Imaginations from the Other Side: what is waiting behind the frame?
A carved golden frame opens onto a stormy fantasy world, with a dragon coiled in the middle of it. Outside the frame, a bard and a hooded figure keep watch. Pick a side.
A huge golden frame, carved with grinning faces and spread wings, stands on a dark desk. Inside it lies a whole other world: jagged hills, a lonely tower, a sky torn between storm and sunlight, and right in the middle a black dragon coiled around a long spiked shaft. Outside the frame, on the left, an old bearded bard in red plays a stringed instrument. On the right, a grey hooded figure stands perfectly still. In front of it all lie a book with the album title, a black quill and a bottle of ink.
Someone has been writing a story here. And the frame looks very much like a way in.
A mirror to another world
That fits the song perfectly. According to the band, the title track is about imagination itself, and it nods to the escape routes every child knows: The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and the Chronicles of Narnia. In the story, a child slips through a mirror into an Arthurian world of swords, dragons and quests, and then has to come back to real life. Twenty years later Blind Guardian picked the story up again on Beyond the Red Mirror, where the other side has fallen into darkness.
The painter
The cover is the work of the painter Andreas Marschall, whose name you can spot in the lower left corner. His partnership with the band began with Tales from the Twilight World in 1990, and he painted the covers of the three studio albums that followed it. He has also worked for bands like Running Wild, HammerFall and Dimmu Borgir, and he has a second life making horror films.
A long winter in Copenhagen
The album was recorded at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen between August 1994 and March 1995, with producer Flemming Rasmussen, the man behind Metallica's Ride the Lightning. Guitarist Marcus Siepen later said Rasmussen took the band to a whole new level. Imaginations from the Other Side came out on 4 April 1995. The line-up was Hansi Kürsch on vocals and bass, André Olbrich and Marcus Siepen on guitars, and Thomen Stauch on drums. It was the last album with Hansi on bass, and the first Blind Guardian record to spin off singles, A Past and Future Secret and Bright Eyes.
About the poster
This is the Imaginations from the Other Side sleeve printed as a 50 × 70 cm (20 × 28 in) portrait poster, from 2025. It is an original magazine insert, never hung, with no staple holes, folded three times as issued. The sheet is double-sided, with Death "Symbolic" on the back.
Browse all original Blind Guardian posters.
Quick answers
Who painted the Imaginations from the Other Side cover?
Andreas Marschall, the painter who made Blind Guardian's covers from Tales from the Twilight World onwards in the nineties.
What is Imaginations from the Other Side about?
The title track is about imagination itself. A child escapes through a mirror into an Arthurian fantasy world and later returns, with nods to The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Narnia.
When was Imaginations from the Other Side released?
On 4 April 1995. It was recorded in Copenhagen with producer Flemming Rasmussen.
How big is the poster?
50 × 70 cm (about 20 × 28 inches), portrait. It is a separate insert, so it has no staple holes, and it is folded three times as issued.
What is on the other side?
Death "Symbolic". The sheet is double-sided, so you choose which cover goes on the wall.