Blind Guardian

Blind Guardian is kind of ridiculous but, strangely, it works. The German quartet started 25 years ago as a speed metal band, but quickly morphed into a monstrously melodramatic prog outfit, churning out 10-plus minute songs about The Lord Of The Rings and rife with orchestral interludes. Breaking from the norm, the band has only gotten more popular, too, touring America for the first time in 2004 and hitting the Billboard Top 200 Singles chart that same year with “And Then There Was Silence,” a 14 minute epic with innumerable tracks that took four months to record and got no radio play. The band’s latest record, The Edge Of Time, is meant to transport listeners “into the dimension of time… where all existence is drenched in song for all time.” Totally. What they said. 

Updated 11/15/2010