Nuclear Blast, jewelcase CD, Just in time for their appearance at Wacken Open Air 2024, Blind Guardian proudly present "Somewhere Far Beyond (Revisited)", which contains a complete re-recording of this classic as well as a live celebration of "Somewhere Far Beyond" from 1992, a milestone for the German heavy metal titans. After three albums on No Remorse Records, this was the band's major label debut, released through Virgin Records, and opened the doors to the Japanese market, leading to greater availability and presence in the global metal scene. Having struck the right balance between speed, heaviness, melodies, drama and irresistible choruses on 1990's "Tales From The Twilight World", the band perfected this approach on "Somewhere Far Beyond", evolving conceptually and becoming more daring in Blind Guardian's sonic range. "Somewhere Far Beyond" experimented with keyboards, orchestrations and folk elements, with the latter manifesting itself in the group's best-known song and live track 'The Bard Song (In The Forest)', while other tracks such as 'Ashes to Ashes', the fast-paced 'Journey Through the Dark' or 'The Quest For Tanelorn' tied in well with the previous, mostly fast-paced albums, but offered an extra boost of dynamism. Onwards, 30 years! Before Blind Guardian released the highly acclaimed "The God Machine" in September 2022, they played "Somewhere Far Beyond" at the Rock Hard Festival and Hellfest in the summer of 2022 in front of tens of thousands of fans who sang along to every song word for word. Both shows were professionally filmed and recorded and broadcast on WDR and ARTE. For the limited triple-disc edition of 'Somewhere Far Beyond (Revisited)', the Hellfest footage was re-edited with additional multicam footage by the band's longtime videographer Dirk Behlau. The idea to re-record the album came about during rehearsals for such shows, as Hansi Kürsch explains in the detailed liner notes: "The original idea was not to do a re-recording. When we were rehearsing for the anniversary gigs, corona struck and we couldn't be sure that these shows would take place. We wanted to celebrate the anniversary of the album anyway, and if we couldn't record a live version, we initially thought we could at least record the rehearsals." Not 100% satisfied with these rough versions, Blind Guardian decided to go all out, knowing that they risked being frowned upon by fans who consider re-recording to be blasphemy. "We tried to recapture what we did in 1992, but we compensated for youth with experience, albeit in a hungry way. We never thought about major changes, but with over 30 years of experience and our current line-up, those ingredients do give it a new flavor." Recorded in a live setting, "Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited" is leaner and focuses more on the impact of the guitar arrangements, but retains all the harmonies and melodies that are important to the original. "In the end, we came up with this cool hybrid version," adds André. "We combine how we play the songs today, but at the same time tried to capture the speed metal spirit of the early 90s!" Ultimately, 'Somewhere Far Beyond (Revisited)' is a refreshing and powerful tribute to one of the most influential albums in German metal history, which paved the way for Blind Guardian's international career that continues to this day, and this re-recording impresses with all the class and quality that these pioneers have been known and respected for since their inception as Lucifer's Heritage three decades ago.
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