Helloween's Reviews

Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 1

The beginning of a new sound in metal!Unbelievable

There isn't one person I can think of who listened to this album for the first time and disliked it...When Keeper Of The Seven Keys pt I came out, it was something totally new combined with some classical heavy metal elements. As many have stated, there was a bit of Iron Maiden (Number Of The Beast - Powerslave era) influences here and there and others believed that the music was very similar to Maiden but much faster...Well the truth is that Helloween had been influenced by Maiden, as many others, but they managed to produce a fresh new sound (for 1987) that wasn't just a copy of their influence. Except Maiden there are some Rainbow and very few Queensryche influences scattered in the album, which are fused together in an magnificent way. This band and especially Kay Hansen had an extraordinary talent and imagination to write most of the songs in the album. By combining the influences mentioned above together with very fast drumming, high pitched vocals, melodic and technical riffs with fabulous twin-guitar solos, Helloween achieved to lay the foundations for Power/Speed metal, as it is known today.
"I'm Alive", "Future World", "Twilight Of The Gods" and their masterpiece "Halloween" are still considered classics and for sure are some of the best and most epic speed metal songs ever written (together with Eagle Fly Free, pt II).

But except the captivating music, a new charismatic vocalist that no one had hared of before, Michael Kiske, joins the band to take this album to the skies! Influenced by Bruce Dickinson, Klaus Meine and Jeoff Tate but with much more emotion and range, especially in the high pitched vocal lines, 18 year old Kiske makes this album a MUST HAVE for any metal and hard rock fan. (M.Kiske is still considered one of the best vocalists in the heave metal genre)

Even if you are not a metal fun, this album will please you or even blow you away with the mythical and uplifting atmosphere it creates and the technically perfect orchestration it achieves. (Definitely check out Keeper Of The Seven Keys pt II!!)

Will be loved by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Queensryche, Rainbow...fans.

Buy this album on Amazon at $9.98