The Guardian 28 July 2024

Seven years after "Beyond The Red Mirror", Krefeld metal kings Blind Guardian make a brilliant return and compensate for the waiting time with their new studio album "The God Machine". Offering anthems like "Blood Of The Elves", "Secrets Of The American Gods" and "Violent Shadows", the album proves to be a modern masterpiece that transports the trademarks of the classic "Imaginations From The Other Side" into the here and now.

Right on time for their show at 2024's edition of Wacken Open Air, Blind Guardian proudly present "Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited" which includes a complete re-recording of this classic of 1992's "Somewhere Far Beyond", a landmark record for Germany's heavy metal titans.
After three albums on No Remorse Records, it was the band's major label debut coming out via Virgin Records and opened doors to the Japanese market resulting in a wider availability and presence on 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" honed this approach to perfection, evolving further on a conceptual level and increasingly daring take on Blind Guardian's sonic range…

It's strange that a band with a song as immediate as "All Right Now" is a bit of an acquired taste, but it's the truth. Free was a powerful, majestic hard rock band at their peak, but they were also a little obtuse; a lot of their power came from their playing, and their songwriting was epic, but often elliptical. As such, they're for hard rock connoisseurs – a band who gained a spirited, dedicated following largely because they took devotion to unlock their treasures, especially in the years following their breakup. For those fans, the five-disc Songs of Yesterday is a godsend. This is not a box for listeners with less than a consuming interest in the band (even if you think you want total immersion in Free, this will not be as effective as purchasing each of their albums) since this contains a wealth of unreleased material. Very few of the tracks are actual album tracks, most are alternate mixes or alternate versions, plus there are a lot of live tracks in the mix, as well.