Description

Russian pressing on Agat Company with the Bright Eyes single and 3 more tracks as bonus.

Somewhere Far Beyond has all the elements of classic Blind Guardian: fantasy and horror-story tracks inspired by the likes of J.R.R. Tolkein and Stephen King; speedy double-bass riffing; and searing melodic vocals punctuated by anthemic group choruses. Bassist/Vocalist Hansi Kursch seems to possess several different voices, which serves his band’s dynamic purposes well. From regal tales of dragon warfare (“The Bard’s Song — The Hobbit,”) to minstrel ballads (“The Bard’s Song — In the Forest,”) to Blind Guardian’s trademark early-’90s speed metal matrix of hyper riffs and melodic multi-voiced choruses (“Journey Through the Dark,” “Ashes to Ashes,” and “Somewhere Far Beyond,”) every pompous, excessive base is covered. Practically unknown in America, Blind Guardian had grown into quite a formidable metal outfit by the time of this 1992 release. The coming worldwide revival of ’80s-influenced European metal certainly did their burgeoning career no harm and the group began penetrating the U.S. market. This delighted many old-school metal fans tired of the fake anger, pasty hip-hop posturing and overall uniformity of American “hard” music. With plenty of great performances, challenging material, and some wicked guitar playing, Somewhere Far Beyond is a cornerstone of Blind Guardian’s sizable reputation.

Bright Eyes
Mr Sandman was Blind Guardians first ever cd single. The track is a cover version of the old doo-wop classic by The Chordettes classic penned by Pat Ballard in the 50s. The track is both comical and kind of creepy, depending on which half of the song your listening to. Hansi Kursch has an unusual gift for making his voice sound like a 50s singer, yet suddenly morph into a shouting psycho when he wants to, and the way the heavy section goes definitely falls into something that sounds outside the realm of sanity. The Japanese single version of Mr Sandman changed place with the two first tracks. So the Japanese single was called Bright Eyes and it had Mr Sandman as track 2 instead. Bright Eyes is an edit version which probably only makes sense to the one that need to save a minute of listening time. The Deep Purple cover Hallelujah is a bit more rock n roll than youre usual Blind Guardian track. It has distortion and a few faster sections then the Purple version. Then we have two demo versions of Blind Guardian tracks. The material here have now been released elsewhere but its the first Blind Guardian cd single and it comes with a beautiful cover artwork which still makes this an essential single for Guardian fans.

Track list:
1. Time What Is Time
2. Journey Through The Dark
3. Black Chamber
4. Theatre Of Pain
5. The Quest For Tanelorn
6. Ashes To Ashes
7. The bards Song: In The Forest
8. The bards Song: The Hobbit
9. The pipers Calling
10. Somewhere Far Beyond
11. Spread Your Wings
12. Trail By Fire
13. Theatre Of Pain-classic version
14. Bright Eyes-edit version
15. Mister Sandman-The Chordettes cover
16. Hallelujah-Deep Purple cover
17. Imaginations From The Other Side-demo version
18. The Script For My Requiem-demo version