Blind Guardian recently released “Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited,” which includes a complete re-recording of this classic as well as a live rendition of “Somewhere Far Beyond” from 1992, a milestone in the band’s history.

They released a video of frontman Hansi Kürsch recording vocals for “Time What Is Time” for “Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited.” Check it out below.

Recorded in 2022 and 2023, “Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited” is a refreshing and powerful tribute to one of the most influential albums in German metal history. It paved the way for Blind Guardian’s international career that continues to this day, and this re-recording impresses with all the class and quality these pioneers have been known and respected for since their formation as Lucifer’s Heritage three decades ago.

Watch a live video of the reworked version of their most popular track “The Bard’s Song – In The Forest”:

“Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited” is available today and can be listened to in full on any streaming service or purchased in physical form. Available here

Tracklist:

“Time, what is time” (Reconsidered)
“Journey through the Darkness” (revisited)
“The Black Chamber” (revisited)
“Theater of Pain” (revisited)
“The Search for Tanelorn” (revisited)
“Ashes to Ashes” (reissue)
“The Bard’s Song – In the Forest” (new edition)
“The Bard’s Song – The Hobbit” (new edition)
“The Call of the Pied Piper” (new edition)
“Somewhere Far Beyond” (reissue)

Video “The Search for Tanelorn” (revisited):

“Ashes To Ashes” live at Hellfest 2022 video:

About “Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited”:

Just in time for their performance at Wacken Open Air 2024, Blind Guardian proudly announce the release of “Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited” on August 2nd, which includes a complete re-recording of this classic as well as a live tribute to 1992’s “Somewhere Far Beyond”, a milestone for the German heavy metal titans. After three albums on No Remorse Records, this was the band’s major label debut with Virgin Records and opened the doors to the Japanese market, leading to greater availability and presence in the global metal scene. After finding the right balance of speed, heaviness, melodies, drama and irresistible choruses on 1990’s “Tales From The Twilight World”, “Somewhere Far Beyond” refined this approach to perfection, evolving on a conceptual level and expanding Blind Guardian’s sonic range. On “Somewhere Far Beyond” the band experimented with keyboards, orchestrations and folk elements. The latter manifested itself in the group’s best known song and live classic, “The Bard’s Song (In The Forest)”, while other pieces such as “Ashes to Ashes”, the fast-paced “Journey Through The Dark” or “The Quest For Tanelorn” followed on well from earlier, mostly fast-paced albums, but still offered an additional boost of dynamics.

30 years later! Before releasing the highly acclaimed opus The God Machine in September 2022, Blind Guardian had performed Somewhere Far Beyond in full at Rock Hard Festival and Hellfest in summer 2022, in front of tens of thousands of fans singing along to every song. Both shows were professionally filmed and recorded and broadcast via WDR and ARTE. For the limited triple-CD edition of Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited, the Hellfest footage was re-edited by the band’s long-time videographer Dirk Behlau with additional multi-cam footage.

The idea to re-record the album came about during the rehearsals for these concerts, as Hansi Kürsch explains in the detailed liner notes: “The original idea was not to make a new recording. During the rehearsals for the anniversary concerts, Corona came along and we couldn’t be sure whether these concerts would take place. We still wanted to celebrate the album’s anniversary and if there wasn’t going to be a live version, we initially thought we could at least record the rehearsals.”

Blind Guardian were not 100% satisfied with these rough versions and decided to go all out, knowing that they would risk being scorned by fans who consider re-recordings blasphemy. “We tried to recapture what we did in 1992, but compensate for the youth with skillful experience, albeit in a hungry way. We never talked about major changes, but with over 30 years of experience and our current line-up, these ingredients already give the whole thing a new flavor.” With the basics recorded in a live setting, “Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited” is leaner and focuses more on the impact of the guitar arrangements, but retains all the harmonies and melodies essential to the original. “In the end, we ended up with this cool hybrid version,” adds André. “We combined how we play the songs today, but at the same time really tried to keep the speed metal spirit of the early 90s!”