Battalions Of Fear - Blind Guardian

Founded at a time when American thrash metal was at its peak, German band Battalions of Fear –re-naming themselves Blind Guardian shortly before releasing this album – would go on to become the leading band in European power metal. Their debut is still a strong album, despite poor production quality and the undeveloped talents of the band members, combining the best thrash elements of early Metallica with the epic fantasy-inspired heavy metal of Germany’s Helloween and their offspring Gamma Ray. The nine tracks on Battalions of Fear are consistently strong, despite lacking the originality and splendour of the band’s later masterpieces such as ‘Somewhere Far ...  Read the complete review