(Rated this album with 6 out of 10) Reviewed by
Theobalt
from Greece, Ioannina
There where two bands that drove me crazy and made me eager about waiting their new cd. The first was Iced Earth. The other was Blind Guardian. I was dissapointed when i first listened to Night at the Opera. I noticed the slight change that they made to their sound and saw that even though there was a progress it wasn't the kind of progress I wanted to hear.
To begin with, what I didn't like in this album was the fact that the songs are too complicated having a progressive feeling. Even when I gave the album a second change and listened to the songs again and again I still didn't like it as a whole. Besides 3 or 4 songs the rest seem uninspired and become tiring. Moreover, the lead guitar seems to be playing without a pause even when the choruses go in something that becomes annoying after a while. The lead guitar that was always a great welcome in a Blind Guardian album seem to be losing its sense and even more importantly seems to be subtracting from the riffs as a whole. Too much noise, too much yelling and even the vocals seem to be tiresome. They don't add much in melody and Hansi puts too much credit in second and third vocals making the outcome be not impressive but rather plain and anticipated. It's not that it is not a good heavy metal - power album. The band wanted to do something different and experimented but I believe that the result didn't please many people. On the other hand when Iced Earth tried to experiment a bit with their sound, I believe they did a pretty good job ( Horror Show).
AS IT DOES NOT DESCRIBE BLIND GUARDIAN AS A WHOLE I WOULD ONLY RECOMMEND THIS ALBUM TO THE CORE FANS (and even though I am a core fan I didn't like it). I would put this album on the list just above the "Follow the Blind"and bellow "Battalions of Fear".
