It seemed like forever and a day since the last time I had seen Blind Guardian live.
Or to put it slightly more precise, it was two years ago at this very festival...
in the meantime we have seen the release of a new album, At The Edge Of Time, which has been the first one since their 2006 release A Twist In The Myth, so one might say that it was about time.

Night had finally fallen over Metalcamp, and the Alps stood tall and mystic around the festival area as Blind Guardian took the stage as the obvious choice for a headliner. I must admit, I was more than a little excited and very curious as to hear what they had planned for us...
Sadly, something must have gone awry with said planning, because the band did not come out when I had expected it. As my excitement kept rising, the start of the show kept on dragging out, and when I could barely take more, Blind Guardian finally entered the stage nearly 15 minutes late. I’ve been told the best time is the wait for something good, but this pleasure is a double-edged sword and can certainly put you through just as much agony...
Anyway, as I said they finally did enter and when they did, they went straight into the music. Sacred Worlds had been chosen as the opener, and an effective one it was as we got into the mood as once; all the excitement I had previously felt was now paid back in the best of ways.
It wasn’t all music however, Hansi Kürsch is also a fond speaker as you know if you have seen Blind Guardian live, and thus he quickly threw out a thanks for being back, something the crowd gave such a response to it wouldn’t surprise me if the festival organizers inked a new deal with the band as soon as they got of stage. No matter how much Kürsch loves to connect with the audience in this manner, he is still not a man to overdo it, and as they were running late from the very beginning he did comment that this show would be less talk, more play (not that he could completely stay away from it though).
The rest of the band members did just what they do best, which is to help create a good atmosphere by looking positive and engaging, but this wasn’t exactly special for this show. Only one thing was out of the ordinary here, and that was the fact that this was the first time ever I have seen Marcus Siepen play on a Flying V; I don’t think I have ever seen him with anything else than a Les Paul in his hands previous to this concert.

On the other side of the security fence I could see a great mass of people standing; it was not quite as packed as it had been for Slayer the previous night, but certainly packed nonetheless, and the crowd as at least as enthusiastic about this show as they had been there which was clear for all to see from the response they were giving the band.
It is no secret that Blind Guardian’s music lends itself in a perfect way to epic sing-along sessions, and we didn’t have to wait for Kürsch to ask us before voices were raised loud and proud to the Slovenian nightsky. He did ask us though, during And Then There Was Silence, or as he put it; ”Let’s have a German lesson”. This wasn’t as hard as one might have imagined as the only German sentence we needed to learn was ”tra la la”...
Aside from the singing, the most prominent feature of the crowd was the near constant crowd-surfing; whenever I looked, there was a minimum of two or three people sailing by, often more. What was most striking to me about this was probably that this is not normally what you’d expect much of at a show like this. I don’t mind the change, but it was a bit surprising.

So, did this live up to my expectations?
Well, it’s actually a little hard to say. I was royally entertained throughout, don’t think otherwise, and Blind Guardian was doing their job much in the way they are supposed to, but somehow the spark wasn’t igniting at a hundred percent, and try as I might I can’t quite put my finger on why. Still, this was in no way a bad show, in fact it as great, it has just been done even greater in the past.

Setlist:

Sacred Worlds
Welcome To Dying
Nightfall
Time Stands Still (At The Iron Hill)
Turn The Page
Time What Is Time
Majesty
Tanelorn (Into The Void)
And Then There Was Silence
A Voice In The Dark
The Bard’s Song – In The Forest
Mirror Mirror