to the limit, while he unleashed his full range and technical ability on "A Night at the Opera". Later albums had better production to be sure- the bass is near-inaudible, and the drums have a large echoey sound characteristic of many metal albums from the 1980's. Thomen's drumming was quite imperfect on this album, as evidenced by an inconsistency in the songs' BPM and walls of bass drum hits that sounded uneven. This album is also mostly focused on speed, while many of their albums released afterward contain a wide variety of moods and tempos.

So despite all of these flaws and unfavorable comparisons to other albums, how is it that "Tales From the Twilight World" is one of the greatest power metal albums ever and Blind Guardian's greatest achievement? This album captured a point in time in Blind Guardian's musical evolution when they were growing past the endless speed of their first two albums, but hadn't yet grown overly obsessed with production. To make an even better argument, five of the nine songs on this album are among the best Blind Guardian songs ever.

"Traveler in Time" begins with a slow intro with more complex and layered vocals than they had ever had before, with a snare roll build up from Thomen. After Hansi sings a verse to the slow tempo, the song simply explodes out of the speakers. With a mindlessly catchy chorus, neat lyrics centered around Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic Dune, and a complex enough song structure to keep the listener interested, "Traveler in Time" works extremely well as a surging introduction to this album. As with the other fast songs on this album, Thomen propels the song forward with his relentless double-bass assault. Earlier, I mentioned that the drums should be objectively viewed as a detriment to the album. Within the context of the songs though, the apparent weaknesses caused by Thomen and his drum sound actually improve the tunes. Thomen's off-kilter barrages of double bass adds character and energy to the tracks, and make them feel as if they're ready to fall apart at any minute. "Welcome to Dying" is a perfect example of this energy. Combine a catchy, yet simple chorus, a raging verse, a characteristically melodic solo from guitarist Andre Olbrich, and Thomen's off-the-rails drumming, and you have a true Blind Guardian live classic. Unlike many of the other songs, "Welcome to Dying" is very simple in its structure, but all of its elements keep the listener engaged. Andre's solos and interludes are top notch, Thomen knocks up the tempo at just the right times and Hansi gives a suitably aggressive yet melodic vocal performance. As the band's songs have become more progressive and varied over the years, "Welcome to Dying" makes for simple and quick fun.

After two absolute Guardian classics, "Weird Dreams" comes as the first of the filler tracks, an instrumental made of melodies and licks from Andre and rhythm guitarist Marcus Siepien. At a little over a minute long, it doesn't overstay its welcome when listening to the album as a whole, but one isn't likely to stick it in a shuffle playlist any time soon. Contrasting in tempo with the prior three, "Lord of the Rings" is the album's lone ballad. It incorporates both tempo and volume dynamics uncharacteristic of Blind Guardian songs before it, and that "slow down and I sail on the river..". chorus works so well because it doesn't over power the song. The song retains a very ethereal quality throughout, even when the electric guitars and drums enter in. "Lord of the Rings," like "Welcome to Dying," is still played at nearly every Blind Guardian concert. The dreamlike quality this song has is truly something amazing to witness live. "Goodbye My Friend" is a fine song, but its merits are diminished by the fact that many of the album's songs are so much superior. The song has a catchy enough chorus, but it stands in too sharp contrast to very aggressive verses.

However, after "Goodbye My Friend," comes what could be Blind Guardian's greatest achievement, "Lost In the Twilight Hall". By the time its completely fantastic chorus comes in for the first time, the song has gone through a neat intro, a surging yet ear-pleasing verse and even an awesome guest appearance from Gamma Ray's Kai Hansen. On the second verse, Kai and Hansi go into a vocal duel that shows the merits of their two voices, Kai's high wail and Hansi's low roar. Andre absolutely shines in this song as well with two top-flight (yet not overly long) solos, while Thomen once again pushes the song to the breaking point with his furious drumming.

Sadly, this album's incredible momentum is nearly ruined by "Tommyknockers" and "Altair 4". The former starts with yet another cool intro and a catchy enough verse, but its chorus tries far too hard thrashing and being aggressive. This, combined with strange tempo drops near the 2:00 mark make this song pretty jarring to listen to, especially after the majestic "Lost In the Twilight Hall". Like "Weird Dreams," "Altair 4" is another obvious filler track. The song never goes in any consistent direction, and pretty much wastes space on an otherwise spectacular album.

Luckily, "The Last Candle" manages to end the album on a very high (and very epic) note. This song is a true lost classic, coming after two underwhelming tracks and having been very rarely performed live. Beginning with another layered vocal intro similar to "Traveler In Time," the song doesn't simply start off with a verse, instead Andre and Marcus begin a harmonized guitar run. The song doesn't carry a consistent structure at first- tempos shift repeatedly, there are many different parts to just the verses and Thomen even provides a long torrent of tom-toms for the "turn to stone..". bit. When the chorus hits however, the speed tightens, the song becomes more consistent in structure and the band rips straight until the end of the album. Even though every member gives an outstanding performance on this song, the true showman is Hansi, who gives an absolutely stunning vocal throughout. When Hansi belts the chorus ("I fly in time.".), extends the word "time" and adds pitch variation, one can completely hear the effort he puts into the song. After repeating the verse and chorus twice more, with an extra extension on the third chorus (considering how great the chorus is, this extension is most welcome), the song ends on a surprisingly atmospheric note. With lone chants of "somebody's out there..". the song develops a mood that becomes almost trance-like. The band then end by cutting themselves short in the middle of a phrase. It's alarming and completely breaks the atmosphere created by this outro, but yet it works in a strange way.

This album comes out to being far greater than the sum of its parts. The strong songs are the band's greatest songs ever, and the songs that are weak don't bring the album down enough to diminish its standing as a power metal classic. The only reason this album doesn't get a ten is because having three out of nine songs be nearly useless can still be considered a significant blemish on an otherwise monumental album. The flawed production, the off-tempo drums, Hansi's growing vocal prowess, Andre and Marcus' killer riffs and most importantly, a handful of the best power metal songs ever written help make Tales From the Twilight World a landmark album. Highly recommended.

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