The God Machine

The God Machine, the eleventh studio album, came out on Nuclear Blast on 2 September 2022 as NB 5755-2. Victor Entertainment issued the Japanese editions the same day, a standard VICP-65603 and a two-disc deluxe edition, VICP-65601/2, and introduced it as the band's first studio album in about seven years under the band's name alone; in between came Legacy of the Dark Lands, the orchestral album billed to Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra. Hansi Kürsch called it a new beginning for the band. It was recorded at Twilight Hall Studios from March 2020 into 2021, produced by the band with Charlie Bauerfeind and mixed by Joost van den Broek, with Barend Courbois as the guest bassist. According to Victor the lyrics deal with modern witch hunts, paranoia, war and the death of Kürsch's mother. "Blood of the Elves" was inspired by The Witcher games, and as early as 2017 Kürsch had mentioned a heavy new song called "Architect of Doom". The sleeve, by the Magic: The Gathering illustrator Peter Mohrbacher, shows the fallen angel Gadriel. The songs arrived one by one: "Deliver Us From Evil" as a CD and vinyl single on 3 December 2021, "Blood of the Elves" on 27 May 2022, and on 29 July the studio version of "Violent Shadows", which had premiered at Wacken World Wide in 2020. Six of the nine songs have videos. The album runs nine songs and 51 minutes 3 seconds; it reached number 42 on Oricon in Japan and number 23 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart in the United States. The running order here is the original's as printed.