Legendary German power metal band BLIND GUARDIAN has announced its long-awaited return to North America with a headlining tour set for dall 2025. The band will perform across the United States and Canada, bringing their celebrated album “Somewhere Far Beyond” to life on stage.
The tour will kick off on November 19 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and will make stops in major markets, including New York, Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles and more, before concluding on December 13 in Los Angeles, CA, at The Wiltern.
Support for the tour will come from special guests ENSIFERUM and SEVEN KINGDOMS, offering fans a full evening of epic metal performances.
Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Friday, May 9 at 10:00 a.m. local time.
A full list of confirmed dates can be found below.
BLIND GUARDIAN frontman Hansi Kürsch comments: “We are so thrilled about our return to North America at the end of the year. It is going to be great fun to sing the legendary ‘Somewhere Far Beyond’ hymns along with our fellow bards in the U.S. and Canada. Don’t miss this once-in-your-lifetime opportunity.”
BLIND GUARDIAN 2025 tour dates with ENSIFERUM and SEVEN KINGDOMS:
Nov. 19 – Ft Lauderdale, FL – Revolution Live
Nov. 20 – Tampa, FL – The Orpheum
Nov. 21 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
Nov. 22 – Charlotte, NC – The Underground
Nov. 24 – Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore
Nov. 25 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza
Nov. 26 – Worcester, MA – The Palladium
Nov. 28 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
Nov. 29 – Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Nov. 30 – Cleveland, OH – The Agora Theater
Dec. 02 – Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre
Dec. 03 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater
Dec. 05 – Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre
Dec. 07 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot
Dec. 09 – Seattle, WA – Showbox Market
Dec. 10 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
Dec. 12 – Berkeley, CA – The UC Theatre
Dec. 13 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
In the summer of 2024, Kürsch told MetalMasterKingdom.com about the progress of the songwriting sessions for BLIND GUARDIAN‘s next studio album: “We started songwriting a while ago, but I think we skipped all the ideas we’ve had. We do that from time to time, because if the span in between the real songwriting and the ones we did before is so big, then it doesn’t make sense to keep on working on these songs because you do not get back into the mode, and so it’s better to just put them aside. And some of this stuff really got forgotten over the years, and we never touched it again. So, we will start from scratch zero right now. We are still in the mode of ‘live band’ [due to all the touring we have done]. So I would expect the next songs to be heavy — heavy and aggressive.”
Asked if the next BLIND GUARDIAN album will be musically similar to 2022’s “The God Machine”, Hansi said: “That’s difficult to say, because ‘The God Machine’ is more of a production result than it is in the songwriting itself. The songwriting is not too different from what we did on [2015’s] ‘Beyond The Red Mirror’, but the way we treated the songs in the studio is so different. So the result turns out to be, obviously, differently impressive to people. I would say, yes, we go for individual [songs]. With the lyrics, I am more focused on this than having a conceptual album. When having a conceptual album, you may go musically in one direction also. So we go freestyle.”
In February 2024, Hansi was asked by Australia’s Metal Roos if he thinks there will be “a shorter turnaround time” for the band’s next studio album, considering that “The God Machine” was the first regular studio LP from BLIND GUARDIAN in seven years. He responded: “I’m pretty sure it’s going to be…. I’m not sure how it will look like exactly. We did the re-recordings for ‘Somewhere Far Beyond’ for the anniversary album, and we did the live recordings in 2022, so this is something certainly to come up very soon. But we’re talking about new material. That is still on hold then, because after that we do some acoustic playings, which we also worked on because we had to kill some time. And then, yeah, after Wacken [Open Air] and after these shows we’re going to play within this year, we keep our focus on regular songwriting. And I don’t know — I would be very surprised to find out that there’s no new BLIND GUARDIAN album before ’27, which is an accomplishment already, but I’m hoping for either late ’25 or ’26.”
Asked how he and his BLIND GUARDIAN bandmates keep their songwriting fresh after all this time, Hansi said: “You gain a bit of expertise over the years. This is helpful. And then in addition, it’s a passion on one hand, it’s a profession on the other hand, which makes it a bit easier. And the excitement is still there. I believe maybe that’s the central point in BLIND GUARDIAN. Everyone is feeling completely relieved because we have accomplished so much. But everyone is also focused because we build up a market in [a country like] Australia and we still see a development into the right direction. So that’s encouragement, motivation, and we have plenty of that. What I have to say is I don’t see the moment where we are running out of ideas.”
BLIND GUARDIAN‘s “The God Machine” North American 2024 tour commenced on April 18, 2024 at The Fillmore in Silver Springs, Maryland and made its way to Dallas, Seattle, and Toronto before the final performance at Milwaukee Metalfest on May 17, 2024. Joining the band as support was NIGHT DEMON.
“The God Machine” was released in September 2022 via Nuclear Blast. The cover artwork for the CD was designed by Peter Mohrbacher.
Prior to “The God Machine”‘s arrival, BLIND GUARDIAN‘s latest release was the all-orchestral album “Twilight Orchestra: Legacy Of The Dark Lands”, which came out in November 2019 via Nuclear Blast. To create the concept, lead guitarist André Olbrich and Kürsch worked alongside German bestselling author Markus Heitz, whose novel “Die Dunklen Lande” was released in March 2019. The book is set in 1629 and contains the prequel to “Legacy Of The Dark Lands”.
BLIND GUARDIAN‘s previous “regular” studio album, “Beyond The Red Mirror”, was issued in 2015. It was the band’s first LP since 2010’s “At The Edge Of Time”, marking the longest gap between two studio albums in BLIND GUARDIAN‘s career. It was also the group’s first album without bassist Oliver Holzwarth since 1995’s “Imaginations From The Other Side”.
BLIND GUARDIAN‘s core trio consists of Kürsch, lead guitarist André Olbrich and rhythm guitarist Marcus Siepen. Drummer Frederik Ehmke has been with the group since 2005.
Drummer Thomen Stauch played on BLIND GUARDIAN‘s first seven albums before being replaced by Ehmke. Frederik made his recording debut with BLIND GUARDIAN on 2006’s “A Twist In The Myth”.
Photo credit: Dirk Behlau
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