Album Review: Blind Guardian - The God Machine

I would say I have an odd relationship with Blind Guardian, but that would imply I actually have one. The fact of the matter is that even though Blind Guardian is in may ways the single biggest power metal band in history, I have seldom cared at all about them. I wasn't listening during their early speed metal period, the Tolkien-inspired concept albums are soooo not my thing, and their recent orchestral stuff is too overblown and down a road they probably shouldn't be taking. In fact, the only time I thought I really liked them was on "A Twist In The Myth", and since that album is roundly disliked by their fans, I'm once again in the position of being the weirdo who clearly doesn't align with anyone else.

This album opens in very odd fashion with "Deliver Us From Evil". The first minute involves a riff being played at an odd tempo, while Hansi whispers in the background. I don't know what stage it is supposed to be setting, but it sounds like the band screwing around before starting to play the track, and I really don't think that was the intention. It also sounds like they are trying to blend some of their early speed with their later progressiveness, and it makes for a rather disjointed song. And with the choir singing against Hansi in the chorus instead of with him, it also doesn't have the triumphant feeling the band's best songs have. It's just a strangely flat way to start the record.

Not helping matters is the mix of the record. At least on the promo I received, the mix is so flat it has to be turned up to ridiculous volumes for any of the details to become audible. Even Hansi's voice gets obscured by the guitars. That leaves the record sounding noisy when it really isn't, and a demanding listen even when the arrangements are obvious. I don't like having to work to be able to hear what's going on, and it definitely affected my enjoyment of the album.

Luckily, in an ironic sense, the album isn't really engaging enough that I would want to go back and fight through that hardship. By trying to be heavier and more aggressive, a lot of the grandeur that only Blind Guardian can bring is lacking. At least for me it is. They are supposed to be the band that sounds like a fantasy movie come to life, even if I don't care for the genre, but this record can't do that. The sound is more like a made for tv miniseries, where it might be good enough, but we know it could have been done on a more epic scale.

Maybe this all comes down to a matter of tone. With this being a more aggressive album, Hansi has to try to match that output, and I've never heard him as being good at that sort of thing. His voice is unique, but when he tries to project power and anger, it's when he veers closest to Muppet territory. He can do cleaner and more melodic things far more effectively than his role playing, so perhaps I find the songs dragged down just by the unnecessary warble of his voice.

In the end, I think it still comes down to songs. Blind Guardian simply don't deliver the kind of epic choruses I was expecting of them. These aren't songs that beg you to sing along with them, the way a crowd of 80,000 will the next time they play Wacken. These songs are more insular, and less memorable for it. By getting heavier, Blind Guardian weighed down the songs too much for them to rise above their mediocrity.

Yet again, it seems, Blind Guardian just isn't a band for me. But at least I tried.