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Nov 8, 20226 min read

Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra - Legacy of the Dark Lands (2019)

FROM THE CRYPTS - CELEBRATING PAST ALBUM RELEASES in the HISTORY of HARD ROCK & HEAVY METAL…



On November 8, 2019, Blind Guardian released their eleventh full-length studio album Legacy of the Dark Lands via Nuclear Blast.


It marks a departure from all previous works, as the only instruments performed are those of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, with singer Hansi Kürsch being the only member of the band to perform on the album; due to this, the album is credited to the Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra instead of Blind Guardian.



A project worked on by Kürsch and André Olbrich since 1996, it is a concept album set in the 17th century during the Thirty Years' War, and based on the character of Solomon Kane created by Robert E. Howard in 1928; in Legacy of the Dark Lands, Kane's daughter, Aenlin, is looking for her father's legacy in the Habsburg Empire. A tie-in prequel novel, titled The Dark Lands written by Markus Heitz, was published on March 1, 2019. Due to the limited performing line-up, this is Blind Guardian's first album without guitarist Marcus Siepen, and the first album without drummer Frederik Ehmke since 2002's A Night at the Opera; it is also the first album on which Olbrich doesn't perform guitars, although he was still involved as songwriter and producer.


Hansi Kürsch and André Olbrich first conceived the idea for an orchestral album in 1996, when Blind Guardian started to use orchestrations as part of their music. Kürsch stated:

"When we started working on it we never would have guessed that we would be working on it for such a long time. We started out rather innocently and very unaware of what to expect – and suddenly, the project turned into this huge monster."

Olbrich stated:

"When I got stuck during writing a Blind Guardian record, I would simply work on the orchestra project, and it cleared my mind fairly quickly. A lot of things we learned for this album were used on the last Blind Guardian records. A song like And Then There Was Silence, for example, would never have been possible without this project."

Due to the challenge of singing with an orchestra instead of with the band's line-up, Kürsch recorded three versions of each song on the album, going from his traditional singing in Blind Guardian to a more classical approach; he also tried different lyrics each time, to find "which words would sound best" with which version.


The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra performed the instruments on the album. Actors Norman Eshley and Douglas Fielding provided narration on the album, the second time they did so on a Blind Guardian album after 1998's Nightfall in Middle-Earth; Legacy of the Dark Lands was a posthumous release for Fielding, who died on June 29, 2019.


German author Markus Heitz, who helped develop the story for the album, also wrote a tie-in prequel dark fantasy novel titled The Dark Lands (Die Dunklen Lande), released on March 1, 2019. Although the printed version was only made available in German, an e-book version in English was made available the following October. The novel, set in 1629 during the Thirty Years' War, follows a character named Aenlin Kane, who travels to Hamburg with her Persian friend Tahmina in search of the heritage of her father, Solomon Kane. The two are hired by the Danish West India Company, and their group, led by a man named Nicolas, must face demons trying to use the conflict for their advantage.



Critical Reception:

In his review for Sonic Perspectives, Carl Frederick writes;

“At long last, an ambitious project that began over 20 years ago finally will be released. Originating in the period of time just before the release of Nightfall in Middle-Earth, the once fabled Blind Guardian orchestra project in its final form draws more than just inspiration from that seminal album. A few of the voice actors from Nightfall return for Twilight Orchestra: Legacy of the Dark Lands, which tells the tale drawn from German fantasy author Markus Heitz‘s novel Die Dunklen Lande (The Dark Lands), the album’s backdrop and prequel (Note: the English edition of the book just hit digital platforms on October 23, 2019).
If your initial thought to an album that features Hansi Kürsch and the army of musicians from the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra was “basically it’s the bonus orchestral CD of the album I really wanted” – then you nailed it. However, the more you listen with some imagination (from the other side), it suddenly hits you that this is the actually the best Blind Guardian album in decades. Plus, we all knew what this was going to be forever even if it comes across like the movie score version of Nightfall.
Twilight Orchestra: Legacy of the Dark Lands sports a movie like time of just over one hour and fifteen minutes and features 11 full songs, an overture and 12 voice acted intros. Some familiar Nightfall voices have returned for the album, namely Normal Eshley and Douglas Fielding, the latter of whom sadly passed away back in June. The concept story is set during the 30 Years War, which consumed central Europe in the 17th Century as a religious revolt by the Protestants against Ferdinand II and the Holy Roman Empire. The main protagonist is Aenlin Solome Kane, the daughter of Solomon Kane, the famous fictional hero character conceived by Robert Howard (who also created Conan). Aenlin is on a quest to find her father’s treasures, which were stolen and kept around the area of the Austrian Habsburg Empire (encompassing Germany, Austria, parts of Poland and Hungary).
There is no doubt that Legacy of the Dark Lands is bombastic, gigantic, thrilling, glorious and brilliant. The concept, the story, the masterful orchestrations… it is arguably be one of the band’s best, if it weren’t a conductor’s baton movement away from Van Canto. The frustrating fact is that it feels like the novelty CD from an album’s special edition, an “orchestral audio book” for the album this fan has been lusting for since Nightfall. If it not for the presence of vocals and choirs and the fact that this collection of songs only exists in this form, the CD would be relegated to the shelf, only to be pulled out for rare occasions. But even while you imagine what it is like hearing Andre, Marcus and Frederik, one cannot deny just how great these songs are.
This Storm, Point of No Return, In the Red Dwarf’s Tower are all timeless Blind Guardian classics as if converted to a cinematic score by Howard Shore. Arm and neck hair raise in unison at the thought of hearing metallic versions. Treason is as cheerfully sweet and singable, a The Bard’s Song – In the Forest for a new age. Point of No Return recalls the layered round singing style of the versions of Bright Eyes and Black Chamber on Forgotten Tales. The album favorite is far and away Nephilim, one of those slow stunning building tunes with a roller coaster of vocal tracks.
Through the songwriting, style and melody, Legacy of the Dark Lands is the first Blind Guardian album that has completely immersed and captivated your author since Nightfall. 2015’s Beyond the Red Mirror was a great step back to the power metal that got many into the band, but it was still missing that overall feel that albums like Nightfall, and earlier, had. Once cannot fault the band for progressing the sound with A Night at the Opera, A Twist in the Myth and At the Edge of Time, but there was a gaping hole longing for that full on epic power metal fantasy return.
Legacy of the Dark Lands has ingredients to rank up there with Somewhere Far Beyond, Imaginations From the Other Side and Nightfall, but it’s akin to a virgin martini. However, hearing the familiar majestic layered vocals and those bright gleaming melody staircases that crescendo with such passion, it’s impossible not to love this album with each successive listen. Though difficult, when judging Legacy of the Dark Lands purely in the context of what it is, and what we all knew it would be for decades (the longest and worst kept secret), it is nearly perfect, if only half there. One could dream of a secret bonus metal version of the album…and THAT would truly be the “twist in the myth.”

Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells



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