Best Songs from Blind Guardian's Beyond the Red Mirror

@IronSabbathPriest - yes, using a real choir was an interesting experiment and it worked very good. I just think that when Hansi records all vocal tracks is better. And yes, Hansi didn't abandon his usual overdubbing technique - he did many harmonies alone on this song, including the chorus. They used a real choir mainly in the intro/outro and the rest of the backing vocals were Hansi's. He records all vocal tracks of the harmonies individually - he actually sings all those vocal harmonies because he doesn't use harmonizers. He's the only singer who puts so much efforts in his work to make us happy. Hands down.

IronSabbathPriest, I agree with you and most of the Blind Guardian fans would, I guess. This song is great, impressive and, of course, epic.

I only wanna share something - on this song they used a real choir instead of Hansi multi-layered backing vocals. After many listens I have to admit I prefer Hansi multi-layered vocals over the backing vox provided by a real choir. When Hansi does all vocal lines it sounds more... perfect. I know it's lots of singing and hard work but I hope Hansi will do all backing vocals alone again.

@M_T, I thought the choir was an interesting thing to try, but yeah, if there's one thing better than Hansi, it's his harmonies. They work perfectly on the other tracks. Good thing they didn't completely abandon it with this track (case in point, the chorus).

Recently revisited this album for the first time in about 14 months. This track in particular is such an epic and intense opener.

When I first heard this song I thought the chorus was awesome and 10 seconds later I realized it wasn't the chorus - it was only the 1st pre-chorus! This song has amazing choruses and pre-choruses and is currently my sing-along addiction. How an epic 8 minute long song with symphonic arrangements can become a sing-along addiction? Ask Blind Guardian. They know for sure how to do it.

Great and diverse Song overall!

This song is very interesting for several reasons:
1) it has a great pre-chorus
2) it has very fast vocals - even some extreme metal songs don't have so fast vocals. Hansi sings so many words/notes per minute
3) this song is faster than some speed metal songs although I wouldn't say it's speed metal (compare with Ride the Sky by Helloween, also compare the speed of the vocals)

The section from 6:20-7:50 is one of the most impressive, epic, intense and beautiful things I've ever heard.

Crazy vox in the beginning, especially "On Fire! "

@IronSabbathPriest - yes, awesome vocals. I like especially the low note at 2:45 (it's a C♯3, I guess). It's not his lowest note but still (his lowest one is exactly a whole octave lower than this). Since 2000 Hansi's been using more of his highest register but my heart skips a beat every time I hear a beautiful low note from him.

"But still they don't know they're just caught in distant memories and these fools shall fade awaaayyt! They'll never feel the faaalll! " Such an epic and powerful song! It deserves to be at the very top of this list!

Beautiful ballad. I especially love Hansi's vocals in the beginning.

And it's a bonus tracks - one of the best I know.

Why is it so low? The melody at "we will reveal and detect what you are" is one of the most gorgeous things I ever heard.

@IronSabbathPriest - It's because both songs have only piano and vocals for the most part but music is completely different.
Only singers with perfect voices can do such types of songs (almost acapella) because you hear clearly every single note and there's nothing to conceal eventual flaws. Hansi never cease to amaze me - at 50 his voice still sounds incredibly clean, youthful and beautiful, especially on this song. God bless Hansi!

My god this song is beautiful!