Imaginations Through the Looking Glass
| Imaginations Through the Looking Glass | |
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| Video by Blind Guardian | |
| Released | June 14, 2004 |
| Recorded | Blind Guardian Festival in Coburg, Germany, June 16 - 17, 2003. |
| Genre | Power Metal |
Imaginations Through the Looking Glass is the first DVD from German Power Metal band Blind Guardian. The cover art is painted by Leo Hao.
The band intended to record a DVD since early 1998, however, due to the band's high requirements, no existing metal festival had been considered suitable. Instead, Blind Guardian decided to create their own festival, back in their homeland. The First Blind Guardian Festival was held in Coburg, Germany, on June 16–17, 2003. It lasted 2 days, with the band playing during both nights. The entire show has been professionally recorded and subsequently released on a DVD entitled Imaginations through the Looking Glass on June 14, 2004.
The show had been very well prepared for the recording, with complex lightning and pyrotechnic effects set up to assist the musicians in creating the atmosphere. Blind Guardian's performance is generally considered excellent, and the degree of the audience's involvement was surprising even to the band members themselves. This is especially visible when the crowd continued to sing the chorus of "Valhalla" after the song was well over, stopping to cheer, and then starting to sing again, joined by an impromptu drum beat.
The setlist was partly based on a poll conducted on the band's website, which (combined with the amount of time the band had) led to a varied set with classics like "The Bard’s Song (in the Forest)" but also some rarely played songs such as "Somewhere Far Beyond".
There are two (two-layer) DVDs in the release; the first one contains the show itself, with 20 tracks and approximately 125 minutes of running time. Disc 2 contains extra material, including an interview with the band and 4 bonus songs, recorded in previous tours. The set has a typical Blind Guardian fantasy-style artwork painted by Leo Hao, mixed with photos from the show, with several humorous elements included such as a picture of Legolas, Gimli and Gollum buying tickets for the concert.
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