THE band that got me into metal - none other than the fantasy geeks: Blind Guardian.

THE album that made me even more ashamed I love a band that wanks over Lord of the Rings: A Twist in the Myth. At least I still have all my Forgotten Realms Drizzt books.

In previous albums, singer Hansi Kursch aggressive tone was a great asset, or even in classics like ‘The Bard’s Song’, his voice was natural in the sense that you could taste him sitting around a campfire in the middle of a forest in the middle of…middle-earth. Tastes like red-bull.

Unfortunately, The band’s taken a turn for the worse, heading more in the epic-symphonic metal sort of direction. Recently, Thomas Stauch, Blind Guardian’s ex-drummer from the band’s inception till A Night at the Opera has left them for ‘musical differences’.
I dont blame him at all, who actually enjoys layer after layer after layer after layer after layer after layer of voice enhancement and delay that soak Hansi’s voice to the point of being overwhelmed, instead of joining the elves in a magical chorus. That couldn’t sound more gay if Gandalf was molesting Frodo.

In the album, the song ‘Otherland’ chorus epitomises the ‘epic-layering’. Another typical Blind Guardian compressed-tone wah solo features too. zzzzz

What Hansi wishes he was: A choir and a chubby rednut.

Well, pop this piece of shit in your music player and straight off you’ll be brutally raped by Hansi’s enhanced voice in ‘This Will Never End’. It was pretty awesome for a change when it was first experimented with ‘Battlefield’ and ‘And Then There was Silence’, but throughout the new album, it just doesn’t strike a chord of satisfaction for me.

The riffs/solos are pretty similar to previous works, particularly A Night at The Opera, which wasn’t too bad by now is getting a little stale. It just builds on the ‘A Night at the Opera sound’.

This album isn’t truly as bad as I make it out to be, you only see its faults when you place it next to a different masterpiece album like ‘Imaginations’ or ‘Tales from the Twilight World’. It’s like placing a midget next to a giant from tajikstan.

Wtf? What a terrible analogy, where did my originality go? ‘You never had any originality to begin with anyway you douchebag’ people will comment. Don’t worry, I saved you the effort.

Lots of negative reviews for the album mention that the new drummer has nothing on Thomas Stauch. Honestly, they both sound pretty awesome to me, so no immature slandering from me there.

Twist in the Myth actually wins at being quite a consistent album. Every song remains consistently cringing and annoying. Aswell as sounding lame, they look lame too, as seen in the ‘Another Stranger Me‘ video. Although you look like a wannabe AC/DC in the outfits, I give you credit from breaking your fantasy mould. And failing.