I was listening to some Live stuff while reading interviews in anticipation of Live Beyond the Spheres, and some interesting recent tidbits:
-Orchestral album will consist of all original songs telling a story that blends actual history and fantasy, they specifically mention the Czech Republic in regards to the plot.
-Musically it really is just an orchestra with Hansi, no other bandmates.
-Some parts and/or songs were actually written while they were writing Nightfall in Middle Earth. That was the birth of the project.
-Hansi's vocals are not yet finished but the plans are to do so by the end of this year, plans are late 2018 or early 2019 it seems. Some songs are already finished.
-They also have two new songs written for a "normal" Blind Guardian album, they aim for 2020.
-In regards of the new live album and the lack of songs like Curse of Feanor, they have them lying around in good quality and official bootlegs or bonus releases are still a possibility in the future.
If I counted correctly, yesterday marked the 12th time I saw Blind Guardian live. And it was a blast!!!! 
the band was on fire and Hansi was excellent, he sang quite a lot of the high lines and never seemed to struggle or to rely too much on the lower register. Impressive performance from him, one of his best that I've seen for sure!
The whole Imaginations album was a tremendous experience live. Yeah, before the show I can coldly reason that those songs have been played plenty of times, but when you're there, in the excitement of the experience, singing along with old time friends you just go with the flow and enjoy the hell out of it.
With bands that one listens since so long, it's great to hear songs I literally haven't heard in years (like Welcome to Dying for example), but the moment they start the words come out of my memory anyway. And I also got to hear the majestic Sacred Worlds, which wasn't played last time they toured here - the two encore openers were Into the Storm and Wheel of Time when they toured for Beyond the Red Mirror.
The only pity is that I couldn't attend the meet n' greet - it was so crowded that they finished their time when the queue was still long, after 20 years or so of listening to them I never had a chance to talk to them properly and a meet n' greet with a photo with all of them would have been nice. Uh well, better lucky next time, it's not that my long story with BG is gonna end anytime soon 
Awesome! And funny to hear you mention Another Holy War above. Blind Guardian was the first metal concert (in 2010) where I went for the artist specifically, and I lost my mind when they played Another Holy War, which was my favourite song back then.
I haven't heard Red Mirror for over year, didn't really think too much of it really when it came out.
So I decided to load my ipod for work with stuff I haven't heard in ages.
Had it on today at a pretty low volume, but sounded really good, far better than I remember.
I really like Beyond the Red Mirror, but it remains a tough pill to swallow when taken as a whole and the mixing is odd, but not necessarily bad (it doesn't sound brickwalled and I can hear a lot of the different elements when listening on a proper stereo). Honestly I think in some cases the orchestra's and choirs maybe made it a bit too busy. The bonus track Doom doesn't have those and the music "breathes" a bit more as a result. But still, there is plenty to love on Beyond the Red Mirror for me personally.
Topic: The Official Blind Guardian Thread v. Yup, Still a Necrothread (Read 94371 times)