Blind Guardian live in Balingen

Yesterday, Blind Guardian headlined the second day of the Bang Your Head-Festival in Balingen. It was their only show in Germany this year. Still, the audience wasn’t really packed. To be more precise: many people were scattered across the festival site, but you could easily walk up to close to the stage even while the intro (“War of Wrath”) was already playing. I’m not a big fan of Blind Guardian’s newer material, so I reckoned this was one of the last chances to experience their melodic speed metal stuff without too many distracting modern songs. The band definitely delivered, starting out with fantastic songs like “Another Holy War” and “Traveller in Time” before throwing a couple of surprises (“Blood Tears”, “Goodbye My Friend”). I was repeatedly amazed by the singalongability of their classics. Further highlights included “Time What Is Time” and “Lord of the Rings”, which were accompanied by rain. The rain didn’t diminish the joy I felt upon hearing these pearls. Blind Guardian are not a good show act. Their sparse on-stage action is far from remarkable. Fortunately, the music easily made up for this. As it happened, I found myself singing the chorus of “Valhalla” with a bunch of other fans for a rather long time after the show ended. Wahoo!

  1. Time Stands Still (at the Iron Hill)
  2. Another Holy War
  3. Nightfall
  4. Traveller in Time
  5. Turn the Page
  6. The Script for My Requiem
  7. Blood Tears
  8. Goodbye My Friend
  9. This Will Never End
  10. Valhalla
  11. Sacred
  12. Time What Is Time
  13. Lord of the Rings
  14. Punishment Divine
  15. Imaginations From the Other Side
  16. The Bard’s Song – In the Forest
  17. Mirror Mirror