Staff picks

I'm about a month late for the exact anniversary, but Nightfall In Middle-Earth is 20 years old now, and for the last 10, it has been my favorite album of all time. Andre Olbrich's guitar solos, Hansi Kürsch's vocals, the songwriting, the production, the choirs, the drama, the emotion, the cover art, even the cavalcade of excessive interludes - just about every characteristic of this album is, for me, the gold standard by which that characteristic is measured in all other works of music. I can still clearly remember hearing "Nightfall" for the first time and thinking within the first ten seconds, "This is the perfect band for me." Ten years later, I feel the same sentiments I did that first time. Happy birthday, Nightfall. Happy anniversary, Bards of Metal.