THOMEN STAUCH
MARCUS SIEPIENANDRE' OLBRICH
HANSI KURSCH
The band was originally formed in 1985, under the name Luciferīs
Heritage. They released two demos; "Symphonies Of Doom" (1985)
wich wasnīt such a big hit, the other one though, "Battalions Of Fear",
was very successful. After that they changed their name to Blind
Guardian.

In 1988 they signed a contract and shortly after that, their first almbum,
"Battalions Of Fear", was released. The following years (1989) they
released their second album, "Follow The Blind", featuring appearances
by formal Helloween-guitarist and present Gamma Ray-vocalist Kai
Hansen. Appearances wich both included guitar-playing and some
singing on the song "Valhalla" and "Hall Of The King".

When they released their third album, "Tales From The Twilight
World", the German metal-quartet had made very great changes to their
music. They had gone from raw speed-metal to a sound more melodic,
offcourse the "speed" was still there, just listen to songs like "Goodbye
My Friend" or "Welcome To Dying". This time they had, according to
Hansi Kürsch who are the vocalist and bassist in the band, also spent
more time on the lyrics.

The sound on their fourth album, "Somewhere Far Beyond" was to be
pretty much the same as the sound on their previous one, with speed
songs like the Satan cover "Trial By Fire" and their own song "Journey
Through The Dark".

In wasnīt until the release of their fifth album, "Imaginations From The
Other Side", that the sound was to be greatly altered and taken to a
higher level. Mixing the old speed-sound with a new, more orchestral
sound showed to be a great success. The album is the bandīs biggest
success so far.

In 1996 the collection "The Forgotten Tales" was released, the album
featured some covers, but also old, rerecorded BG-songs and a fantastic
live-recording of the wonderful song "The Bardīs Song - In The
Forest"...
Blind Guardian is to release an EP in the beginning of 1998 and their next full-length album will be out sometime in April-May -98, it seems.
[Thanks to Johannes Weiman for some of the facts. Visit his page, "Imaginations From The Other Site"!]