Blind Guardian is a German heavy metal band formed in the mid-1980s in Krefeld, West Germany. The band is often credited as one of the seminal and most influential bands in power metal and speed metal subgenres, being part of the German heavy/speed/power metal scene that included Helloween, Running Wild, Accept, Grave Digger, Sinner, and Rage.
Blind Guardian lyrics, written by vocalist Hansi Krsch, are inspired by the fiction of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Stephen King, and Michael Moorcock, as well as traditional legends and epics. Over the years, a running theme has developed associating the band members with traveling bards.