{"id":29012,"date":"2024-03-15T10:43:06","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T10:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/?p=29012"},"modified":"2024-03-15T10:43:07","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T10:43:07","slug":"blind-guardian-follow-the-blind-1989","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/blind-guardian-follow-the-blind-1989\/","title":{"rendered":"Banished from sanctuary: Thirty-five years of Blind Guardian&#8217;s masterful album Follow The Blind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Everyone knows that one of the cradles of heavy metal is without a doubt the European continent, more specifically the central area and northern Europe. The story of <strong>Blind Guardian<\/strong> is simple and concise: four heavy metal fans from West Germany at that time, decided to join forces to form a band that they originally named <strong>Lucifer&#8217;s Heritage<\/strong>. Their sound combined the most classic elements of heavy metal with some touches of speed metal, although increasing the speed of their compositions considerably in what would later be known as power metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lucifer&#8217;s Heritage released their first demo <strong><em>Symphonies Of Doom<\/em><\/strong> (Independent) in 1985, which received little recognition and went quite unnoticed. The following year they released their second demo <strong><em>Battalions Of Fear<\/em><\/strong> (1986, Independent) -not to be confused with <strong>Blind Guardian<\/strong>&#8216;s debut album-, the last recording with guitarist <strong>Christoph Theissen<\/strong> who would later leave the band. They began to enjoy some recognition with their second demonstration and that&#8217;s when they decided to change their name to something more appropriate, at which point they became known as <strong>Blind Guardian<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At that time they completed the line-up with <strong>Marcus Siepen<\/strong> on guitar, who replaced <strong>Cristoph Theissen<\/strong>. With their consolidated line-up <strong>Blind Guardian<\/strong> decided to start the process of recording their debut album, <strong><em>Battalions Of Fear<\/em><\/strong> (1988, No Remorse Records), an album of pure speed metal with melodic touches that was released under No Remorse Records. The band is consolidated with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/hansi-kursch-interview-2020\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"13314\">Hansi K\u00fcrsch<\/a><\/strong> on bass and vocals, <strong>Andr\u00e9 Olbrich<\/strong> and <strong>Marcus Siepen<\/strong> on guitars and <strong>Thomas Stauch<\/strong> on drums, in addition to touring part of West Germany and East Germany with a fairly consistent fan base at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Blind Guardian - Live In Berlin 1991 &amp; Live In Dusseldorf 1992\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N7U2SQfJqtg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Already in 1989, a year after their debut, they decided to enter <strong>Karo Studios<\/strong> in M\u00fcnster (West Germany) to record what would be the successor to <strong><em>Battalions Of Fear<\/em><\/strong>. The album was recorded during the cold winter of that year, between January and February, and was produced by <strong>Kalle Trapp<\/strong>. He<strong> <\/strong>had already produced Blind Guardian&#8217;s debut album and would also be responsible for producing the next two albums, <strong><em>Tales From The Twilight World<\/em><\/strong> (1990, No Remorse Records) and <strong>Somewhere Far Beyond<\/strong> (1992, Virgin Records).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Part of <strong><em>Follow The Blind<\/em><\/strong> was written during the <strong><em>Battalions Of Fear<\/em><\/strong> tour and has a sound quite similar to its predecessor, although the band has admitted on several occasions that during that time they listened to a lot of thrash metal and speed metal bands, somewhat which greatly influenced the final result of their new songs. <strong>Blind Guardian<\/strong>, which has always been strongly influenced by the stories of the writer <strong>J. R. R. Tolkien<\/strong>, has referenced the author and his literary work on many occasions, even dedicating an entire album to the novel <strong><em>The Silmarillion<\/em><\/strong> (1977) with the release of <strong><em>Nightfall In Middle-Earth<\/em><\/strong> in 1998. They had already referenced some of Tolkien&#8217;s work in their debut such as <strong><em>Majesty <\/em><\/strong>or <strong><em>Run For The Night<\/em><\/strong>, which are about <strong><em>The Lord Of The Rings<\/em><\/strong>, even titling the last song of said album <strong><em>Gandalf&#8217;s Rebirth<\/em><\/strong> in allusion to one of the characters in the saga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Blind-Guardian-Band-1980s.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-29015\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Blind-Guardian-Band-1980s.jpg 700w, https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Blind-Guardian-Band-1980s-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Blind-Guardian-Band-1980s-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <strong><em>Follow The Blind<\/em><\/strong>, right from the start we find the first nod to <strong>Tolkien<\/strong>&#8216;s work on the album artwork itself, with two of the characters from his novels such as <em>Gandalf <\/em>and <em>Frodo<\/em>, although in this case it would be the only reference we find on the album. For their second studio album they expand their references and deal with the novel <strong><em>The Talisman<\/em><\/strong> by <strong>Stephen King<\/strong> and <strong>Peter Straub<\/strong> in <strong><em>Follow The Blind<\/em><\/strong>, the title song of the album itself. <strong><em>Banish From Sanctuary<\/em><\/strong> is based on the life of <em>John the Baptist<\/em>, <strong><em>Hall Of The King<\/em><\/strong> is about faith, <strong><em>Fast To Madness<\/em><\/strong> is about <em>Elric of Melnibon\u00e9<\/em>, antihero of <strong>Michael Moorcock<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong><em>Elric Saga<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/blindguardian\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Blind Guardian<\/a><\/strong> chose <strong><em>Inquisition <\/em><\/strong>as the song that introduces the listener to <strong><em>Follow The Blind<\/em><\/strong>, which also made use of <em>Pie Jesu Domine<\/em>, a text from the final couplet of <em>Dies Irae <\/em>in Latin, which reads the following sentence: \u00ab<em>Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem<\/em>\u00bb (Pious Jesus who takes away the sins of the world, give them rest). The album was officially released on April 14, 1989 through the defunct record label <strong>No Remorse Records<\/strong> like its predecessor <strong><em>Battalions Of Fear<\/em><\/strong> and its follow-up album, <strong><em>Tales From The Twilight World<\/em><\/strong>. The album would be re-released on CD by <strong>Virgin<\/strong>, which also included the cover for british <strong>Demon<\/strong>&#8216;s heavy metal anthem <strong>Don&#8217;t Break The Circle<\/strong>, a song that was not included in the original vinyl edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <strong><em>Follow The Blind<\/em><\/strong> we also find one of the band&#8217;s most important songs, <strong><em>Valhalla<\/em><\/strong>, a song that has been appearing in the band&#8217;s setlist since its release and in which <strong>Kai Hansen<\/strong> (Helloween, Gamma Ray) also participates. <strong>Hansen <\/strong>would repeat on his next album, contributing his voice and some guitar solo on <strong><em>Lost In The Twilight Hall<\/em><\/strong>, but that&#8217;s another story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone knows that one of the cradles of heavy metal is without a doubt the&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[320],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-29012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special","tag-blind-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}