Now is when I say They are Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Rated this album with 10 out of 10) Reviewed by
antiradioandmtv
from Miami, FLUSA
Helloween is one of the best Metal Bands in history. They created the Power Metal.They appeared in the Metal world with a strength never heard and seen before. Their first three albums, The Walls of Jerricho and The Keepers of the Seven Keys I and II are classics. However, after the Keepers II, Kai Hansen left and the band released two albums that were just bad. "Pink Bubbles go Ape" and "Chameleon". Problems with the labels, the fact that Kiske left and the death of their first and excellent drummer, Ingo, almost finnished the band. However in 1995 they released "Master of the Rings" which was a good comeback. Then, "The Time of the Oath" and the, in my opinion underrated, "Better than Raw" and "The Dark Ride". To me, those last 4 albums were ok. Specially "Better than Raw" but there was something missing. I know Kiske is not coming back and that Kai Hansen will play and write with Weikath again only in my dreams but I still felt that they needed something. In the 21st century, the problems began again. The Guitarrist Roland Grapow and the drummer Uli Kusch left (Or they got fired).The new musicians had to be not only good. They had to be great live performers too and be able to be at least as good as the last too.The only good song written by Grapow in the last album was "The Dark Ride". And he he didn't write in "Better than Raw". His ideas were more related to what you can hear in his new band "Masterplan". Grapow and Kusch were replaced by Sasha Gertsner ( fromFreedom Call) and the new drummer Mark Cross (From Metalium) but he got sick and was replaced for the studio work by Mikkey Dee (from Motorhead). It seems that somebody said something like "The rabbit won't come out easy" and they decided to call the album like that ( You guys can have your own opinion regarding to that). The album starts so strong with the excellent"Just a Little Sign". The next songs are good. Almost all of them. Everyone writtes. Weikath, as usual, the one that writtes the most. Even Grosskopf writes here. Now, Deris sounds better than ever in my opinion. Is the first time that I listen to him and I don't want Kiske instead. I think that finally he can make almost everyone stop thinking about Kiske all the time. Kiske was maybe the best singer involved in Metal ( One on one with Dickenson, and maybe Kiske was better. Maybe) but is time to led the guy in the past. Enjoy the Keepers but don't miss Kiske even now in 2004. Every song is good. "Liar" is excellent ."Don't Stop being crazy" is really good too (Is more or lessa ballad...yeah the idea is...a "ballad"). This could've been a perfect album except for the last track "Nothing to say". Is not good. It sounds like a poor description but that's what it is. I don't know if my ears have a problem but I think that I heard some "reggae" (I'm not kidding. Seriously I think that a little bit of "reggae" is in that song.) To me, the album is over with Track 11 "Listen to The Flies". This is the album that the Helloween fans have been waiting for years. Metallica said they were gonna go back to their "roots" and they came up with a piece of crap. When Metallica failed delivering a pathetic Pop album, Helloween came out as a winner that delivered the perfect balance between the "old school" sound and the new generation's technique. As other reviewers said, this is a happy album.I think that that happiness is what other Helloween's fams and I were expecting and it was what the band was missing. I hadn't heard such a happy sound with Helloween since the Keepers II. Good for Helloween. good for Metal and good for Music. HAPPY (...)
