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Fly

Blind Guardian - Fly Audio CD

A fair review of the Blind Guardian "Fly" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Blind Guardian reviews here, or go back to the Blind Guardian tabs.

Band: Blind Guardian
Title: Fly
Rating:

Release Date:
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Fly 2: Skalds and Shadows [Acoustic Version] 3: In a Gadda Da Vida

Great Single
Second, the b-sides are good too. OK, so first off, Fly is an awesome song. Skalds and Shadows is a great song, and sounds good acoustic, this song is practically not even a b-side (not good enough to be an a-side, but good enough not to be a b-side). In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda is the worst track on this album, but then again, it's more of a homage to Iron Butterfly's historical song than an actual song for you to enjoy (maybe you'll like it anyway, in that case, more power to you). What I liked about this single is that the only song that's really a b-side is In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda, and that's more of a collector's song than anything else, so theres no "real" b-sides at all on this album as that they're all good or worth having for collector's sake.
I definitely recommend getting this if you like Blind Guardian.

Not as essential as other Blind Guardian singles
And what a preview it was! "Fly" bursts out of the gate with pure energy. The CD single Fly was originally intended to give fans a preview of their (then) upcoming album A Twist in the Myth. This song is every bit as powerful, progressive, and well-orchestrated as we've come to expect from Blind Guardian, who continue to remind us with every album why they are the absolute best power metal band on Earth. "Fly" is a great indicator of what ATITM has to offer.

Also included on this single is an acoustic version of another ATITM track, Skalds and Shadows. This is a folksy, vintage Blind Guardian ballad, and to be quite honest I can't really hear that much of a difference between this version and the one found on ATITM.

As is so often the case with these import singles, Fly features one track that you won't find anywhere else. Blind Guardian always picks the best (and least expected) cover songs to perform, whether they are metal staples like Judas Priest and Dio or head scratchers like the Beach Boys. I don't think anyone expected the band to take on Iron Butterfly's classic "In a Gadda da Vida". Blind Guardian gives a double-speed rendition of the acid laced tune that sadly, just comes across as hurried and uninspired. It's a decent track, but is nowhere near the band's best cover tunes, and is probably one that only die-hard Blind Guardian fans will be compelled to buy a CD single for. I'm of the opinion that every BG song is worth having, so if you're into the band, you'll want to add this disc to your collection.

PS - "In a Gadda da Vida" is now available individually as a (legal) download right here from Amazon. If you don't want to pay for the full EP, you can get the one non-album track digitally for less than a buck.

going in the right direction
But i guess you have to have a tune for this one otherwise you wont like it at all. This Cd Blind Guardian is going in the right direction they have improved since battilions of fear and they are alot better. .

people that give undeserved 1 star reviews are idiots
This is very easily the best single of the year. Pay no attention to that idiot who gave the 1 star review. It bodes well for the forthcoming album that Fly, while an excellent song, also partially represents the direction of the band. . . and by the way, the new album is going to blow us all away, take it from me.

Blind Guardian nosedive hard
I find it insulting that their descent into cheesey rock meets corny fantasy movie soundtrack is being billed as "growth" and evolution". I am really suprised that any long time BG fan can like the new direction of the band. As a long time fan, I would really welcome that kind of change. For example I think the words "time" sorrow" "end" "away and "agony" should be banned from Hansi's lyrical toolbox. The guitar tones be played with in postive ways, different time signatures could be used, lyrical themes, different instruments added tastefully, such as a violin. I 'd like to see the band get heavier AND softer. Or not. Those are just examples.

But this new Guardian is not a growth, but a cheesey parody of their old material. "Dream in the shadows"? How is that new? That sounds like something that could have been on the last several albums by this band-with one important difference!
The flutes! Now flutes can be done tastefully, with some texture, as they were on Nightfall, but these sound absolutely corny. Blind Gurdian are better than bands like Rhapsody because they push the mystical as far as you can go without becoming a child's action figure or a unicorn poster in a 6 year old girl's bedroom. They also can write real lyrics, have real feeling and grittyness and heaviness that comes with applying slick production in the places where its needed for the bombastic effect all great epic metal requires, while at the same time stripping down elsewhere in the mix and delivering creativity at the gut level. But it seems they may have lost that now.
A horrible rock cover? They already did a whole album of those with forgotten tales, which not a single BG fan I know actually owns, but no one was offended by because it wasn't taken as serious.
The guitar riffage on fly sounds like straight up blues based rock, minus the soul-its almost like the music from a 90's tv car chase or something. And the vocals are low quality Alternative Rock from the same era.
Well, I know some true fans would like to see a return to the sound of Nightfall or earlier.
Not me.
I would like to see BG make a progression from that, but still be true to their best metal roots. They claim thats what this is. And some fans are sticking by it.
History will not buy that line, it never does.
This claim will evaporate amid the same sound as a million other bands "new directions" and "artistic growth" and other fatal slides into Crapdom that we all now look back on and laugh at. To me it sounds like they've actually gotten lazy and are resting on thier laurels, while introducing embaressing parlor tricks like dancy keyboards to gloss it over and then calling that growth. I think they are weak and out of steam, but, hey, they have already put out enough great albums and you cant always stay great forever. .

You can see a complete list of all Blind Guardian discography, or go back to the Blind Guardian tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.