Blind Guardian have long ago become a household name in melodic metal genre. This German band's earlier albums, however, must still today be kind of strange ones to many, even to those who love German melodic metal. The debut album of Blind Guardian, 'Battalions of Fear', was released in 1988. Formerly, the band had gone under the name Lucifer's Heritage, who'd put out a demo called, surprise, 'Battalions of Fear' in 1986! That demo served as a backbone for this album.

In their beginning Blind Guardian were melodic, yes, but still firmly oriented towards speed metal, unlike later days' more symphonic, power metallish feel that they are known for many a headbanger. However, Blind Guardian already carried a lot of unique touches, which made them very distinctive from other German speed metallers, such as Helloween and Running Wild. Vocalist Hansi Kürsch owns inimitable voice; his voice can be so soft, so fragile, but he also shrieks and shouts here wrathfully. Mainly he uses his quite powerful, slightly distorted voice, singing pretty well. And expect those long "whooooooahs" on this album, too. There's some vocals tracks overlapped at times, but not as much as later, just to spice things up a bit. Together with the voice, the music itself is quite unique, but not as much so as later on. They definitely had this "balls to the wall, let's fight" feel in their metal back in the day, and that's why I can so easily recommend this to all warrior heavy metal fanatics. Okay, they topped this album's aggressiveness afterwards (e.g. on the follow-up 'Follow the Blind' [1989]), but this offers some great moments. The band managed to throw a big bunch of individual melodies, but there's some classical music influences and some pretty clear Iron Maiden bits. But, the majority of music heard here carry the definite Blind Guardian stamp of approval.

Opener 'Majesty' is the epic of the album. Starting with a stupid intro organ (you surely know one or two German bands using silly intros, no don't you?!), the band soon rips in. Speed metal mayhem shows that the band was skilled already in their early years. Melodic chorus fits in perfectly, making a listener howl with it, and slinging some air-guitar with Iron Maiden tinged twin guitar part. 'Majesty' is one of many Lucifer's Heritage era songs of the album, so the band had definitely time to hone it into a masterpiece, but to tell the truth, it could've been a couple of minutes shorter for more punching effect. New song the band composed for this album, 'Guardian of the Blind', is more aggressive attack, that throws most of the melodiousness to hell (some on the chorus, though), and it includes a hilarious, unique "monster" synth moment. It's clear, that guitarists André Olbrich and Marcus Siepen were solo freaks; there's loads of 'em heard! 'Trial by the Archon' is an Iron Maiden-ish instrumental song (to the point of early Maiden's punk influences), so very catchy it is. 'Wizard's Crown' and 'Run for the Night' are more common speed metal songs, but the band's individuality still distinguish them from the mass. The first one features funny "halloween" lyrics chorus... The second new song first heard on this album, 'The Martyr', is more speed metal affair and way less melodic than anything else here, a big surprise when thinking about what kind of direction the band took on later. It ends up being the album's only disorganized song. Why? Because when the band throws a few more melodic riffs or sings some cool melodies, it instantly gets better, but there's not a lot of these moments in the song. Thankfully, the title track lifts up the spirit again, a lot, simply because the songwriting is way more catchier compared to lacklustre 'The Martyr'. Incoherent instrumental 'By the Gates of Moria' closes the album (if you got the vinyl as original pressing), leaving a listener baffled. The CD version's bonus, 'Gandalf's Rebirth', offers another instrumental, probably taken from the Lucifer's Heritage demo, judging by the worse sound quality and sloppy playing.

Sound-wise this is clear, and totally 1980s. Pounding drums, lighter guitar sounds (sometimes with reverb, making it all sound like guitar was playing in the next room) and rumbling bass sound. The vocals has reverb effect, too, just like about everything else. Hard to say how metal music newcomer can stand this kind of thing nowadays. But it's their problem, eh?! Cover painting is good work, and should be eye-catching enough. The lyrical topics are varying, from main subject J.R.R. Tolkien stuff to politics and Stephen King worship.

'Battalions of Fear' must have been ear-catching back in the day it was released. It really was something different, had individual touches, and also contained catchy music. The band were still in their adolescence, but a lot of indications of future sound of the band was shown here already. They still weren't the masters of melodic metal they later became, much because they didn't put out so much moods as later on. An interesting album, but not a bull's-eye. Definitely no bullshit either!

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
08/29/2008 21:23