Somewhere Far Beyond (Remastered/Special Edition) - Blind Guardian

Far beyond excellent...

Advantages: Excellent tunes covering a wide range of material
Disadvantages: A fine album, but without any of the extras often demanded today

This is definetly my favourite album by Blind Guardian and a fine choice for anyone who is a fan of their work. It features a good selection of tracks paying homage to different literary works, from Stephen King's Dark Tower series in the title track of the album "Somewhere Far Beyond" to Micheal Moorcock's works in "Quest for Tanelorn". The works contain excellent melodic tunes, some accoustic and others with a heavier sound but none sacraficing the melody for "power" as some bands do. The lyrics are all innovative and full of well crafted details and all flow well with the good guitar work featured in each track. The highlight of the album is to many "The Bard's Song" which has spawned an extended single release recently with various versions. The original available on this album is a soothing acoustic tune with excellent lyrics ...

Fearghul 18.03.2005 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Somewhere Far Beyond - Blind Guardian

A major improvement in songwriting

Advantages: One of my favorite albums of all times!
Disadvantages: The sound could be better

First I would like to thank all of you for your nice welcome to Ciao. As English is not my mothertongue I had some fears: Would my knowledge of the language be sufficient? Will I find the right words? What about spelling and grammar- mistakes? Are the opinions written well enough? Well, you gave me a warm welcome and some useful hints for the future and I will do my best to improve my opinions... "Somewhere far beyond" is the album of Blind Guardian I'm going to write about now. The album was the first one the band recorded after signing a contract with Virgin Records in the year 1991. The predecessor, "Tales from the Twilight World" had received many positive reviews from the press and the fans loved this album so it was surely not easy writing material that could even top this record. But Blind Guardian succeeded and still today ...

Folkemon 02.04.2001 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Somewhere Far Beyond - Blind Guardian

Far Beyond Awesome

Advantages: Great Sounds, Power Groove Riffs and songs
Disadvantages: May be too heavy for some and some weak songs

"Far Beyond Driven" comes after their excellent 2nd release "Vulgar Display of Power" (not including the self-released titles) and what a monster it is! This is even more brutal and heavy but also contains the great Pantera "Power Groove" sound on several tracks, most notalbly the excellent "5 minutes Alone" and one my favourites "I'm Broken", which features a tasty bluesy guitar solo from Dimebag Darrell. Phil Anselmos vocals are even harder than their last effort without ever just descending to incoherent mush. The more I listen to this album the better it sounds, and the production is top-notch with crisp but beefy guitars, clear as day drums and rumbling bass but all so well defined. Pantera vowed to make each album heavier than their previous effort and they certainly acheived it here, but there are still of lots infectious ...

hoaxey 02.09.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Far Beyond Driven - Pantera