Track Listing
1. War of wrath 2. Into the storm 3. Lammoth 4. Nightfall 5. The minstrel 6. The curse of feanor 7. Captured 8. Blood tears 9. Mirror mirror 10. Face the truth 11. Noldor (Dead winter reigns) 12. Battle of sudden flame 13. Time stands still (At the iron hill) 14. The dark elf 15. Thorn 16. The eldar 17. Nom the wise 18. When sorrow sang 19. Out on the water 20. The steadfast 21. A dark passage 22. Final chapter (Thus ends...) Year: 1998 Label: Import - Official Site |
Blind Guardian - 'Nightfall in middle earth' - By J. Korkiam�ki
This epic album praised as Blind Guardian�s best album is at least the most ambitious, although not the best one by some, who are not patient and open minded enough to fully concentrate to the album. There are 22 tracks on the album, of which the half are short dialogs, monologs and other kind of speech segments, the rest is, again very progressive and good kind of music. Nightfall In Middle-Earth is a concept album. The story should be familiar with all those, who have read J.R.R. Tolkien�s novel The Silmarillion. Because it would take quite much time to explain the whole characteristic plan and the progress of the story, let�s just say it�s once again a duel between good and evil. The segments between the songs make possible, that those who have not read the novel, can more or less keep up with the plot. The album is the most progressive album Blind Guardian has made. The music is even more twitchy than ever, but still keeps a certain line, which is not to be crossed. The sudden changes from a relaxing solo vocal line to an epic choir and vice versa can begin to bug one�s patience after a long period of listening, though, depending if you like the band�s music in general or not. Musically speaking, Nightfall In Middle-Earth is very close to Somewhere Far Beyond. The other albums are a bit more guitar/drum oriented, while on these two albums there are a lot of ballads, which is quite understandable when speaking of this album; all kinds of songs should be included, or the concept won�t work. "Nightfall" arguably is the best ballad the band has ever done, and from the faster songs "Mirror Mirror" is the best one, a perfect Blind Guardian song and definitely a future classic. There also are other songs, that could also easily fill the slot of the album�s best song, like the fantastic speeder "The Curse Of Feanor" and the slow, epic songs "Blood Tears" and "Thorn". Nightfall In Middle-Earth truly is once again a masterpiece and very close to the title of Blind Guardian�s best album, and it once again raises the difficulty of ever deciding which Blind Guardian album is the best one. Well, it�s probably easier to listen to albums like Tales From The Twilight World and Follow The Blind because of the numerous non-musical segments on this one. In my opinion, Nightfall is one of the best album that ever came out from the country of Germany, and it throws in a good candidate to compete with masterpieces like Rage�s The Missing Link and Helloween�s Keeper Of The Seven Keys, Part II. Metal Obsessive Grade: 96% |