Marcus Siepen

My hitlist for 2011

2011-12-25T13:56:00.001+01:00

As every year here is my annual hitlist:

Albums:

Arch/Matheos - Sympathetic Resonance
Machine Head - Unto The Locust
Powerwolf - Blood Of The Saints
Graveyard - Hisingen Blues
Joe Bonamassa - Dust Bowl

Gigs:

Death Angel @ 70000 Tons Of Metal Cruise
Sanctuary @ 70000 Tons Of Netal Cruise
Forbidden @ 70000 Tons Of Metal Cruise
Fates Warning @ Essen
Nevermore @ 70000 Tons Of Metal Cruise

Movies:

X-Men First Class
Agora
Kidnapped
Machete
I Spit On Your Grave

Books:

George R. R. Martin - A Song Of Ice And Fire
Stieg Larsson - Milennium Trilogy
Keith Richards - Life
Henning Mankell - The Man Who Smiled
Art Spiegelman - Maus

Timekillers:

World Of Warcraft (I know, big surprise...)
Diablo 3 Beta
Portal 2
Starcraft 2
Mass Effect

Best Investment:

My Kindle

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T14:04:00.001+01:00

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all of you, see you on tour next year :-)

The end of the tour

2011-12-13T00:19:00.001+01:00

After 15 months on the road we just finished the "At the edge of time" world tour with a fantastic show in Warsaw. I want to thank our crew for making life on the road easy for us and a special thanks goes out to all of you guys for celebrating so many awesome gigs with us!
See you all again next year!

New Arch Matheos Video released :-)

2011-11-16T13:15:00.000+01:00

I have always been a die hard Fates Warning fan, with their "Awaken the guardian" album being my very favourite album ever, this one is pure magic for me. So of course I was completely thrilled when they announced this kind of "reunion" of the old Fates Warning, and Sympathetic Resonance turned out to be an awesome album, it perfectly shows how the old Fates Warning would sound like in 2011. Here is the first video for this album, the song "Midnight Serenade", my personal highlight for 2011 :-)

The real me

2011-11-09T17:48:00.001+01:00

Did you ever surf the internet and suddenly stumble upon yourself? Sometimes this happens to me, there are some cool sites online just paying tribute to myself or Blind Guardian, on the other hand there are also some freaks creating pages or profiles using my name and pretending to be me, which is not cool at all. So how can you know if it is really me that you found online? Actually this is very simple, aside from the official Blind Guardian homepage, the GMC homepage and this blog there are only two more places where you can find me:

Facebook - Yes, I have a Facebook account, no, I won't add you ;-) I am using Facebook only to babble with some friends of mine, there is no such thing as an "official" profile, it is only private so don't bother sending me requests there.

Google+ - I am also using Google+, originally I only wanted to see how it is compared to Facebook, in the end I liked both so I also kept my profile on Google+. Since this is not as private as my Facebook account you can even feel free to add me there, just don't expect too much posting from my side, you see how often I update this blog ;-)

If you see "Marcus Siepen" anywhere else on the internet you can be absolutely sure it is not me, I am not running any other pages or profiles on whatever communities.

Latin America & Australia

2011-11-07T16:30:00.000+01:00

Hmm, I just realized that I am a bit slow with my updates again, so let me finally tell you about the rest of the Latin American /Australian tour. After finishing the Brazilian shows under perfect conditions and with awesome gigs we started moving into unknown territory and played in a lot of countries in which we have never played before. Unfortunately we ran into some serious technical problems, everything from broken mixing consoles to wrong electricity voltage or no electricity at all, but thanks to our crew we could still play every show and some of them turned out absolutely remarkable despite of the technical chaos. Take the show in Caracas for example, by the time we arrived at the venue to do soundcheck the whole place was completely flooded because of very heavy rain. The big problem was that also all the power generators were in the water, all the electricity was drowned completely, there was no chance of using anything of our equipment that demanded the converted power. So in the end we used equipment that we borrowed, stripped down everything (going down from 48 channels of monitor sound to 8 is fun :-) ) and played a set that was completely adapted to the circumstances: we couldn't use any clean sounds for the guitars or any keyboards, so we kicked out all those songs demanding this and played a pretty old school set, still the show was a lot of fun. My personal highlight of that evening was the Bards Song, the only "clean guitars" song that we didn't sacrifice, we played it with crunchy electric guitars, it sounded pretty differend but everybody still liked it.
After the Latin American part of the tour we went to Australia and played some great shows in Sydney and Melbourne. Unfortunately we had to cut the set in Sydney short because the owner of the venue only informed us about a strict curfew exactly one minute before that curfew, when we asked earlier on that day if there would be a curfew it was still "no curfew tonight"...Well, it was still an awesome show and we can always add the missing song next time ;-)
So a big thank you goes out to everybody involved, our fans, our crew and all the new and old friends we met during those weeks.
Another big thanks goes out to my friends in Sinbreed, whith whom I played a couple of gigs during the last weeks. Shortly before we started the South American tour Frederik asked me if I would like to play some shows with them cause they only had one guitarist in the band and of course I accepted the invitation. I didn't have much time to learn the songs, actually my only chance was using a couple of days off on the road, but in the end that was time enough and I loved the new experience, after all it was my first time playing with different musicians since the middle of the 80's. In case you missed those shows, don't worry, we are planning to do more next year ;-)

Oi Brasil, tudo bem?

2011-09-08T16:59:00.000+02:00

The first 2 shows in Brasil were awesome, Rio and Porto Alegre rocked big time! I have seen people passing out, starting to cry when we played certain songs, there were even circle pits and I heard the loudest crowds singing with us, well done my friends! Todays show in Sao Luis is pretty special to me cause it is my birthday today, so you better be good ;-) See you tonight :-)

Waiting at the Airport

2011-09-04T13:50:00.001+02:00

Buenos Aires airport, waiting for our flight to Rio. The tour is big fun so far, even though I got a flu. Chile was great and returning to Argentina aftet 13 years was incredible you guys didn't forget how to sing. Now I am really looking forward to the shows in Brazil, next up is Rio, see you guys tonight

South America

2011-08-29T18:01:00.001+02:00

South America here we come! In the moment we are still in Frankfurt, waiting at the gate, with 18 hours of flying time ahead of us, still I am very excited. I am looking forward to some great shows, meeting some old friends again and exploring some places where we didn't play so far. Touring rules :-)

Gamescom

2011-08-21T12:42:00.002+02:00

Friday Andre and me had a great day at the Gamescom in Cologne. DTP invited us to check out their upcoming game "The Cursed Crusade" and it looks awesome. Cool setting, cool graphics, lots of weapons, combos and finishing moves, this one will for sure be fun to play. Of course we also visited our friends of Blizzard to check out the latest news about Diablo 3 and we made some new friends at the Bioware/Star Wars camp. Normally I am not the biggest fan of fairs like that but being a die hard gamer I really enjoyed Gamescom, I am already looking forward to the next one.

Guitars for Van Canto

2011-08-11T19:04:00.000+02:00

I know the rumor has been online since some days already, so lemme confirm the news: There will be some real guitars on the next Van Canto album, played by myself :-) And yes, I am talking about real guitars, I am not singing them, I leave that to the people that can do this properly.
Some time ago Stef asked me if I would be interested in recording some guitars for them, and I found the idea very cool, after all I like Van Canto a lot and I haven't recorded anything for anybody else but Blind Guardian during the last 25 years, so I immediately agreed. He sent me a demo of the song called "Spelled in Waters", with only some vocals and a piano, and I started to work on guitars right away. I really liked the demo version of the song, but of course a guitar is different compared to a piano, so I changed some things, added some others and the guys liked the result :-) The most tricky thing was to find the right time to record my takes, whenever Van Canto have been at our Twilighthall studios Blind Guardian have been on the road, so in the end I recorded everything in Stefs studio, and I have been hellish nervous :-) I am just not used to recording things for other people, but well, I survived and the result sounds great.
The album is called "Break the silence" and will be released on the 23rd of September, check it out!

Wacken

2011-08-09T20:50:00.000+02:00

We are back from Wacken again and all I can say is it was absolutely awesome, one of our best shows in my humble opinion. The audience was fantastic, so in case you have been there, thanks for a special night ;-) In case you have not been there and you would like to get some impressions of the show, here are 3 videos:

Bard Song recordings

2011-07-30T16:07:00.001+02:00

Big studio work today. The winners of the Blind Guardian ebay auction came to our studio today to re-record the Bard Song with us. Andre and me already did our takes and in the moment one of our Canadian friends is recording the bass. I'm curious about how the final version will sound like.

Fates Warning

2011-07-28T13:53:00.000+02:00

After playing I don't know how many shows ourselves over the last year today the time has come to be a fanboy again and see one of my alltime faves live: Fates Warning. I didn't see them in ages and I am really looking forward to the show!

Full Contact Hardware

2011-07-10T13:12:00.000+02:00

Some time ago my friend Frank Aresti told me about a company called Full Contact Hardware, which offers replacement bridges for many guitars and basses. Their concept sounded very interesting, their bridges have full contact to the guitars body, which should definitely inprove the tone and the sustain, on top of that you have much more options to adjust all the settings, like individually changing the string action for every single string. I got very curious so Frank got me in contact with the guys and they sent me one of their bridges which I installed on one of my Les Pauls. My first thought was "Oh god, it looks like a Floyd Rose, with all the little screws..." but as soon as I installed it I loved it! Installation is pretty easy, adjusting the settings is no problem at all and most important, the tone definitely improves, not to mention the sustain. I still have to get used to the different look a bit, but I can definitely recommend this bridge. If you got interested, check out their homepage at www.fullcontacthardware.com

Volume limitations suck

2011-06-26T12:10:00.000+02:00

Back from Tollwood where we played a cool gig and had a good time with the guys of Helloween. Unfortunately there was a volume limitation for that concert, so no band was allowed to play any louder than 95 db, which is not really loud for a metal show, but well, we had fun anyway. Next on the list is Norway, I have great memories about our last show there so we are looking forward to coming back, see you guys soon.

Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice...

2011-05-16T19:26:00.001+02:00

Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice

*Canadian researchers find a simple cure for cancer, but major pharmaceutical companies are not interested.*

Researchers at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada have cured cancer last week, yet there is a little ripple in the news or in TV. It is a simple technique using very basic drug. The method employs dichloroacetate , which is currently used to treat metabolic disorders. So, there is no concern of side effects or about their long term effects.

This drug doesn’t require a patent, so anyone can employ it widely and cheaply compared to the costly cancer drugs produced by major pharmaceutical companies.

Canadian scientists tested this dichloroacetate (DCA) on human’s cells; it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells and left the healthy cells alone. It was tested on Rats inflicted with severe tumors; their cells shrank when they were fed with water supplemented with DCA. The drug is widely available and the technique is easy to use, why the major drug companies are not involved? Or the Media interested in this find?

In human bodies there is a natural cancer fighting human cell, the mitochondria , but they need to be triggered to be effective. Scientists used to think that these mitochondria cells were damaged and thus ineffective against cancer. So they used to focus on glycolysis , which is less effective in curing cancer and more wasteful. The drug manufacturers focused on this glycolysis method to fight cancer. This DCA on the other hand doesn’t rely on glycolysis instead on mitochondria; it triggers the mitochondria which in turn fights the cancer cells.

The side effect of this is it also reactivates a process called apoptosis. You see, mitochondria contain an all-too-important self-destruct button that can't be pressed in cancer cells. Without it, tumors grow larger as cells refuse to be extinguished. Fully functioning mitochondria, thanks to DCA, can once again die.

With glycolysis turned off, the body produces less lactic acid, so the bad tissue around cancer cells doesn't break down and seed new tumors.

Pharmaceutical companies are not investing in this research because DCA method cannot be patented, without a patent they can’t make money, like they are doing now with their AIDS Patent . Since the pharmaceutical companies won’t develop this, the article says other independent laboratories should start producing this drug and do more research to confirm all the above findings and produce drugs. All the groundwork can be done in collaboration with the Universities, who will be glad to assist in such research and can develop an effective drug for curing cancer.

You can access the original research for this cancer here .

This article wants to raise awareness for this study, hope some independent companies and small startup will pick up this idea and produce these drugs, because the big companies won’t touch it for a long time.

Alternate version of the Bard's Song

2011-05-10T09:55:00.000+02:00

I guess you guys will know the Bard's Song, but do you already know this version? I love it :-)

Before the storm

2011-05-07T19:37:00.001+02:00

Backstage in Athens, everybody is still relaxing and slowly getting ready for the show. Yesterday rocked big time so we are looking forward to tonights gig, same place, different setlist, lets see how things will be...

Touring continues

2011-04-24T21:29:00.000+02:00

Musikmesse was a lot of fun, unfortunately I didn't get to meet everybody I wanted to meet, but that's ok I guess, I'll try again next year ;-) Thanks to everybody who came to the autograph sessions at Gibson & Meinl, I had a lot of fun there, specially when somebody came with this self made autograph card... I didn't know I am the new guitarsit of In Flames, even Peter (In Flames bassist) didn't know about it :-) Should I learn some of their songs now? ;-) Where is my iPod...
Extra special thanks to everybody at Gibson, Meinl, Mesa Engeneering and D'Addario, you guys rule!

After carrying furniture for some days now (I just moved) I am just enjyoing a couple of days of extreme resting and lazyness, but in only a couple of days we will be back on the road again. I am looking forward to those upcoming gigs, the break after the cruise was great, but now it is time to rock again and we thought about some new additions for the setlist... I am sure we will have a lot of fun again, so see you guys soon.

Signing sessions at Musikmesse Frankfurt

2011-04-07T08:03:00.000+02:00

At this years Musikmesse in Frankfurt I will not only check out some new things, I will also do some signing sessions. At 11:30 I will be at the Meinl booth, doing a signing session together with Andre and Frederik. In case this is too early for you you have another chance ;-) At 14:00 I will do another signing session, this time at the Gibson booth, so see you guys on Saturday.

Echo award

2011-03-24T08:54:00.000+01:00

Today is the day of the Echo awards in Berlin. the Echo is the biggest and most important music price in Germany, you can compare it to the Grammys in the USA. Now guess who is nominated in the category best rockband national (or something like that ;-) )... yup, we are! So keep your fingers crossed for us and lets see if we can win that award.

Chapters two and three

2011-01-30T15:17:00.001+01:00

We just came back from the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise and all I can say about it is that it has been the best festival I have ever been to! When we got the offer to headline this cruise it sounded very special of course, never before a metal festival took place on a cruiseship, going through the Caribbean, but I also had some doubts. I have never been to a cruise before, I had no idea if I would not be seasick all day long, I was wondering if there would be some peace for us in our cabins or if we would be hearing all the bands playing on the various stages 24/7. I was also not sure if the whole trip would turn into a 5 days autograph session with some die hard fans stalking all their fave bands all the time, or if the pool would be used to keep the cans of beer cold, but well, all of those worries were wiped away immediately. The festival reminded me a lot of the Dynamo Open Air back in 1987, when it was still for free and taking place on Eindhovens market square, the whole cruiseship was just filled with metalheads that wanted to have a good time, everybody was in a good mood and we all enjoyed some of the best shows that I have seen in years together, there was no real difference between musicians and fans, everybody was just hanging out together, enjoying something very special. We met a lot of old friends there, the guys from Iced Earth, Saxon, Nevermore, Sodom, Gamma Ray... we met a lot of new friends and I can't remember watching so many gigs in such a short time ever before. Some of the gigs were so incredibly good, it was awesome to see Sanctuary perform again after all those years, Forbidden, Dark Tranquility and Nevermore were awesome, Testament rocked big time, the same goes for most of the other bands that I watched, but my personal highlight was the Death Angel set at the poolstage. The last time I saw them was when they toured for Act III, and since then I didn't really have them on my map anymore, but they blew away everything, what a killer show!!! It was great to be part of something so special and I would definitely do another round on that ship whenever we get the chance to play there again.

But not only the cruise, also our North American tour has been a blast, special thanks to our friends Seven Kingdoms and Holy Grail for being great guys to tour with. From all the shows we did the ones in Toronto and Los Angeles were my faves (and I am not saying the other ones didn't rock ;-) ), on both days I had the chance to be a tourist again and spent hours walking around, taking pics and enjoying my time. Next time we should try to come to North America in summer though, specially the day in Toronto was so fucking freezing... I had the great idea to walk to the local Hard Rock Cafe and I guess I only survived because I stopped at EVERY Starbucks on the way to get another hot coffee... it was still fun though ;-)
Next on our schedule is a break for 10 weeks which will be very nice too, sleeping in your own bed can be somehing very precious when you didn't see home for months.

Feeds activated

2011-01-15T00:36:00.002+01:00

Here is a technical update for a change, due to public request I just activated feeds for this blog, so if you want to feed on me feel free to do so ;-)

Hitlist 2010

2011-01-02T15:07:00.002+01:00

New year has just started so it is time for my annual hitlist, here we go:

Albums:

Nevermore – The Obsidian Conspiracy

Orphaned Land – The Neverending Way of the OrWarrior

Bad Religion – The Descent of Man

Black Country Communion – Black Country

Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare

Gigs:

Nevermore (Gelsenkirchen)

Opeth (Essen)

Orphaned Land (Gelsenkirchen)

Movies:

The Expendables
Inception

Iron Man II

Wolfman

Sherlock Holmes

Books:

Alan Moore – From Hell

J.R.R.Tolkien – The Silmarilion

Christoph Sholder – Oktoberfest

Stephen King – Treachery

Sun Tzu – The Art of War

Eternal Timekiller:

World of Warcraft

Happy new year

2011-01-01T16:19:00.002+01:00

Hi everybody, I know I am a bit slow with updating this blog in the moment but I definitely wanted to wish all of you a happy new year :-)

Chapter one

2010-11-09T19:13:00.000+01:00

God, time flies, did we really already finish the first European block of our tour? It went by incredibly fast and I have to say it was awesome and a lot of fun. A big thanks to all of you who came to the shows and had a party with us. Many people keep asking me which show has been my fave, but I have to say that I can't really name just one, basically all of them were really cool, but if I had to chose I would pick at least 5 shows that were incredibly cool in my opinion: Düsseldorf, London, Moscow, Milan and Madrid, in no particular running order. And if you wonder why I liked those ones the most... well, I can't really answer this ;-) They are just the ones that come to my mind first. Now we will enjoy our short time at home before we continue touring in the USA next week, so see you guys there soon.

The big day

2010-10-09T11:33:00.000+02:00

So far the tour is running great, all the shows have been cool, but today we reached the big one, our "hometown" gig in Düsseldorf. The Philipshalle is one of my fave venues ever and we played some very special shows here over the years, but the really special thing is of course the presence of all our families and friends. I am just putting together my guestlist for today and it is "slightly" bigger than the average one... Of course this always puts a bit of pressure on us, when you play in front of your friends and families you of course want to be good, but I think we don't have to worry about that, things will be fine and it will be a great show, I am definitely looking forward to it.

The tour has finally started

2010-09-30T20:41:00.000+02:00

After all the promo stuff, rehearsals and whatever preparations finally the tour has started and we have already played the first 4 gigs. It is really great to play live again, even though I have to say that my mind didn't fully arrive on tour yet, it always takes me about 7-10 days to switch from "normal" life to touring life. On the road some things are just very different, you get to bed much later, you get up later, your bed shakes when the nightliner is driving and you might wake up from the snoring of some other people around you, things like that, just that my body didn't understand yet that I am on tour again ;-) But soon this issue should be solved I guess. For now I am just enjoying a day off before tomorrow the German part of the tour will start.

Fun at the Gamescom

2010-08-20T15:06:00.000+02:00

I spent two days at the Gamescom in Cologne now, partially to do some interviews, but of course also to check out everything about new games, after all I am a hardcore gamer ;-) One thing is for sure, Gamescom is a much nicer place on non-public days, waiting lines are almost not existing, it is not that loud (and so far I thought Musikmesse Frankfurt would be loud...) but on the other hand the atmosphere is not the same. Of course there were tons of new games, but here is my personal top 5:
5: Rage    I had the chance to see the presentation of this game and it looks absolutely awesome. But well, after all this is what I expect from an ID shooter.
4: Torchlight 2 I love part one and the sequel looks awesome too, it finally offers a multiplayer mode, so I am really looking forward to that.
3: Star Wars The old Republic   Playing this one was great too, I was a bit disappointed about the graphics but the games definitely will be great, all the Star Wars atmosphere is already there.
2: World of Warcraft Cataclysm   Well, this is not a big surprise I guess, with WoW being my fave game I loved playing the beta. Can't wait to get the beta key unlocked for my account so I can explore some more parts of the good old world.
1: Diablo 3   YES!!!! Had the chance to play this for about one hour and the old feeling (and addiction) was back imediately, god, this will be so good :-)

The Wacken Diaries: Day Three

2010-08-09T15:44:00.001+02:00

The last day of our Wacken trip has been the one with the most promo work, one interview chasing the other, with a signing session at the end of the (working)day. Since we have been doing all this press stuff from 1:00 to about 21:30 more or less non stop there was not much time left to watch some bands, but at least there were still 3 on my list: Immortal, Rotting Christ and Candlemass... Too bad they all played exactly at the same time, so I had to make a choice. Since I have seen Rotting Christ a few weeks ago already at another festival I watched a bit of Immortal and a bit of Candlemass in the end, hoping that next time not all the bands that I would like to see will be playing at the same time... Talking about next time, next year we'll be at Wacken again, this time to play ourselves though ;-)

The Wacken Diaries: Day Two

2010-08-07T09:19:00.000+02:00

After having only a couple of interviews yesterday, day two was a bit different, we had some interviews, a couple of interviews, and after this some more interviews. Of course this was preventing me again to watch some of the bands that I had on my list (I would have loved to see Amorphis and Orphaned Land), but at least in the evening I was able to watch some shows. Arch Enemy have been cool and it was really nice to see Hansi on stage with Grave Digger, specially cause he was wearing a kilt :-) My musical highlight have been Slayer though, didn't see them live for quite some years and their setlist was great, only the sound was not really good unfortunately, but well, you can't have it all ;-)

The Wacken Diaries: Day one

2010-08-06T11:28:00.000+02:00

Releasing a new album is of course always tied to a lot of promotion, and could there be a better place than Wacken? This year we'll be here all 3 days doing tons of interviews, but of course I will also try to watch a couple of bands. I already checked out who is playing, but unfortunately my interview schedule will prevent me from watching all the bands that I would like to see, but well, I can't change that. Day one has been pretty smooth, no big traffic jams on the way here, we already met some old friends and also the interviews that we did so far were all cool. On top of that we won a Metal Hammer Award for being the best German Metal Band, that was really cool :-) Concerning the interviews, my highlight of the day was a radio interview that was recorded not far from the main stage while Motley Crue were already playing... As you can imagine it was pretty loud, and on top of that tons of cars were passing by all the time, I am really curious about how this interview will sound like. But I am even more curious to see how it looks like... If you wonder how a radio interview looks like, well, it was also filmed, in 3D, using only one camera... yeah, I know, sounds very weird, thats why I am curious myself ;-) Another highlight was a weirdo on the festival area that wanted to start a fight with me cause I was blocking his sight. Lol, I explained to him that blocked sight is not really that rare at festivals, and that it was not my intention to block anything for him, that I just wanted to pass and leave, then he got even more pissed cause I wanted to leave before Maiden finished their set... strange world ;-)

The new iPhone 4

2010-07-29T12:04:00.000+02:00

Anybody here has problems with his new iPhone 4? Go over to judasphone.com, you might find help there :)

PS: No, I don't have this phone, I have an android phone ;-)

3 new songs available for streaming

2010-07-27T15:58:00.003+02:00

Only 3 more days to go until "At the edge of time" is finally released in Europe, but if you can't wait any longer then go over to our official homepage and check out 3 new songs, they are available for streaming there.

Maintenance time

2010-07-11T10:34:00.002+02:00

The tour is getting closer, more rehearsals are about to come, so it is time to take care of the gear a bit. Aside from a broken saddle on my J45 there are no big things that would have to be taken care of, but sometimes it can be the small things that can give you hell during a gig, when something unexpected happens and you just have no time to check what the hell is going on. So right now there is maintenance season for my equipment, amps get checked and tubes get replaced, a couple of guitars get new pickups (I just love my EMG 81s...), my racks get completely new cables and as mentioned before of course the J45 gets a new saddle. With all this being done my stuff should be fit for the next tour.

Surprise surprise...

2010-07-03T18:44:00.001+02:00

What the hell was this??? I was prepared for anything but this... to be honest I expected Argentina to win, I of course hoped for Germany to win, but this??? 4:0 ?!?!?!?!? Awesome :-)
And if with all the soccer overkill you have some time left then check out our new single "A voice in the dark" which was released last week, and if you want to check out more new stuff go to our official homepage, in the discography section you can listen to samples from all the new songs.

Weird Guitars

2010-06-03T21:25:00.009+02:00

I guess you can call me a rather conservative guy when it comes to my guitars, I just love my Les Pauls, the most "unconventional" guitars in my collection are probably my Steinberger and my new Flying V, which are not really that unconventional... specially not compared to those ones that I found on the net :-) My fave model in the moment is the one with 12 necks, must be heaven for somebody that uses a lot of different tunings, might be hell for his backliner though :-) The boat is also very nice, perfect for vacations, who the hell still plays acustic guitar at a bonfire, going offshore with it sounds much more like fun. Also the "girlfriend" model is a nice idea, custom made for somebody that just fell in love I guess :-) Well, I guess I will just stick to my Les Pauls, I am just too traditional for such things... even though the Gibson melon is tempting :-)

Some gear pics

2010-05-28T21:50:00.004+02:00

Here are some pics from my stuff, taken during one of the last days. It shows my usual amp and effects setup, some guitars that I will take on tour for sure, just my second rack is still missing, I didn't put it together yet ;-)

First rehearsal block

2010-05-28T21:43:00.002+02:00

We just finished the first block of rehearsals for the next tour and things were really great. Our crew was there to set up all the backline and monitoring stuff, we could check our gear, plan some adjustments and changes, and finally go through our list of 40 songs that we want to be able to play. We might still add some more songs to that list, we might kick a couple of others, but at least we have a big catalogue to chose from when we will finally play live again and talk about the setlists for each gig :-)
Talking about gigs, last week I had the chance to see Nevermore and Orphaned Land live again, and both bands were great. Nevermore even played 4 new songs already, even though their new album has only been released today. I immediately bought it but didn't have a chance to check it out yet, I will do thig right now after finishing this posting ;-)

Rest in peace Ronnie

2010-05-17T19:22:00.003+02:00

Unfortunately yesterday Ronnie James Dio lost the battle against his cancer and left a giant gap in the music scene. He was not only my fave singer and fronted 3 of my alltime fave bands, he was also one of the nicest and most humble people that I have ever seen in this business. Rest in peace Ronnie, my condolences to your family.

The update for the updated update

2010-04-20T12:06:00.001+02:00

I forgot something, somebody was asking if I do not allow comments on my blog on purpose... yup, for now this is intentional, I might change this some day but if you want to post something in a blog in the moment, get your own ;-)

The updated update

2010-04-20T11:40:00.002+02:00

Due to public demand here is a more detailed look on my setup for the upcoming tour.

Guitars: Well, big surprise, I will have Les Pauls with me :-) I am not sure yet which ones I will use for this tour, but there will be for sure some of my "high gain" models with EMG pickups (my two fave guitars belong to those ones, my main Custom and my Light Burst Standard Premium Plus), I am also thinking about the one in which I can split the pickups into single coils (nice option for clean sounds) and one that has a Fishman Powerbridge, a Piezo pickup that can deliver some really cool acustic sounds. On top of my usual load of Les Pauls I am thinking about a Flying V in the moment. My very first electric guitar has been a Flying V back then, and somehow I would like to play one again, the only question is if I will still get along with the shape, after playing only Les Pauls for the last 12-15 years... well, I will see, I called Gibson the other day and ordered one, as soon as it arrives I will give it a try ;-)

Amps: My main amp is (and always will be) my Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier, best amp that has ever been built ;-) As a backup I will take my Mesa Boogie Triaxis, firing up a Mesa Boogie 2:90 poweramp, both amps will run through Mesa Boogie Rectocabs (I am using the bigger versions). The third amp that I will take with me is the ultimate backup, an Axe-FX Ultra. It is a high-end Pre-Amp/Effects Processor (some people would even call it a modeling amp) that doesn't need anything else, I can plug in my guitar, choose an amp simulation, add the effects that I need, dial in my perferred cabinet and microphone and just plug it straight into the PA. Like this I always have a working backup in case anything goes wrong with my main setup, and this thing even sounds absolutely great, perfect for a backup.

Effects: I am not using much here, there is a Rocktron Intellifex that is in the loops of the Rectifier and the Triaxis, for my rhythm sound there are absolutely no effects anyway (besides the Rocktrons Hush), for clean, lead and effect sounds there are the usual suspects like a bit of chorus, delay or reverb. In case the Intellifex should die I still have the Axe-FX Ultra as a backup, this could also be used as a pure Fx processor, without all the amp/cab/mic stuff.

And this is almost it, the only other things are my wireless system, a midiswitcher (so I can change the channels in my Rectifier via my Rocktron Midimate floorboard) and a Furman Powerconditioner, put everything into a rack, add some strings and my pick of destiny (a Dugain stone pick) and you have my touring setup.

Gear - A retrospective

2010-04-17T15:51:00.002+02:00

Our next tour will start in september and the first rehearsals are not that far away anymore, so it is time to think about what gear I will take with me on that tour. When I think about our very first tour in 1988, everything was very simple back then, I had exactly one guitar, one amp, one cabinet and one distortion pedal :) Pretty impressive, isn't it ;) Well, that was all I had but it worked, it only gave me one sound, but that was all I needed back then. Today my setup looks slightly different, in the moment I am thinking about 3 amps, 2 cabs, 6 guitars plus some 19" stuff like wireless systems, powerconditioners or multi effects. The good thing is that this setup offers some more sounds and I even got rid of the distortion pedals so at least those little boxes won't fly around on stage anymore :) For all the rest, well, I can plan my setup and test it during the rehearsals.

Shows in seated venues are strange...

2010-04-02T13:40:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I have been to the Opeth 20th Anniversary show in Essen and it was a really cool show, the band played an awesome set (including the full Blackwater park album, which is my fave Opeth album), but something was just not right... They played in a nice venue, a fully seated theatre, but in my opinion this is the wrong place for a death metal concert. The atmosphere is just not the same if everybody is sitting down, there is not half as much energy as in a "normal" show. I guess they also had to cut down the volume in the first half of the show (the Blackwater park set) which kinda reminded me a bit of the premieres of our DVD, which also took place in cinemas back then, at least it felt a bit like watching a dvd. However, this changed with the second half of the set and from that point on it felt more like a concert. As I said I really enjoyed the show, it was a killer 3 hours set, but next time I will watch them in a normal venue for sure.
Aside from this I checked out the Musikmesse in Frankfurt, I didn't go there in quite some years and I have to say it got much smaller compared to earlier years, many big companies were missing this time, due to the crisis I guess. But at least all the ones that I wanted to visit have been there and I could check out the latest Gibsons, Mesa Boogies and whatever else I was interested in. One thing that improved big time this year was the noise, normally you were bombed by hundreds of people, playing Smoke on the water, Highway to hell, Stairway to heaven and enter sandman, all at the same time, with amps cranked up to the maximum, but today, with modeling amps and noise isolating headphones this is history :) The only thing missing now is a similar system for drummers...

The sound behind the name

2010-03-09T21:27:00.002+01:00

There are a couple of names in the music scene that I keep hearing over and over again, without having the slightest clue about who is behind that name, or what those artists music sounds like. I just hear people praising their talent, their music, their live shows, and sometimes I get curious enough to check them out, but for whatever reason, most of the times I forget about them until they show up in magazines again. Muse was such a band for example, I kept hearing great things about them, but only after I heard "Knights of Cydonia" (which completely blew me away immediately)I bought their albums and became a big fan of them. My latest discovery is also a guy that I kept hearing about all the time: Joe Bonamassa. He appeared in every guitar magazine poll, everybody was praising his skills as a player and his music, but somehow that never impressed me enough to check him out. Some days ago I read a big story about him and got to know that he is a blues player that really rocks, so much that the blues purists hate him for that and somehow this got me curious ;-) I expected something like Gary Moore, so I bought his latest album and just like back then with Muse I was blown away immediately... this guy really ROCKS! I never heard somebody playing blues with pretty heavy and downtuned guitars like him, I just love it, just as I love his "regular" blues stuff, so in case you like this kind of music, make sure to check him out, he's worth it!

Wolfman

2010-02-16T22:58:00.002+01:00

Are you tired of teenage vampires? Do you think that demonic creatures should be vicious, mean and evil instead of cute? Do you agree with me that it is complete bullshit if a vampire always has to take off his shirt to show his sixpack before he can help a little girl? Do you prefer classic horror movies with a nice dose of blood, guts and gore? Salvation is here... Sit back, relax and enjoy Wolfman :)

My new Steinberger

2010-02-12T13:19:00.003+01:00

As you can see on this picture I recently got a new guitar, a Steinberger ST-2FPA. Did my love for Les Pauls end? Nope, not at all, but I needed a baritone guitar for the recordings now, and there just is no baritone guitar from Gibson available in the moment. But since Steinberger is a part of the Gibson family... :-) The guitar has some very cool features, as mentioned before it is a baritone guitar, so it can easily handle even very low tunings, it comes with EMG pickups, has an active bass boost/cut, an active treble boost/cut and even a built in piezo pickup for clean sounds. The most unusual feature is the built in capo though. If you keep it all down the guitar is in "baritone-mode", if you set it to the second fret the guitar turns into a normal scale guitar and of course you can roll up the capo even further. Don't expect to see me with that guitar on stage, my Les Paul addiction is way to strong for that to happen, but it is a really cool guitar for studio work.

More confirmed Tourdates

2010-01-17T13:35:00.002+01:00

Here are some more confirmed dates for the upcoming Blind Guardian tour, dates in Poland and Sweden were added, also Enforcer from Sweden have been confirmed as the second support band for those dates.

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
19.10.2010 Warsaw Stodola Poland
20.10.2010 Berlin Huxleys Germany
21.10.2010 Osnabrück Halle Gartenlage Germany
22.10.2010 Gothenburg Brewhouse Sweden
23.10.2010 Stockholm Klubben Sweden
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

Man with a vision

2010-01-08T17:53:00.003+01:00

We all know what George Lucas vision about Star Wars looked like, after all he turned those visions into some pretty successful movies ;-) But what would Luke, Han, Vader or Yoda look like if the vision would have been different? Matt Busch, the guy that did the posters for the Star Wars movies, recently showed us a different vision of the Star Wars universe by slightly "modding" the original posters, turning everything into Zombie Wars. Now I wonder if this vision would have been as successful... ;-)

The 2009 hitlist

2010-01-02T22:36:00.005+01:00

As every year here is the list of my faves for 2009

CD's:

1: Alice in Chains - Black gives way to blue
2: Megadeth - Endgame
3: Muse - The Resistance
4: Amorphis - Skyforger
5: Heaven & Hell - The Devil you know

Movies:

1: Avatar
2: Inglorious Basterds
3: Wolverine
4: Up
5: Watchmen

DVD's

1: Rome (All Seasons)
2: [Rec]
3: Blindness
4: The X-Files (Season 3)
5: The Tudors (Season 1)

Books:

Stephen King: Song of Susannah
Stephen King: The dark Tower
Stephen King: The Dark Tower 2 - The Long Road Home (Graphic Novel)
Steve Niles: Freaks of the Heartlands (Graphic Novel)
Grant Morrison: Arkham Asylum (Graphic Novel)

Gigs:

1: In Flames (Oberhausen)
2: Heaven & Hell (Athens)
3: Candlemass (Bloodstock)
4: Paddy goes to Holyhead (Moers)
5: New Damage (Krefeld)

Most entertaining timekiller ever:
World of Warcraft

Most heard album 2009:
Muse - Black Holes & Revelations

Looking forward to:
1: The new BG album/tour
2: WoW Cataclysm
3: The men who stare at goats
4: Opeth Anniversary Show
5: All my software working with Windows 7

Avatar

2009-12-26T23:10:00.003+01:00

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

2009-12-24T20:17:00.002+01:00

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

2009-12-08T15:29:00.002+01:00

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...

2009-12-04T17:11:00.002+01:00

...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???

2009-11-15T19:49:00.003+01:00

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...

2009-10-04T11:18:00.000+02:00

Somebody please show this to Hollywood...

So much for playing live...

2009-09-17T13:44:00.003+02:00

... 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...

2009-08-26T11:37:00.002+02:00

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?

2009-08-19T10:13:00.003+02:00

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

2009-08-13T21:10:00.005+02:00

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

2009-08-05T21:17:00.001+02:00

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

2009-08-02T10:33:00.003+02:00

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

2009-08-01T20:45:00.005+02:00

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

2009-06-29T21:53:00.003+02:00

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...

2009-02-15T18:01:00.002+01:00

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...

2009-01-30T19:24:00.003+01:00

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

2009-01-02T19:55:00.002+01:00

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.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T16:50:00.003+01:00

I just realised that so far I didn't upload any pics of my latest guitar, the red Les Paul Classic that I mentioned some weeks ago, so finally here is one, again taken by Nina Voronova. Besides this I got two new endorsement deals, with Mesa Boogie and D'Addario strings. I have been using Boogies and D'Addario strings since ages, so it is great to finally get those deals. And finally, let me wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year, see you somewhere on tour in 2009.

Having some fun with Slash

2008-11-25T16:11:00.003+01:00

In the moment I am having some fun with the new Slash signature Gold Top Les Paul from Gibson. I got this one and the Epiphone version to test them for German Metal Hammer magazine and I have to say both are really cool guitars. I have never been the biggest fan of Slash or Guns'n'Roses, but we share the same taste in guitars and this model really rocks, if you are looking for a great rock guitar be sure to check it out.

HipHop goes metal

2008-11-08T16:22:00.001+01:00

It seems the HipHop / Rap scene is discovering metal... after Bushido sampling Dimmu Borgir it seems to be our turn now... Check out this link

Time to say good bye...

2008-09-26T12:41:00.002+02:00

... to some pieces of my equipment. There are two items that I am not really using anymore, so I decided to put them on eBay, it just doesn't make sense to keep them under my bed just for the sake of keeping them. One is my Mesa Boogie Rectifier Recording Preamp, which I used as a backup amp for the "A Twist in the Myth" tour. Since my main Rectifier is a very reliable amp it was hardly ever used and now I took it out of my live rack. If you are interested, here is the link.
The second item is my last ESP guitar, the blue Eclipse custom. It was my main guitar for many years, but since I switched completely and exclusively to Gibson I also thought it makes more sense to sell it, the guitar is way too good to just rot under my bed, here is the link. If you want to get an impression about the looks and the sound of this guitar, you can check it out on the "Imaginations through the Looking Glass" DVD.

Back from Spain

2008-09-16T12:48:00.002+02:00

We just came back from Spain where we played two shows last weekend. Both gigs were a lot of fun, even though the temperature during the first show, an open air, took us a bit by surprise... I think this was the very first time in the history of Blind Guardian that saw me freezing during a whole show, not even the lights were able to fight back the cold coming from the wind. But at least I learned my lesson, next time I will be prepared and have a warm sweatshirt with me ;-)

Messing around with the layout a bit...

2008-08-17T21:53:00.002+02:00

If you visited my blog before you might realize some changes in the layout. The simple reason for this is that I got a bit bored with the original design, so I decided to pimp it a bit. Since I am still not really familiar with html codes and all this stuff it might take a while until I reach the result that I have in my mind, but well, we will see, at least I can already do some easy things that make this blog look better. Stay tuned for more layout updates...

Time travelling

2008-08-14T15:31:00.002+02:00

I just realised that I didn't post anything here for a while so I guess it is time for an update :-)
In the moment I am having a lot of fun with a bit of time travelling. I started to digitalize my old vcr-tapes, I still have a big collection with BG stuff, lots of old shows, and it is great to watch those concerts again, they bring up a lot of memories. I just finished burning a show from 89 on DVD, thank god the quality of the tape was still ok, not DVD quality of course, but definitely good enough, I just hope all the other tapes will still be as good. Aside from this I am starting to prepare myself for the upcoming shows in Spain, going through some songs again, and I play around with a new guitar that I got shortly ago. It is a very nice Gibson Les Paul Classic Custom, it looks awesome and sounds great, and it has a very nice modification that none of my other guitars has. It is equiped with a Fishman Powerbridge, a Piezo pickup that allows me to get very good acoustic sounds out of this guitar, I can't wait to try this on stage :-)

The auction is online

2008-05-23T18:33:00.002+02:00

Ok, I just fought my way through eBay (this used to be much easier in the past) and now my skateboard is online and for sale, whoever is interested, the ebay article number is 290232964338
or just use this direct link:
http://cgi.ebay.de/Blind-Guardian-Skateboard-of-Doom_W0QQitemZ290232964338QQihZ019QQcategoryZ21756QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Good luck and have fun with that damned board ;-)

The board of doom

2008-05-20T12:59:00.002+02:00

Look what I found while cleaning out the basement a bit... my board of doom, the cursed skateboard that helped me to break my leg back in 2004. Back then I swore a holy oath to never ever use a skateboard again, and guess what, I kept my promise :-) So, since I don't have any use for this board anymore ( I kinda accepted the fact that there is no promising carreer as a professional skateboarder ahead of me) I decided to put it on ebay, so if anybody is interested in breaking his leg too, this board might be a great help ;-) As soon as I put it on ebay I will post the link here.

Are you commercial?

2008-04-20T12:18:00.003+02:00

The other day I saw a funny little discussion somewhere on the internet. Some people got into a serious fight about bands being commercial or not, and of course they were not really arguing, but only bashing each other. Now I wonder is there something as a non-commercial band at all? Lets take 2 bands as an example... Jon Bovi on the one hand and Dummi Burger on the other (lol, yes, I know, those names sound kinda familiar, I don't mean to talk about those bands themselves, I just take them as examples for very different genres). While Jon Bovi plays melodic (Hard) Rock, Dummi Burger plays Black Metal, so is Jon Bovi more commercial? Or are both bands commercial, after all both signed a record deal... isn't this "being commercial" by definition? If you sign a deal with a record company it means you want to sell albums, that's pretty commercial, isn't it? And is Jon Bovi more commercial, because he uses make up and hairspray? Or is corpse paint and fake blood the same, just a tool to attract a certain group of people? While Jon Bovi is aiming at 14 year old girls, that are supposed to find him "sooo sweet", is Dummi Burger aiming at the 14 year old boys that are supposed to find them "sooo cool"? Does all this matter at all? Isn't it better to just focus on the songs and forget about image and all that stuff? I don't really care if a band is commercial or not, or what it looks like, I want to listen to a good song, that's all that matters to me. And just to make this clear, yes, I think both bands, Dummi Burger and Jon Bovi, have good songs ;-)

New challenges

2008-03-31T12:55:00.003+02:00

The evening at Giga TV was a lot of fun (thanks to everybody involved) but now the next couple of challenges are already waiting for us. Next on the list is a motion capturing session for our appearance in Sacred II, something that is completely new for us and that I am really looking forward to, should be very interesting. Something else that I am looking forward to a lot is the festival that we will play with Kiss. It will be on June 21 in Bilbao, Spain, and for an old Kiss fan like me it will be a hell of a trip I guess :-)

Giga TV

2008-03-24T21:22:00.002+01:00

Now that I am almost done with moving, the next adventure is almost there. On Friday we will be on Giga TV, talking about my fave hobby... World of Warcraft :-) I am not really sure if this is gonna be recorded or broadcasted live (I think it is live), but if you want to check this out just tune in this Friday night.

Moving sucks

2008-03-19T10:10:00.001+01:00

Is anyone of you moving in the moment? I am... and I hate it! Moving just sucks, I hate painting walls, I hate drilling holes, I hate messing around with everything that comes along... but I know I will love our new place as soon as we are done so there is a light at the end of the tunnel ;-)

First lesson

2008-03-05T23:13:00.001+01:00

I just uploaded my first lesson on GMC, it should be online and active by tomorrow, so feel free to check it out, more will follow :-)

Online guitar lessons

2008-02-20T23:05:00.004+01:00

Some weeks ago I discovered the site of Guitarmasterclass , an awesome webpage with tons of great lessons for guitarists. The lessons come in form of videos, with tabs and whatever else you might need to follow them and the variety is endless, from very simple things for beginners up to stuff that most likely I will only be able to play after 15 years of daily practice (and with some of the lessons I am not sure if those 15 years would be enough for me ;-) ) I immediately loved the idea, putting lessons from all kinds of teachers online in one webpage is just great and I thought it would be a great chance for me to also restart giving guitar lessons, and guess what, today I was accepted as a new teacher for GMC :-) So whoever is interested in learning new things, check out this page, there are awesome lessons online already and soon there will also be my first lessons.

Blind Guardian on German TV

2008-02-07T20:52:00.000+01:00

Good news for all Germans that could not make it to Wacken last year, on April the 19th WDR Rockpalast will show our headlining gig from last years Wacken Open Air, the show is supposed to start at midnight.

American Idol vs. DSDS

2008-01-24T20:45:00.000+01:00

As you can see in my iPod list I really like the band Daughtry in the moment. I heard one of their songs on the radio and my first thought was something like "Oh cool, Nickelback released a new album", but well, obviously it was not Nickelback. Only later I found out that this band was formed by (or around) a guy that took part in American Idol, and I have to say that, comparing this album to ANY album that came from one of the guys that took part in DSDS, the German version of American Idol, I am impressed about the quality of the songs. Ok, they are not the most original songs (as I said, I thought it would be Nickelback), and by now I also know that guys from Nickelback, 3 Doors Down or Matchbox 20 were hired as songwriters, but I don't really care, a good song is a good song and I would love to hear more stuff like that, no matter if the bands come from casting shows or not.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T10:21:00.000+01:00

Happy new year to all of you

My personal hitlist 2007

2007-12-28T20:06:00.000+01:00

Usually at this time of the year you can see polls everywhere, so I decided to also list my faves of 2007. Of course this only reflects my personal taste, so feel free to disagree :-)

CD's:

1: Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli
2: Alter Bridge - Blackbird
3: Amorphis - Silent Waters
4: Heaven & Hell - Live at the Radio City Music Hall
5: Dethklok - The Dethalbum

Movies

1: Pirates of the Caribbean III
2: 300
3: Transformers
4: Metalocalypse Season One
5: The Fountain

Books:

1: Steve Niles - 30 Days of Night
2: Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys
3: Henning Mankell - The Dogs of Riga
4: Frank Miller - Dark Knight Returns
5: PC Games - World of Warcraft Specials

Concerts:

1: Heaven & Hell (Loud Park)
2: Orphaned Land (ProgPower)
3: Dimmu Borgir (Cologne)
4: Iced Earth (Cologne)
5: Amorphis (Wacken)

Most heard Album in 2007: System of a Down - Mesmerize

Fave Songtitle: Panic at the Disco - There's A Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought Of It Yet ( I DEFINITELY have to see this band live one day, first of all I like them and I want to find out how their fans are screaming for that song live...)

My amps and my rack

2007-12-15T11:17:00.001+01:00

After all the updates about my guitars we now come to the other side of my equipment, my amps and my rack. As you can see I am using a rather simple setup, I don't like those huge racks with tons of effects, first of all I don't need them and if one thing gets damaged in such a big system you will have a lot of fun finding the problem, specially if this happens during a show.
The core of my system is a Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier, the original two channel version, in my opinion those originals sound better than the new 3 channel versions. I am using a Sennheiser G2 Wireless System for my guitar that leads the signal straight into my main amp, there are no additional effects between my guitars and the amp. For my main rhythm sound I don't use any effects, only when it comes to my clean and some lead sounds I am using a Rocktron Intellifex to get some chorus, reverb and delay. I am also using the Rocktrons Hush system to prevent humming or any other noise. To control the whole setup I use a Rocktron Midimate footcontroller and everything is connected to a Furman Powerconditioner to make sure that everything always gets the right amount of power, concerning cabinets I am using two Mesa Boogie Rectocabs. As a backup system I am either using a second Rectifier head, or as you can see on the picture, my Mesa Boogie Rectifier Recording Preamp. The big advantage of this preamp is the fact that it has recording outpts that sound extremely good, so I can plug it straight into the mixing console and still get my sound, which is very handy when we are are flying and therefor can't take all of our equipment with us. For this backup system I also have a Rocktron Xpression to get my clean and lead sounds, so like this I have two completely independent systems, in case the main one freaks during a show I can switch to the second system within a few seconds. This is all I need to get my sounds and I was using this setup during the whole tour. The only changes were made towards the end of the tour when I replaced the Recording Preamp with a Mesa Boogie Triaxis Preamp and I added a Mesa Boogie 2:90 Poweramp, the Triaxis is extremely versatile and in the moment I am thinking about making this one my main amp, but well, since we won't be touring anytime soon I have enough time to think about this.

Les Paul Standard Premium Plus II

2007-11-27T15:35:00.000+01:00

Now that we are done with touring I decided to finally finish this little report about my equipment, so here is another Les Paul of mine, again a Les Paul Standard Premium Plus, this time in wine red. It is pretty much the same guitar as my other Standard Premium Plus, this one is equiped with the original Gibson Burstbuckers though and sounds incredibly good. Getting this guitar was perfect for two reasons, first of all it is an awesome guitar that immediately made it into my personal top 3 of guitars, and the second reason is that now I don't have to wonder anymore if I should take the EMG 81 pickups out of the other Standard Premium Plus to replace them again with the Burstbuckers, with those two guitars I can have both variations :-) (Pic taken by Nina Voronova)

The end of the tour

2007-11-16T15:51:00.000+01:00

Are those 18 months really gone? Somehow it feels as we played the first warm up show last week, and on the other hand it also feels like Wacken for example has been years ago already, somehow I always lose my track of time on the road. But one thing I know for sure, it has been an awesome time, a great tour and I want to thank everybody involved for making it happen. A big thank you goes to our crew, who always did their best to make every show work, and a very special thanks to all of you of course, our fans, without you all this would not have been possible. See you again on the next tour!

Soundcheck

2007-11-10T16:43:00.001+01:00

We just finished the soundcheck for the show in Krefeld, so far everything worked perfectly fine and we are ready for the final show of this tour. In my opinion the setlist is perfect for a show like this, but of course I won't tell you anything about this now, it would spoil the surprise ;-) It will be a very special evening for us and a worthy final gig, so see you all in about 4 hours.

30 days of night

2007-10-31T22:52:00.000+01:00

I just came back from the cinema where I watched the premiere of 30 days of night, one of my fave graphic novels, but unfortunately the movie is disappointing. Obviously Hollywood discovered that a lot of money can be made with movies based on graphic novels, but why the hell are they not able to stay loyal to the original stories, why do they always have to change things in the movies? Since Steve Niles was involved in the making of the movie and also Sam Raimi already proved that he knows what he is doing, I had really high expectations, but well, now I will do what you should do too, I will re-read the graphic novel and forget about the movie.

Almost done...

2007-10-30T23:52:00.001+01:00

After having a great time in South Afrika and Japan (and after being fed up with intercontinental flights) we returned to Germany and played the Nuclear Blast aniversary Festival last weekend. I enjoyed it a lot, but for me the highlight of the day was the "Nuclear Blast All Star Jam" which I took part in. The idea was to have musicians from different bands jamming on some cover songs and I was supposed to play the Trooper, together with members of Rage, Edguy and Subway to Sally. The funny part of this whole thing was that we never rehearsed this song a single time, we didn't even do a real soundcheck, and on top of all this I was not able to use my in ear monitoring system for this session, but in the end it was a lot of fun, slightly chaotic, but definitely fun. Now there is only one more show to go, the "End of Tour" show here in Krefeld in about 10 days, and even though in my opinion playing live is the best thing about being a musician, I have to say I am looking forward to getting a break, after almost 18 months on the road it will be very nice to stay home for a while. But before this break starts it will be very special for us to play the last show of this world tour here in our hometown, so see you guys there next week.

Concert season continues

2007-10-13T13:14:00.000+02:00

After having some more fun at gigs that I went to as a fan (Orphaned Land at the Prog Power festival and Iced Earth at Cologne) the time has come to play some shows again. Yesterday we arrived at Pretoria/South Africa, we already did soundcheck last night and now we can't wait to play the show today, it is the very first time for BG to play a show here in South Africa and we are so curious to see how it will be, we only expect the best. See you at the show tonight.

What is your price?

2007-10-04T10:23:00.000+02:00

Something I never really understood is this reunion-mania that is going on since some years. A million bands reunite, play at Wacken to record a live cd or dvd, only to break up again 2 months later, does this really make sense? Kiss are on a reunion tour since the middle of the 90's, even though Ace and Peter already left the band again years ago and, while Black Sabbath finally are touring in their best lineup ever as Heaven & Hell, Sharon anounces that next year there will be another reunion album with Ozzy on vocals... Another nice example is Immortal, they are on their big reunion tour after not having released an album for 4 years... lol, 4 years? Reminds me a lot of Blind Guardian, are we constantly doing one reunion after the other without knowing it? But all this is not limited to metal bands of course, Genesis went on tour again with Phil Collins, The Police are on the road and plan a new album and even the Spice Girls plan their come back (lol) and the big driving force behind all of this is money of course. But it seems that not everybody is for sale in this business, a few weeks ago David Gilmour was asked to launch a Pink Floyd reunion and, to make this a bit more tasty for him, he was offered 125 million (!!!) pounds... and now guess what happened... While most people would even join the Spice Girls for this amount of money, he refused, saying he already has enough money and prefers his life without Pink Floyd. I really respect this guy for his decision, even though I hope he will change his mind one day since Pink Floyd is one of my very fave bands and I never had the chance to see them live, but well...we will see.

Impressions from a gig

2007-09-26T22:05:00.001+02:00

After being on the road myself for quite some time I finally went to a gig again last night and watched Dimmu Borgir in Cologne, it was a tripple package with Dimmu Borgir headlining and Amon Amarth and a band called Engel opening up. I have to say that I don't know anything about Engel, besides what the singer let us know... "We are not fucking Hatesphere, we are not from fucking Norway, we are Engel from Gothenburg and we have T-Shirts"... well, good to know... It was my first time watching Amon Amarth besides some short impressions on festivals and I really liked the band a lot, they played some cool songs, but since In Sorte Diaboli is one of my fave albums of this year so far they couldn't compete with Dimmu Borgir, at least not for me. The band played a killer show with a great mix of old and new songs and now I can't wait to go to more gigs again, it is nice to not be on stage for a change :-)

Stupidity in perfection...

2007-09-16T14:49:00.000+02:00

Over the last couple of years I saw many very stupid things happening in the music industry, and whenever I thought it can't get any worse I was proven wrong and somebody came up with another "brilliant" idea. The newest revolutionary develpoment still took me completely by surprise now and I still wonder who the hell had this creative idea... So far chart entries in Germany (as well as anywhere else on this planet) depended on album sales, so if a band sold many albums in one week it would have a high entry, less album sales meant a lower entry, but all this is history now since Media Control just "modernized" this old fashioned chart system for Germany. From now on it doesn't matter anymore how many albums you sell, now it only matters how much money you make with your sales, so if two albums sell the same amount of copies in a week, the one that was sold for a higher price will get the higher chart entry... You don't have to be a big prophet to see what this will trigger, forget about special offers or good prices for new albums, most record companies will raise the prices to get higher chart entries and then they will wonder why people still go for illegal downloads... I am really curious to see what they will come up with next...

No updates today

2007-09-08T13:45:00.000+02:00

No updates today, there is a birthday to be celebrated...

The Metalocalypse is near...

2007-09-04T17:54:00.000+02:00

Have you ever heard of the band Dethklok? They are the biggest, baddest and most famous heavy metal band in the world and soon they will take over world domination :-) If you don't know them yet, check them out at this link, I am sure you will love them.

Pics by Nina Voronova

2007-08-23T17:57:00.000+02:00

Some days ago I got some pictures taken by Russian photographer Nina Voronova that really impressed me big time. She gave me her ok to use those pics for this blog so I wanted to share some with you, you can check out more of her pictures at www.blind-guardian.ru