A Night At The Opera
December 14, 2006 by Jo Minor
When it was released, fans of Power Metal hated everything about this album from the pioneering visionaries of the sub-genre Blind Guardian. And they still hate it for some subtle nuance or the other. When they ran out of ideas, they started hating it for the album cover as well, but then again, Blind Guardian is known for their brilliant J.R.R. Tolkien-inspired cover artwork and this slight departure from their normal conduct raised more than a few eyebrows among fans.
A Night At The Opera also saw the band trying out more options in the studio, making the album just as unconventional and untraditional as the cover artwork would suggest. Some in the Metal community conveniently accused Blind Guardian on employing “studio magic” - a vicious accusation that is only second to accusing a band of “selling out”.
Sure, there are some exotic (and very cool sounding, I might add) percussion and all that studio stuff present in the album, but its saddening to see that fans are overlooking, and even deriding, the masterpiece of an album for such trivial matters. Fans of simpler, stripped-down Power Metal should stick to the earlier Blind Guardian albums, or check out vocalist Hansi Kursch’s Demons & Wizards project which he started with Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer.
A Night At The Opera kicks opens with the powerful Precious Jerusalem, and the furious tempo and immense energy is carried on in the next two songs as well. Then, some of the album’s mellower tracks appear, giving listeners some breathing space before plunging them into the fist-in-the-air track that is The Soulforged. A Night At The Opera doesn’t stop entertaining at any point, however it’s clear that the best tracks are at the very beginning of this epic journey of an album.
That brings me to comment on the negative comments aimed at this album from the fans and the media. This criticism can be attributed to the band’s different approach when it came to writing and producing A Night At The Opera, and as it is known, fans don’t accept change too easily. Blind Guardian might have taken pride in their audacity to step on innovative aural terrain, but the fans might never want to see the band evolve. This might spell a dead end to some bands, but Blind Guardian has obviously learnt a lot from its years in the music business, and trusted their instincts when releasing A Night At The Opera.
The album possesses some of the Blind Guardian’s strongest songs ever recorded, thus turning some of the tracks present in the album into live favorites as well. Later on, songs such as Under The Ice and The Soulforged made their way into the band’s Live album - an accolade given to only the best Blind Guardian songs.
A break from run-of-the-mill Power Metal makes A Night At The Opera an invigorating and distinctive listening.
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