Blind Guardian "Beyond The Red Mirror"

Beyond the Red Mirror is the tenth studio album by German power metal band Blind Guardian, released on January 30, 2015 through Nuclear Blast. It is the band's first album since 2010's At the Edge of Time, marking the longest gap between two studio albums in their career (being three days longer than the gap between 2002's A Night at the Opera and 2006's A Twist in the Myth). It is also their first album without former session member Oliver Holzwarth on bass guitar since 1995's Imaginations from the Other Side, with Barend Courbois replacing him. "Twilight of the Gods" was released as a single to promote this album.

A concept album and a sequel to Imaginations from the Other Side, Beyond the Red Mirror has been described by Hansi Kürsch as "A story between science fiction and fantasy. [...] The two worlds described have changed dramatically for the worse since then. While there used to be several passages between the worlds, there is only one gate left now: The Red Mirror. It has to be found at any cost."

Beyond the Red Mirror received a positive review from Ray Van Horn, Jr. of Blabbermouth.net, who gave the album a rating of nine-and-a-half of ten and states, "Previewing their tenth album Beyond the Red Mirror with the previously-released Twilight of the Gods single, German power-symphonic metal maestros Blind Guardian capitalize on a long break with an encompassing and magical effort. For Beyond the Red Mirror, the band worked with three different worldwide choirs from Budapest, Prague and Boston, along with two full-scale orchestras bearing 90 members apiece. The results are as larger-than-life as the band intended, fleshing out a sci-fi and fantasy piece bridged to their 1995 album, Imaginations from the Other Side."

• "Sacred Mind" could be inferred to be about Xanadu, the large estate owned by the title character in the film Citizen Kane. It could additionally be a reference to Shangdu, the capital city of Kublai Khan's empire, particularly as referenced in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan".
• The bonus track "Doom" was originally written for Nightfall In Middle-Earth. The version on this album has slightly rewritten lyrics to be able to fit the concept of this album better. It's most likely a more detailed account of Húrin being cursed by Morgoth. "Doom" also appears on the 2018 deluxe edition of Nightfall In Middle-Earth, with the original lyrics.

Separated into 7 parts:

I. The Cleansing of the Promised Land (tracks 1-2)

II. The Awakening (tracks 3-4)

III. Disturbance in the Here and Now (track 5)

IV. Disturbance in the Here and Now (Reprise) (track 6)

V. The Descending of the Nine (track 7)

VI. The Fallen and the Chosen One (tracks 8-9)

VII. Beyond the Red Mirror (track 10)

Recorded, mixed and mastered between October 2012-October 2014 at Twilight Hall Studios in Grefrath-Oedt, Germany.

Orchestral and choir recordings:

• Budapest: TomTom Studio D in Budapest, Hungary between June-August 2014.

• Prague: Rudolfinum, Dvorak Hall in Prague, Czech Republic in January 2014.

• Boston: Futura Productions in Boston, MA, USA in August 2014.

Piano recordings on track "Miracle Machine" at Funkhaus Studio in Berlin, Germany in May 2014.

Additional recordings at MAZ Tonstudio in Stuttgart, Germany.