Best Album: Somewhere Far Beyond
Best Song: The Last Candle
Blind Guardian was my gateway drug into the world of Power Metal. I first listened to them in my senior year of highschool when last.fm was a huge thing; I came off of listening to some DragonForce and then Blind Guardian was suggested. Sure DragonForce by technicality is power metal but it was Blind Guardian that sold me on the music. A lot of it was due to me connecting with their sound instantly and the fact that a lot of their songs are reflections of the fact that Hanzi Kursh and his crew are huge literatry nerds. A lot of their songs and their lyrics are based off of books, ranging from well known works such as Lord of the Rings and the Dark Tower to probably not as well known series such as The Eternal Champion. They even did a song for the video game Sacred 2! The song is better than the game no jokes!
What hooks me about Blind Guardian is that Hanzi was never afraid to change the sound of the band, even if it did cause conflict with one of his band members and they left do to it. Most of their songs do firmly fit under the assumption of what someone might think metal sounds like, but sometimes an acoustic ballad will come up or a far more subdued, bombastic track sneaks it's way in. This is far more evident in their album A Night At The Opera where the band was far more about sweeping melodies and overall being more melodic than metal. Still a great album to me but I do get why its rather contentious. Hell, Hanzi went so far with his love for being melodic and orchestras that on 2019 he released a full orchestra album under the name Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra since he was the only Blind Guardian member involved there. The new album The God Machine is far more a return to form but it never does recapture the magic of their early 90s albums.
Overall Blind Guardian stands the test of Adam's time, it was the band that got me into power metal and it's the only band I listened to for over 15 years. Highly recommend if you're someone that wants to get into power metal or just sample it!