Avatar

What is the best way to spend a Christmas holiday evening? Right, going to the cinema :-) I just came back home and I am completely blown away... If you paid attention to the name of this posting you can guess what movie I was watching: Avatar. I have to say that I have seen the trailer some time ago already, and I thought it looked nice, but I was not prepared at all for how the movie really looks like. In my humble opinion it is the best movie of the year and for sure as groundbreaking for the movie industry as Star Wars has been 30 years ago! (Please Mr. Blizzard, before you continue working on the World of Warcraft movie, go to the cinema and spend some weeks watching Avatar...)
I love the universe that James Cameron created for this one, I love the story, even though it has some chlichés (that don't disturb me at all) and there are some predictable things in the plot (which also didn't disturb me a single bit), and I am still absolutely drooling for the looks, I am so looking forward to the making of from this one ;-)
Well, to cut all my babbling, if you are into SciFi/Fantasy, then go and enjoy Avatar, and experience the future of cinema.

Same procedure as every year

How does a typical Christmas afternoon look like for you? Here it is something like this: The whole family gathers and there is some great food, after that there is some more great food and finally we have a great dinner :-) You think that sounds like a lot of food? Yup, it IS a lot of food, and right now I am just looking forward to rest after fighting my way though all that food, but before I still wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas :-)

First confirmed tour dates

We finally have the first confirmed tour dates for our upcoming world tour. Of course this is only the beginning, there will be more dates added as soon as they are confirmed, so please be patient if your country/city is not listed yet. Support for those dates will be Steelwing from Sweden.

24.09.2010 Tilburg o13 Netherlands
25.09.2010 Gent Brielport Belgium
26.09.2010 London Sheperds Bush Empire England
28.09.2010 Paris Elysée Montmartre France
01.10.2010 Ludwigsburg Arena Germany
02.10.2010 Trier Arena Germany
03.10.2010 Langen Stadthalle Germany
05.10.2010 Bremen Pier 2 Germany
06.10.2010 Hamburg Sporthalle Germany
08.10.2010 Bamberg Jako Arena Germany
09.10.2010 Düsseldorf Philips Halle Germany
10.10.2010 Munich Zenith Germany
12.10.2010 Rome Atlantico Italy
13.10.2010 Milan Alcatraz Italy
15.10.2010 Pratteln Z 7 Switzerland
16.10.2010 Vienna Gasometer Austria
17.10.2010 Brno Fleda Czech Republic
20.10.2010 Berlin Huxleys Germany
21.10.2010 Osnabrück Halle Gartenlage Germany
30.10.2010 St. Petersburg Glav Club Russia
31.10.2010 Moscow B1 Maximum Club Russia
05.11.2010 Madrid La Riviera Spain
06.11.2010 Barcelona St. Jordi Club Spain

Still bashing the radio...

...but this time for a different reason ;-) I am not the biggest fan of radio anway, they just don't really play my kind of music (at least not in Germany), but around this time of the year it really gets unbearable here... As every year season starts on the 1st of December the latest, and since then we are bombed with the same damn Christmas songs day in day out! Of course there has to be "Last Christmas" from Wham, there has to be "Power of Love" from Franky goes to Hollywood, there of course has to be White Christmas from Sinatra, and all the other HORRIBLE Christmas songs from Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey and whoever else recorded one so far... The only way to escape is to only turn on the radio for the news, and then immediately switch back to my iPod, I just wonder if this torture is something international in the moment or if this is limited to German radio exclusively... But at least there is hope... only 20 days to go ;-)

The wizard???

Recently German radio station WDR 2 had a big competition in which listeners could vote for the 200 best bands of all times. I have to say I didn't really pay attention to that, I expected the usual suspects to win and some of today's popstars to fill the rest of the list, after all listeners were supposed to vote. Since Blind Guardian has never been a radio band I was pretty surprised when somebody told me that we were in this top 200, we made it to number 121, so thanks to everybody who voted for us :) And thanks a lot to WDR 2 for chosing a very representative song to play for Blind Guardian... All the bands were featured with a typical song of course, "Satisfaction" for the Rolling Stones, "Wish you were here" for Pink Floyd or "Highway to Hell" for AC/DC... Of course they didn't choose a recent song for us, they preferred something that was released in the middle of the 90's... which would not be that bad, if they would not have decided to pick a single B-side, and on top of that a single B-side that is not even a Blind Guardian song... So if you should listen to WDR 2 and somebody anounces Blind Guardian, don't be surprised if you hear our cover of Uriah Heeps "The wizard"...

How it should be...

Somebody please show this to Hollywood...

So much for playing live...

... at least for this year ;) The festival season was awesome for us, we had about everything, from storms, pouring rain, replacement keyboarders, replacement backliners, freaking amplifiers, completely out of tune guitars and the very first (and hopefully last) freejazz improvisation on stage, but most of all we had a lot of fun thanks to you guys. Next on the list is working on the new album which will keep us busy until next year, but as soon as the album is released we will be on another world tour, and of course we will also come back to all the countries that we couldn't visit on this years festivals, so see you all next year.

Don't panic, there is hope...

I guess you are all bombed with daily news about the swine flu, this lethal threat to mankind, the plague of the 21st century... But don't panic, there is good news, the disease can be cured, there is a remedy that can help you in case you are infected, you won't have to die... there are some slight side effects though as you can see on the pic showing a survivor, but hey, you can't have it all ;-)

Fan or Freak?

I have always been a huge Star Wars fan, I watched the movies (specially the original trilogy) a billion times, listened to the audiobook versions and the imperial march is my handy ringtone, but I guess there is always somebody out there that can top such things. As a kid I also had tons of Star Wars toys, actually I still have some, but seeing this guys pictures of his home (is he living in a museum???) made me speechless and a bit envious :-) If you click here you can check out his blog and see much more than just this pic that I posted here. I have to say I really think he does it with a lot of style, his home doesn't look like the average geeks place that is just plastered with merchandise, it really has much more of a stylish museum and he definitely owns some items that I would kill for :-) But well, on the other hand I don't even want to think about how much money he spent on all that stuff, I checked out the online shop where he buys a lot of his things and prices up to 18000 bucks are not really what I would be willing to invest in a single Darh Vader statue, no matter how cool it looks like. I just wonder if this guy is a relative of George Lucas, a very successful stock broker or just son of very very rich parents...

R.I.P. Les Paul

Today guitar legend Lester Polfus, better known as Les Paul, died at the age of 94. His larger than life legacy does not only include the Gibson Les Paul, but also tape delays and multitrack recording. Rest in peace Lester!

Words of wisdom

Today a big thank you goes out to Blizzard, for once again confirming the ancient words of wisdom:

NEVER PLAY ON PATCH DAY...

The Greek Cigarette Lighter

Just to give you an impression, here is a pic of the Greek cigarette lighter that this guy was waving during the Testament gig. Definitely something I didn't want to be close to ;-)

Cigarette lighter vs. cellphone display vs. torch

I just came back from Greece where we played a great show on monday and I spent some nice "rest of the week vacation" with my wife. Does anyone remember this nice old habit of holding up a cigarette lighter when a band plays a ballad? Yes, I know, today cigarette lighters are replaced by cellphone displays, not as romantic but very effective too, but I guess some guy in Athens wanted to revive the original habit... I was watching the Testament show a bit before warming up for our set, and when they played "Into the Pit" somebody was lighting up a torch or something like that... a GIANT one, in the middle of the audience... I have to say it really looked scary and I am not sure if the pit that started immediately around this guy was caused by the fans just wanting to start a pit or by trying to get away from the fire ;-)

PS: What the hell is wrong with Greek mosquitos??? Are they all zombies that come back from the dead over night? How come I kill millions of them before going to bed and on the next moring I have tons of bites and there are armies of them in my room again even though the window was closed...

I should update this blog more often

Hmmm, my last post here was on February the 15th? I should update this blog more often I guess ;-) Well, here is some up to date information for you guys: Blind Guardian is on the road again, Festival season has started for us and we just came back from some great shows at the Graspop Metal Meeting, the Gods of Metal and of course the Bang your Head. Last week we already played at the MetalWay festival in Spain, one of the most "stormy" gigs we ever played, even though "Into the storm" was not even in the set ;-) Talking about the set, we were preparing some nice surprises for you guys, some songs we didn't play in a very long time, we even play a brand new one, so if you are curious, come to one of the gigs and check it out yourself. For now I will enjoy one more day at home before we take off for more festivals, next on the list are the Monsters of Rock and the Metal Camp so see you gyus there.

What the world has been waiting for...

First there was Guitar Hero, and we had some fun with a plastic guitar... then there was Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour, and we had fun with plastic guitars, plastic drums and plastic microphones... and now the time seems to be right for plastic wigs... check this out.

May the force be with you...

Have you ever thought about flying in a balloon? I did, but I have to admit I never dared to do it, somehow those things feel a bit unsafe for me, I don't really like the idea of my life depending only on a balloon and the wind... THIS balloon though is something I would for sure not be able to resist :-) Nothing can go wrong as long as the force is with you!

Time for another hitlist

2008 has ended so it is time for another top 5 of cd's, books, gigs and movies. Just as last time this is based on my personal taste of course, so again feel free to disagree ;-)

CD's:

1: Opeth - Watershed
2: Disturbed - Indestructable
3: Slipknot - All hope is gone
4: David Gilmour - Live in Gdansk
5: Guns'n'Roses - Chinese Democracy

Movies & DVD's:

1: The Sopranos (all seasons)
2: Iron Man
3: Dark Knight
4: Gene Simmons Family Jewels (all seasons)
5: Metalocalypse (Season 2)

Concerts:

1: Kiss (Bilbao)
2: Stuck Mojo (Cologne)
3: Dio (Bilbao)


Books:

1: Stephen King - Wolfs of the Calla
2: Stephen King - The Dark Tower (Graphic Novel)
3: Alan Moore - Killing Joke
4: Jilliane Hoffman - Cupido
5: Henning Mankell - The White Lioness

Most heard album:

Opeth - Watershed


In case you wonder why there are only 3 gigs mentioned while everything else is a top 5 list, well, I have been to more concerts in 2008 but the other ones didn't really impress me much ;-) And yes, I really like Chinese Democracy, unlike the rest of the world (at least this is the impression that I get when I read all the reviews and comments about this album), maybe it helps that I have never been a Guns'n'Roses fan so I didn't really have any expectations, but well, in my opinion it is a great rock album.