Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from The Metal Voice recently spoke to lead singer of Blind Guardian Hansi Kürsch about the bands upcoming studio album ‘The God Machine’ , which will be released on Sept 2, 2022 via Nuclear Blast.
Tell us about the cover art on the new album by Peter Mohrbacher
“We were just simply blown away when we saw the artwork. It was very suitable for the music. We needed something connected to mythology, philosophy, religion and also computer games and it is all planted into that artwork, the artist is a genius and we feel it would be the next step. We didn’t feel it was so far away from what we usually do, maybe a little more intense and other than that we were so convinced it would fit the purpose. This angel is organic but still it also has an artificial approach and this is what we are also dealing with in the lyrics. There are a lot of deities and future stuff.”
Tell us about a few of the lyrical themes on the album
“The song ‘Architects of Doom’ is about the cycle of violence. The lyrics were related to the new series (latest Battlestar Galactica series) because of the intensity that the series had. The song ‘Destiny’ is related to Hans Christian Andersen (writer) and the Ice Maiden (novel). It is an obsessive song, a fragile song but still threatening somehow. The Ice Maiden is about obsession. I wanted to have a sort of love story and Hans Christian Andersen is the best storyteller. He just is so great at inventing stories and there is always that deeper sense that goes along with it. It’s about the cold obsession of love. The results are just fatal at least for one party. The song ‘Let it be no more’ was a long process in creating this one we worked on it at the end of 2018 to 2019. It was when my mother passed away and that had an impact on the vocals and on the melody lines, especially in the verses. It’s about loss in general and what loss means to those who are left behind and those who depart and that was also related to the TV series, ‘The Leftovers’ which gave it an additional depth.”
Tell us about the musical direction of this album compared to the last ones
” The intensity is extremely high, more of the let your hair down then the bombastic side even though there are some bombastic moments. It would say it is the back to the roots album because there are a lot of new elements in there but it has the intensity in what we did in the 90’s. If we speak about aggression maybe it’s our most aggressive one (album) and the only other albums that come close to it are ‘Imaginations from the other side’ and ‘Follow the blind’. I think the two years (lockdown) that we all had, had an impact on the album. We started the production when the pandemic really started and that had an impact on the lyrics, performance and the music. We were all frustrated and we wanted to let the anger just go, let loose. It’s an angry album. This album is complete, for us once the album is complete it is the best album, there is no doubt about it and sometimes he have been proven wrong because the fans did not feel the same way. With this one it is so complete, it’s so defined that I would think that most of the Blind Guardian fans will fall in love with it. We also had a good amount of songs which we did not finally put on the album and we did not even work on during the production because we found our way with the songs which are on the album and we never left that path.”
When asked if the band went far enough with Orchestrations and now it’s time to go back to basics?
“Everyone in the band has a slightly different perspective. For me there was a necessity to just let go, After we finished ‘the Legacy of the Dark lands’ album’ I did not feel the urge to back back there again. It was time for a new starting point, for a new era. For me it felt like going home (new Album) or getting home, with distorted guitars and having a band accompany me. I also felt like if there was something bad about the ‘Legacy of the Dark Lands’ or ‘Beyond the Red mirror’ , it was that the band does not shine enough, there is so much going on, there is so much information and this takes away attention from the band members. For me from the beginning I wanted to make an album that just features the band. When we discussed it everyone in the band was on the same page even though I believe that André Olbrich would like to do another orchestrated album, for me that is not what I want to do within the next 5 years.”
The cover artwork for the CD was designed by Peter Mohrbacher and can be seen below.
Tracklist:
1. Deliver Us from Evil 5:21
2. Damnation 5:20
3. Secrets of the American Gods 7:28
4. Violent Shadows 4:17
5. Life Beyond the Spheres 6:02
6. Architects of Doom 6:20
7. Let It Be No More 4:48
8. Blood of the Elves 4:37
9. Destiny 6:46
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 