Unfortunately, the evening wasn't everything it could have been and that was almost entirely my fault. By arriving late to the Kool Haus, I missed the first opening band, Seven Kingdoms, and only heard the last song by the second, Holy Grail. While I had looked forward to Seven Kingdoms, I could have missed them and it wouldn't have greatly affected my concert experience. Holy Grail was a different story. I bought their album Crisis in Utopia after hearing it in a music store. Frankly, they blew me away: traditional heavy metal bolstered by youthful exuberance and a unique singer with a terrific voice. When I found out they were opening for Blind Guardian, it was a deciding factor in my finally buying a ticket. Yet due to my procrastination - as well as getting to the bus stop and having to turn around when I realized I had forgetten my ticket - I got there only in time to hear their last song, "Fight to Kill". What I heard was just enough for me to understand that I had indeed missed a killer performance. Hopefully they don't break up before making a return trip to Toronto.
Still, the night could have been a lot worse: I could have gotten all the way to the concert and only then realized I forgot my ticket. Count your blessings, right?
At any rate, I saw Blind Guardian and therefore accomplished my main goal. The biggest question for me going in was what song they would open with. Having gorged myself on their double live album prior to the show, my bets were on "War of Wrath"/"Into The Storm", the opening double-whammy from their Tolkien-inspired concept album Nightfall in Middle-Earth. But instead they began with the orchestral epic "Sacred Worlds", starting point on their latest record At The Edge of Time. They likely couldn't have picked anything better, as I've grown to absolutely adore this song after many repeated listens.
The band followed up with "Welcome to Dying". I was never a huge fan of this track, but played live it was something else entirely, thanks largely to vocalist Hansi Kürsch and his calls for crowd participation: "welcome to...DYING!" Aside from the aforementioned "Lord of the Rings", the night's set list included "Fly" from the 2006 album A Twist in the Myth, "Mordred's Song" and "Born in a Mourning Hall" off 1995's Imaginations from the Other Side, the obligatory performance of "Nightfall" and the more surprising inclusion of "Time Stands Still (At The Iron Hill)" from Nightfall in Middle-Earth, and - so I'm told - "Traveler in Time", opening track off their 1990 album Tales from the Twilight World. There were a couple other songs I didn't recognize, but the night ended on a high note with encore performances of their classic acoustic number "The Bard's Song (In The Forest)" and - for the grand finale - "Valhalla", from 1989's Follow The Blind.
As might be expected from a legendary group of Blind Guardian's stature, the quality of musicianship was uniformly superb. Guitarists André Olbrich and Marcus Siepen drew us into Guardian's fantasy world with their six-string heroics, which ranged from the delicate picking of the softer numbers to the face-melting solos traditionally associated with metal gods. Drummer Frederik Ehmke, a member since 2006, brought the double-bass virtuosity. Perhaps most surprising was bass player Oliver Holswarth, who took over bass duties from Kürsch in 1997 after the latter decided to focus on singing; despite his nominal status as a session musician, Holswarth had a real onstage presence unusual for a bass player. Speaking of vocals, with one of the most unique voices in metal, Kürsch has always been one of the band's strong suits. He proved himself a most charismatic and effective frontman at this show, and while he may look less "metal" these days with the shorter haircut, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden proved it doesn't matter so long as you can still work the crowd and belt out classic songs.
My only real complaint about Guardian's performance was the puzzling omission of some of my favourite songs. I never expected them to play "Theatre of Pain", an underrated golden oldie from Somewhere Far Beyond, but there was at least a chance they would play "Banish from Sanctuary", a thrashy and undeniably catchy song from Follow the Blind describing the life of John the Baptist. Unfortunately, they didn't play either. What was more surprising was their failure to perform a variety of other power metal classics featured on the Live album. "Majesty", "Journey Through The Dark", "Into The Storm", "Imaginations From The Other Side", "Bright Eyes", "A Past and Future Secret" - they didn't play any of 'em! Their decision to omit some of these songs is absolutely befuddling and did leave me a little disappointed in some respects.
On the other hand - it's fucking BLIND GUARDIAN! These guys are metal legends for a reason, and having finally experienced them live, I can now personally attest what a great experience it was. I will be seeing my beloved bards again at the nearest opportunity.
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