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Blind Guardian - Trivia


The song "Battlefield" from their album A Night At The Opera has been used as soundtrack for the heavy metal edition of Adult Swim's browser game Robot Unicorn Attack.
Blind Guardian is the name of a quest in the role-playing game Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. The quest is started when the player talks with Hansi who asks for help in the search of all instruments of the band, robbed by undeads. When the quest is done, André, Marcus and Frederik appear and the player is rewarded with an in-game live concert alongside undead skeletons and orcs. The video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fakNlghOJY
Both Marcus and André have been models for a fashion catalogue back in the '70s.
André was forced to undertake a nerve surgery on his elbow during the 'Imaginations ...' recording session back in 1994.
A running joke on Blind Guardian's official forum declares that Andre, due to never posting on the boards or giving interviews, doesn't actually exist and is in reality a hologram.
In 1997, Hansi decided that a different bassist would allow for more complex parts, and allow himself to further his vocal technique both live and in the studio. Oliver Holzwarth was hired as a bassist for the album and for the tour. He is not a full member of the band, because Hansi may decide to play bass again, and has said he does not have the heart to put Oliver in the position that he may be fired.
Hansi considers "Imaginations..." to be the best album cover of Blind Guardian and "And Then There Was Silence" to be the best Blind Guardian song so far.
The rhythm guitarist Marcus Siepen once tried skateboarding, in September 2004. He went directly into a wall and broke his leg in four places. Quote from the official website: "He proved to be the lousiest skateboarder around, but at least he only breaks his legs, not his wrists" - this could have been considered a stab at Metallica's James Hetfield, who broke his arm several times while skateboarding and was unable to play guitar on tour.
Hansi has been working for 12 years on The Lord of the Rings orchestral project (negotiations failed to be included on Peter Jackson's movie soundtrack). Although it will not be a power metal album (meaning that there wont be any drums or electric guitars and bass), it will be published under the name of Blind Guardian because it matches the theme of the band's lyrics, as Hansi said.
The band was known as Lucifer's Heritage up to 1987.