Out of all of the 90's releases from Blind Guardian, Imaginations is my least favorite. But that's like saying gold pales in comparison to platinum... technically it's true but all three of the 90's albums from Guardian are top tier.
Blind Guardian come from a speed metal background, with Somewhere Far Beyond (the album before this one) they started branching out into something more... something larger, more grandiose. Something unique. Imaginations takes the growth shown on Somewhere Far Beyond and continues in the same path, but everything is more.
The band has incorporated layers upon layers of vocals for many of the songs, in addition they have also added in layers upon layers of instruments. Three guitars? Sure thing. Multiple keyboard tracks with all the guitars? Coming right up. An acoustic with all that? You got it.
With so much going on it would be easy for the band to be tripping over themselves, but that doesn't happen here. In fact the opposite is true. The more thing's that are going on the more the band seems to be in their element.
Just look at the title track. It starts out with a keyboard driven melody and drums, guitars are added in layer after layer all while the keyboards keep building. When the chorus finally comes in Hansi has at least a dozen tracked vocals, probably more. It could easily be a disaster, but instead it's a beautiful execution of everything that I love about Guardian. This is their signature sound now.
The same thing happens countless other times in the album: Mordred's Song, Bright Eyes, And the Story Ends all have their own identity yet all sound undeniably like Blind Guardian. The remaining tracks still retain a bit of the speed metal past while still sounding grandiose and an absolute joy to listen to.
Imaginations is arguably the first album where Guardian found their true sound. While I still prefer Somewhere Far Beyond overall, Imaginations is an incredible album that I keep forgetting about. I need to get out of that habit.
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