Nightfall in Middle-Earth - Blind Guardian - Album Review

Nightfall in Middle-Earth, Blind Guardian's sixth studio album, saw a fairly significant change to their composition and songwriting. While they still maintained the power and speed metal roots of their previous works, the more melodic songwriting and heavy use of orchestral parts gives the album a richer, fuller, more epic feel. The heavy use of overdubbing contributes to this, with the vocals that have often been compared to Queen. Blind Guardian was already quite well off in terms of songwriting, these changes just gave the band a larger range, which they made very good use.

Nightfall in Middle-Earth is a concept album that recounts J.R.R. Tolkien's book, The Silmarillon. People with knowledge of the book will probably get a bit more out of the album, but it is by no means required to enjoy the music or even to follow the album plotline. In addition to the songs on the album, they are linked together by short, usually spoken-word, tracks that tie the songs to the overreaching plot. Even for a concept album, Nightfall in Middle-Earth has a rather unusual need to be listened to in its entirety from start to finish. As diverse as the range of songs are on the album, it does flow together as one complete work. Unlike most concept albums telling a story, this is not simply a matter of following the plotline. The entire album is tied together as one complete entity, not just a series of songs.

This is actually the one real negative to the album. While the actual songs on Nightfall in Middle-Earth are strong enough in their own right to be listened to separately, this is not a CD that can be put on shuffle. The short tracks that link one song to the next simply are not strong enough on their own to be listened to randomly. As engaging as the songwriting in each one is, they are lacking when they are not used to link the album sequentially. If you listen to the album on an MP3 player or in some other format where you can remove tracks from shuffle, this is not an issue. The actual songs are fine on their own, but the CD itself should be listened to from start to finish.

People that started on later Blind Guardian albums like A Night at the Opera or A Twist in the Myth should pick this up. Fans of the earlier albums may not quite enjoy this album as much, especially more strictly speed metal fans. While by no means as complex as A Night at the Opera, which practically required a level of ear training on par with a musician, there is still a significant increase in the complexity and depth of the songwriting. While Blind Guardian was never as simplistic as some speed metal bands that just cram as many notes as possible in a song, there is a noticeable change in songwriting in Nightfall in Middle-Earth that does remove focus from the comparatively simpler style of their earlier albums.