BLIND GUARDIAN confirmed to play the following festivals this year:

20.06. ES        Zaragoza        - Metalway Festival
26.06. BE       Dessel            - Graspop Metal Meeting
27.06. GER    Balingen          - Bang Your Head
28.06. IT          Milan               - Gods Of Metal
04.07. SLO     Tolmin             - Metal Camp
11.07. CZ        Vizovice          - Masters Of Rock
12.09. PL        Plock               - Plock Festival

Besides that, vocalist Hansi Kürsch announces, that „we have already accomplished eight new songs. What can I say about these songs? They rule, of course. You want a more precise description? Impossible. All I can say is that each and every song is 100% Blind Guardian, which naturally means there is a wild bunch of different things going on from time to time (always?). According to atmospheres: we have everything from the more Nightfallish "Curse My Name", to the Scriptish "Wheel Of Time". In comparison to "A Twist In The Myth" the lyrical direction will be more on the fantasy side as you most probably can figure out by these titles. The song "Sacred" will give you an idea about the quality and the direction of the songs. We have mixed modern elements with traditional ones throughout the whole songs. We may need two or three more tracks before we can call it a complete album, but being that far in the songwriting process we nevertheless have made first plans for a production start in September or October 2009. Apart from songwriting we will be heavily engaged in preproduction activities and in playing festivals during the next months. As a majority of the new songs seem to demand a sort of "live" atmosphere, we consider it to be good idea breathing in some real "live" air before we will finally get lost in the "Twilight Hall studios" again. In accordance to these events I can promise you some surprising songs (though most probably no new ones) and a nice stage set up. In total we are not going to play more than ten shows, I would think. I am sure they all will turn out to be a great blast and a unique experience for everyone joining us.“