One thing can be said about Blind Guardian for certain: whether or not you agree with all the musical decisions made, or love/don't love the songs on a given album, it can't be said that they ever put forth a half-hearted effort. It's not a shock, given how long the stretches are between studio albums at this point, that they seem aware that there's no room for anything less than putting forth full enthusiasm in order to keep people loving them. Even Helloween, long considered the definitive power metal band, hasn't kept up the same level of consistency as of late. And while one could accuse the "Bards of Metal" of being over the top, or lacking in subtlety, they manage to not only keep a modicum of taste against all odds, but also avoid being generic in any way.Ever since 1995's "Imaginations From the Other Side", the band has been a contradiction, resolutely maintaining a core sound based around a mixture of metal aggression, layered, operatic-yet-unpretentious vocals, guitar harmonies, and sweeping arrangements, yet surprising the listener with each new release. This time around, the band has decided to release a concept album yet again, but with the benefit of hindsight. Unlike "Nightfall in Middle Earth", there are no clumsy spoken word tracks interrupting the flow of things; everything is conveyed through songs. The storyline is also "relatively" original, even if they borrowed a few concepts/names from Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and is connected to the story established in songs from "Imaginations From the Other Side". The album can best be musically described as a mix of the forward-thinking approach of "A Night At the Opera", and the mix of orchestrated power metal and speedy numbers that dominated their last album, "At the Edge of Time". Whereas "Edge of Time" was more diverse in its selection of songs, but was just a tad predictable in trying to please fans disappointed by "A Twist in the Myth", "Beyond the Red Mirror" is a harder listen, as the songs seem intertwine with each other a bit, and sometimes don't have the same distinctive individual personality of its predecessor.None of this is a terrible thing, though. While "The Ninth Wave" isn't as strong an album-opener as "Sacred Worlds" was, and "Twilight of the Gods" is a bit underwhelming as the album's single, once "Prophecies" kicks in, the rest of the album really starts steamrolling. It should be noted this is a review of the "media book" version of the album, which contains an extra track, "Distant Memories"....which should've been in the standard version as well, as it's not just some bonus track that didn't make the cut (and the band knows it, as they placed it in the middle of the album). "At the Edge of Time" (yes, like Queen, they released a song named after a prior album) starts off very innocuously, and continuously builds into an absolutely huge, raging epic, a soundtrack selection for a panoramic scene in a movie never filmed. "The Holy Grail", "The Throne", and "Sacred Mind" absolutely kill in a fast, aggressive manner that beats out "A Voice in the Dark" and "Ride Into Obsession" from the last album. And while I'm not sure if Hansi Kursch's assertion that closing number "Grand Parade" is the greatest song they've ever recorded is accurate, it's incredibly huge sounding, and larger than life. It's truly a massive ending, akin to "Wheel of Time" or "A Dark Passage". I should also mention that the band returns to throwing in modern touches, such as electronic drum treatments, and use of rhythmic "noises", which they more or less abandoned on ATEOT.But nothing is perfect in this world, or the one on the other side of the mirror, and so it must be said that the production on this album is....somewhat trying. In the process of jamming so much in the way of orchestration, choirs, lead vocals and layered guitars, things get a bit.....hard to listen to, so to speak. And here, the primary casualty is the drumming, as is most obvious on the first two tracks, where only the bass kick seems to have any real prominence. As it stands, this album requires some getting used to, in part due to the busy and lopsided mixing. I foolishly first listened to it after having only gotten 4-5 hours of sleep that day, and drifted off to sleep pretty early. But guess what? As I lay in a hazy fog of exhaustion, I could hear "At the Edge of Time" progressing from a whisper to a full-on roar, akin to an armada crossing a vast nebula toward the event horizon of a black hole, or an army marching from out of the mountains to storm a keep in the vale below. And I knew I had to listen again come the morning on my way to work. And so I did. Again. And again. Resistance was indeed futile.It's worth sticking with it, even if it doesn't immediately grab you, much in the way that "A Night At The Opera" really grew on me after getting past the initial weirdness, and doesn't require the listener to "force" oneself to like it. All the classic Blind Guardian elements are there in full force, in all their loveably overambitious, earnest, hearts on their sleeve grandeur. And make no mistake, there are Crowning Moments of Awesome(tm) everywhere you look, and none of it seems tacky or unnatural. Do yourself a favor, and get this CD.