The bards' debut, and this certainly differs from the fan-gaining sound the band employs today...the disc being released in 1988, it's really no surprise that musically it has an 80's thrash approach, backed by a more or less power/speed sound as was so extremely evident on Helloween's 'Walls of Jericho' debut. In fact, this pretty much IS 'Walls of Jericho', just heavier, shorter, and at times a bit more refined...

Needless to say, the song writing reeks of quality, especially for a debut, and three absolutely stellar tracks are offered here amidst the fray. Opener "Majesty" clocking in at over seven minutes is without doubt one of those tracks - extremely fast with a whole slew of pace changes, chugging guitar leads, and epic choruses. "Martyr" is very similar to this, and again employs an unsurprising bout of fast and heavy music, with a particularly memorable, melodic break somewhere towards the middle. And then there's the title track, my personal favorite, which is, you guessed it, also pretty damn fast, and on top of the melodic/heavy mix, also offers some excellent war-related lyrics ("...With hands full of blood / He talks about peace / With snake poisoning tongue he's praying / El Salvador and Vietnam / You soon fast forget / But you satisfy on Afghanistan..."). With it's ultra-sonic pace, "Guardian of the Blind" comes in as a close #4, and there are two strong instrumentals offered up here (one acting as an intro to a pretty sub-par track; the other being a bonus track in itself) which show off some great soloing and such...

Overall, it's certainly different from what one can expect from the Blind Guardian of today, but it's still a damn good album for its time, and an enjoyable listen for fans of the band, old and new, and fans of fast power/thrash in general...you got my recommendations on this, that's for sure!

Overall Rating 7.9
by Ilya Ulberg
More album reviews