Frederik Ehmke — born in Germany in 1978 — has been Blind Guardian's drummer since 2005, when he replaced Thomen Stauch. His arrival coincides with a change in the band's scope. From A Twist in the Myth (2006) and above all At the Edge of Time (2010), Blind Guardian widened its use of acoustic and orchestral instrumentation, and Ehmke was the right musician for that moment: besides drums he plays flute, bagpipes and assorted percussion, and those lines appear on the records themselves. It is a rare versatility in metal. In a repertoire where tracks alternate stretches of fast power metal with passages of European folk music, having the same musician responsible for both gives the arrangement coherence instead of making it feel like collage. He recorded Legacy of the Dark Lands (2019), an entirely symphonic album, and The God Machine (2022), which marked the return to the heavier format. He remains in the current line-up, the longest-lasting in the band's recent history.
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