Blind Guardian The God Machine

Seven long years after the last record, "The God Machine" is the eagerly awaited shoulder-to-shoulder connection between the early nineties and the savvy sophistication of the present. An impressive album, which by no means ignores the last works, but consciously puts complexity and, orchestral force in the background. "The God Machine" is the "Imaginations From The Other Side" of 2022, composed, arranged and, above all, unleashed by a band that has had 27 years to perfect its style. This balancing act can definitely be understood as a marching direction. "We didn't want to simply highlight our 1995 qualities, but we definitely didn't want to continue down this complex path forever. 'The God Machine' is a new beginning for us. We've set a new course and gone back to certain things that we've neglected a bit on the last few albums."

"The God Machine" is, it quickly becomes apparent, the effortless pinnacle of their output to date. An album that doesn't even try to pretend it's still the nineties, relying instead on the muscle memory of that time. Highly infectious, animated by the Frodos, Peter Pans and Captain Nemos of the past, a gripping, aggressive, highly melodic and, for all its accessibility, brilliantly arranged album, animated by magic and yet not pure escapism. A modern masterpiece in the tradition of those works with which BLIND GUARDIAN reached for the stars in the nineties.