Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to Blind Guardian singer Hansi Kursch about the bands new album BLIND GUARDIAN TWILIGHT ORCHESTRA’s opus “Legacy Of The Dark Lands which will be released November 8 2019 on Nuclear Blast. Kursch also spoke about the recording of the next Metal album by Blind Guardian and gave a status update on Demons & Wizards 3rd studio album.

Watch the interview here

When asked about the book and it’s connection to the new album and a brief introduction to the story 
“It’s called the Darklands and can be seen as the prequel to the album because we figured that it would be nicer if I had a little more freedom to decide which direction our story would go  instead of  following what he has created in the book.  It’s story of the daughter of Solomon Kane who has been a hero prior to the 30 Years War.  The story takes place in the 30 Years War and is basically a voyage to the European countries or the German countries throughout that time which were was a devastating time with a lot of violence. This is a mysterious story about a girl trying to get the treasures of her father which you know have been stolen by people and she’s undergoing a lot of adventures and meeting a lot of interesting people. One of these people she meets is a mercenary of the 30 Years War his name is Nicholas and he’s the main character in Legacy of the Darklands.  We will find out about his destination as he awakes on the battlefield during the 30 Years War and doesn’t know a lot about himself.  We’re following Nicholas on his way to figure out who he is.  What he will realize is that he’s the first Horsemen of the Apocalypse trying to avoid the apocalypse.”

When asked if Blind Guardian fans will be divided on the reception of an all orchestrated album vs a traditional metal album
“We don’t think about that too much even with regular Blind Guardian albums. Doing these songs they feel so natural to us that even if there is a complaint  it really does not appeal to us as as a big problem.  We are developing as artists and there is always  a risk in of losing the attention of a few people.  We consider ourselves to be artists and artists have to follow their goals and their own rules and our rule is  to be individually free to do whatever we want to do. I’m attracted to seventies music and the philosophies of being innovative and coming up with something new. You have to use your brain and you have to wake up people.  It doesn’t have a political statement, it doesn’t have to be a social statement. It just has to be a musical statement, an artistic statement. ”

When asked about the cost associated with producing their latest  ORCHESTRA’s opus “Legacy Of The Dark Lands which has taken 23 years
“We tried to find a way to spread it out  through the recordings of the other Blind Guardian albums over the years so we could share the the expenses in between the albums. If we just went for or the pure expenses of the orchestral album I would believe over the years including studio time maybe a million Euros. And that does not include Andre’s and my time during the last 23 years.”

When asked about the next Blind Guardian Metal Album
“We’re planning to record in the beginning of 2020  and will take most of the year 2020 to accomplish the album so it can be released in the beginning of 2021. We finished most of the songwriting already. I would say 10 songs are written already and we will work on one or two more but the goal is starting the production as early as possible in January 2020. If there is a delay to February for instance then that is more related to producer Charlie Bauerfeind than us. We are ready to go.”

When asked about the musical direction of the new metal Blind Guardian Album
“Well it’s very progressive, there are some modern Rush (Band) elements in there I mean whatever that means in a Blind Guardian world. It’s not like we try to sound like Rush not at, it has that that flare, that attitude of music. It will be orchestrated, it’s more orchestrated than I thought it would be but it’s it’s less than Beyond The Red Mirror (last Album). There are a lot of  change ups a lot of mixing it up basically when I speak about there are changes  it’s more like atmospheres, like melodic harmonic.  The atmosphere of the songs and the way we’re approaching them is is different to what we did on the last three albums for example but from the complexity it is more like the last albums, it’s not Legacy of the Dark Land and in storytelling but more in a modern so it does not have the the fantasy flare.”

When asked about a status update on the new Demons & Wizards album
“We are finished with all the recordings, we’re basically finished with the mixing, it’s basically just the mastering that is missing. So next week we will most probably hand in the album to the record company and I pretty much believe that the album is going to be released in the end of February 2020 or in the beginning of March 2020.”