Blind Guardian

The German metal band from Krefeld has been called the pioneer of power metal, although the band's sound often transcends the genre. But the musicians of "Blind Guardian" are used to surprise and shock the audience with non-standard moves. The history of the band's creation is a winding path from the "legacy of Lucifer" (the first name of the band) to the lyrics, which are based on the "Gospel" and plots of the bestsellers by Tolkien, King and Goethe.

The team is called unique because of the stability of the "Blind Guardian" line-up, which did not change from the year of its creation until 2005.

In 1984, like-minded musicians gathered in the town of Krefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia, forming a group with the formidable name "Lucifer's Heritage". 18-year-old guitarist, vocalist and bass player Hansi Kürsch and 17-year-old guitarist Andre Olbrich formed the backbone of the band. They were soon joined by guitarist Markus Dork and drummer Thomen Stauch, but left after a year of working together. Their places were taken (also for a year) by Christoph Thijsen and Hans-Peter Fry.

In 1987, the musicians were again waiting for a change. Tiisen and Fry were replaced by newcomer Marcus Siepen and returning Stauch. The gloomy name has also changed: "the legacy of Lucifer", which smacks of Satanism, has become an oxymoron "Blind Guardian", literally translated "blind guard". But the musicians' interpretation is somewhat different and sounds like a “blind guide”. The name stuck with the light hand of lyricist Kursch, whose song "Guardian of the Blind" entered the group's repertoire.

The semantic load invested in the new name of the collective was explained by Hansi:

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Hansi, who at first only played the bass guitar, had to become a vocalist: the invited Thomas Kellners did not take root in the Blind Guardian.

The guys had no money for promotion, so they willingly accepted the help of Andre Olbrich's grandmother, who gave funds to record the first demos. The musicians put all their efforts into the two debut songs, and the fruits were not long in coming: the studio No Remorse Records offered the musicians to sign a contract.

The collective existed in the “golden composition” until 2005. This year, Stauch was replaced by Frederic Emke, who picked up drumsticks.

From time to time, the band included guest members, including bassist Oliver Holzwarth, backing vocals Kai Hansen and Rolf Koehler. The reason for leaving the Blind Guardian of the latter was his death in 2007.

The band's debut album was released in 1988. Half of it consisted of the compositions of the mini-album "Battalions of Fear", which is why it was called the same. Sophisticated music lovers immediately identified the influence on the band's music of the speed metal style inherent in the German power metal band Helloween.

The popularity of the band was brought by the second album, entitled "Follow the Blind" and released a year after the first disc. Here speed metal was replaced by heavier trash. The song "Valhalla" was the most successful. Kai Hansen was invited to record the new album "Blind Guardian", who acted as backing vocalist and third guitarist.

A wave of fame swept the band in the early 1990s, when the presentation of the third album, entitled "Tales from the Twilight World", took place. BG fans noted that the band's sound featured choral parts and an “epic” mood that soon became the trademark of German metalheads.

At the beginning of the path, the influence of folk music was reflected in the work of the metal band. The compositions of the first albums are in the style of folk rock, ballads are performed in folk arrangements. The repertoire consists of songs, the plots for which the musicians drew from fantastic works, mythology, medieval epics and mystical legends. There are references to Christian texts, but the artists still escaped the label “Christian rock”.

The fourth album "BG" appeared in 1992, after signing a contract with Virgin Records. Somehwere Far Beyond came out with a circulation of 130,000 and sold out instantly. Music lovers of the Land of the Rising Sun liked BG's creativity. Especially for fans from Japan, the group recorded a live CD "Tokyo Tales" in 1993. European listeners loved the ballad "The Bard's Song" with Hanzi Kursch's hoarse vocals.

In the mid-1990s, the discography of the German group was replenished with the 5th album "Imaginations from the Other Side", which contained the stellar composition "Bright Eyes". The disc is called the "heaviest" sounding from the Blind Guardian heritage. There is a clear bias towards trash metal here. Videos for the hits "Bright Eyes" and "Born in a Mourning Hall" appeared. As in the previous discs, in the fifth the musicians turn to the themes of Christianity and fantasy.

A year later, BG presented to the fans a collection of acoustic and orchestral versions of old songs and covers of songs by other popular artists. Cover of the song “Mr. Sandman ”was released as a separate single, and a video was recorded on it, in which the band members were reincarnated as evil clowns who came to a boy who did not want to fall asleep.

In 1998, a concept album appeared, based on Tolkien's The Silmarillion. Here BG used elements of folk rock and choral vocals that vaguely resemble some compositions of the legendary Queen. Music critics and fans of the group call the album "Nightfall in Middle-Earth" a diamond in her legacy. This is the first BG disc released in the United States. It includes the gold hits "Mirror Mirror" and "Nightfall".

In the 2000s, Blind Guardian changed both management and sound. In 2002 the band presented the 7th disc, giving it the name "A Night at the Opera" in honor of the album "Queen". The group-legend was chosen not only as a tribute, but also as the one that influenced the work of "BG".

In the sound of the album, fans identified unusual elements of progressive metal, and the theme of the songs for the first time turned out to be with an emphasis on the real persons of Nietzsche, Galileo, Jesus Christ. Previously, the group chose only fantastic characters as the heroes of the compositions. After the presentation of the album "Blind Guardian" went on tour. The world tour culminated in a concert in Dusseldorf, which was attended by over 6 thousand spectators.

During the tour, the band recorded their second live album, calling it "Live". It came out in 2003. A year later, the group parted ways with the Virgin label and signed a contract with the German studio Nuclear Blast. In 2005, BG presented the fans with their 8th album, which was released internationally in early autumn 2006.

After a long break, the Blind Guardian musicians started recording a new disc, which was released in 2010 under the name At the Edge of Time. Music lovers and longtime fans of the band noted that “BG” returned to fantasy again.

In early 2012, the group presented a collection in which they collected the best compositions for a quarter of a century. It is composed of 3 discs. One of them included the hit "Sacred Worlds". In the same year, the band, having completed their world tour, took a break, announcing that there would be no concerts until the fall of 2014. The intermission was required not for rest, but for studio work.

At the beginning of 2015, BG presented the longed-for fans with the album Beyond the Red Mirror. In the same year, German metallers went on tour to Russia, giving concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg in June.

"Blind Guardian" is known not only for author's compositions, but also for a huge number of cover versions of hits of star rock bands. Their repertoire includes songs by Queen, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple and others. BG does not perform covers at concerts and does not include in numbered albums, but participates in the recording of tribute compilations.

The legendary band has pages on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, where the musicians regularly share fresh information, photos and plans for the future with their subscribers.

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In March 2019, Blind Guardian presented a teaser for the musical epic Legacy of the Dark Lands, based on the bestselling novel by Markus Heitz, Dark Lands. The orchestral album was announced for November 2019. André Olbrich and Hansi Kürsch came up with the idea for its creation back in the 1990s, and they have started to implement it now.

1988 - "Battalions of Fear" 1989 - "Follow the Blind" 1990 - "Tales from the Twilight World" 1992 - "Somewhere Far Beyond" 1995 - "Imaginations from the Other Side" 1998 - "Nightfall in Middle-Earth" 2002 - "A Night at the Opera" 2006 - "A Twist in the Myth" 2010 - "At the Edge of Time" 2015 - "Beyond the Red Mirror"

1995 - "Born in a Mourning Hall" 1996 - "Mr. Sandman 1996 - Bright Eyes 1998 - Mirror Mirror 2003 - Bard's Song in the Forest 2006 - Another Stranger Me 2008 - Sacred Worlds 2010 - A Voice In The Dark

Blind Guardian 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Blind Guardian in 2020 ?

Blind Guardian Net Worth 2021

Blind Guardian 's revenue is $1.3M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Blind Guardian and could vary in the range between $867.7K - $1M.

Blind Guardian Net Worth 2020

Blind Guardian 's revenue is $2M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Blind Guardian and could vary in the range between $736K - $1.7M.

Blind Guardian Net Worth 2019

Blind Guardian 's revenue is $1.1M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Blind Guardian and could vary in the range between $541.3K - $1.7M.

Blind Guardian Net Worth 2018

Blind Guardian 's revenue is $1.3M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Blind Guardian and could vary in the range between $828.6K - $1.6M.

Blind Guardian Net Worth 2017

Blind Guardian 's revenue is $1.6M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Blind Guardian and could vary in the range between $670.1K - $1.3M.

Blind Guardian Net Worth 2016

Blind Guardian 's revenue is $1.2M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Blind Guardian and could vary in the range between $695.8K - $1.2M.

Blind Guardian Net Worth 2015

Blind Guardian 's revenue is $1.3M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Blind Guardian and could vary in the range between $686.9K - $1.8M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Blind Guardian. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Blind Guardian make a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Blind Guardian' projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.