Blind Guardian is a German band which is often credited as one of the seminal and most influential bands in power metal and speed metal subgenres. It was formed in the mid-1980s in Krefeld, West Germany.

Blind Guardian lyrics, written by vocalist Hansi Kürsch, 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.