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Trollheart · 10-14-2013, 11:36 AM

Perhaps odd, perhaps not, that the second in our "Triple Box Set" feature is again centring on a heavy metal band, but this is Metal Month and I wanted to do one of these for it. Had I not already reviewed the Virgin Steele triumvirate then that would have been perfect for this, but as I don't always know in advance what kinds of ideas I'm going to have from one week to the next I uploaded that when I thought the time was right, and it was well received. That band I knew something of, being a minor fan in my youth, but I can't say the same for Helloween. I know their reputation and like their music, but this will be the first time I've reviewed one, never mind three, albums by them. As is the format here, the three albums have to be linked. Often this can just be the fact that they're by the same band, but I like to try to establish a more concrete connection between the three than that. So here I've chosen what is essentially seen as a three-volume epic, with a gap of seventeen years between the second and third in the trilogy.

Generally accepted as some of the band's best work, the "Keeper of the Seven Keys" series begins with the first album in 1987, followed by the second the next year. This was partially because the label refused to allow Helloween to release a double album to showcase their new lineup, featuring eighteen-year-old Michael Kiske taking over vocals from guitarist and previously also singer Kai Hansen, and partly because of the perhaps unexpected success of the first album which must have taken the label by surprise and made them kick themselves for vetoing the idea of a double.

Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I --- Helloween --- 1987 (Noise)

The opener is a short instrumental, very prog metal, called "The initiation", and quite cinematic with choral vocals, marching drums and Kai Hansen's guitar growling all over it. It leads directly into "I'm alive", the first track proper, and the first on which we hear what the new guy behind the mike can do. Michael Kiske certainly gives it his all, and perhaps the title might provide some of the impetus as he attempts to stamp his own identity on the song, cementing forever his place in heavy metal history, and in the annals of Helloween lore. Freed of the constraints of trying to double as vocalist, Kai Hansen is able to give full vent to his guitar work, and the track thunders along with power and passion, energy and a definite sense of intention. Great guitar solos pepper the song, and in fact it's fair to say that Kiske plays really a minor part in it, with most of its three-and-a-half-minutes taken up by Hansen's guitar histrionics. "A little time" then provides more of the same, bouncing along on a very Maidenesque rhythm, with Kiske even emulating the "Oh-Oh-Ohhh!" that Dickinson tended to utilise back in the eighties.

The young lad doesn't seem strained on any of the vocal work so far, with a very controlled and yet powerful voice: he never screams or roars, nor seems to feel the need to growl. In some ways I would rate him as more a powerful AOR vocalist than a metal one, which is not meant as an insult or a slight, but I could hear him singing over keyboards as easily as he does here over Hansen's guitars. Co-guitarist Michael Weikath is also credited on the album but it appears he had injured his hand and was unable to play for much of the recording, leaving the axework pretty much in Kiske's hands. And what capable hands they are! "Twilight of the gods" ramps everything up to ten, with a galloping drumbeat from Ingo Schwichtenberg and thumping bass from Markus Grosskopf, Hansen's fretwork so good that at times it sounds like keyboards. Kiske is all over this, vying with the likes of Manowar and Hammerfall as he puts all the passion he can into his voice. Even so though, and considering the title and your expectations of the subject matter, this is where Helloween step beyond the likes of Manowar and Virgin Steele, with the lyric actually concerning not the old Nordic gods of Asgard but a war between superpowerful artificial intelligences on a distant planet. Kiske sings mournfully "Silicon brain powered voices /Are crying "attack" tonight/ Our gods are now fighting/ In anger, burning our world." Certainly not what I expected from this song.

You can see why Helloween became one of the emerging talents and driving forces behind the power metal movement, and there's so much of them in today's power metal bands. An almost acoustic guitar intro gets us into "A tale that wasn't right" with a style which is sort of a cross between Gary Moore and Ross the Boss of Manowar. A slower song, it gives Kiske a chance to relax his vocal and yet stretch it, as he enunciates each word perfectly, hitting the higher notes with ease as the song breaks into something more of a punchier feel. Mind you, as with many power metal ballads, the lyrics aren't anything to write home about: "In my heart, in my soul/ I really hate to pay this toll/ Should be strong, young and bold/ But the only thing I feel is pain." Um, I know how ya feel, Mike! The album is really quite a Kai Hansen vehicle, the guitarist writing six of the eight tracks, and five of those solo. This is one of the only ones on which he has no input, although he does collaborate with his fretmate Weikath on the closer, but here the other axeman writes this solo. The next one up was chosen as the album's single, and "Future world" is a powerful slab of grinding metal, a good example of some of the best Helloween can churn out, with a guitar riff that's a little too close to Maiden's "22 Acacia Avenue" for my liking, at least at the start.

As I mentioned, there are only eight tracks on this album, and one of those a short instrumental that opens the album. However, that is offset by the penultimate track, "Halloween", which I suppose could almost be seen as the band's signature tune despite the replacement of an "e" with an "a" in the word. It's a truly epic piece, running for over thirteen minutes, a big spooky guitar intro kicking it off with something similar to the opener, keyboard samples and choral vocals before it jumps into life alonsgside the twin rails of Hansen's snarling guitar and Schw -- Swic --- Schc -- Look, let's just call him Ingo, all right? It's easier to write --- Ingo's punch-your-face-in drumming. Four minutes in and the pace hasn't slackened once, and when Kiske screams you just hear Bruce Dickinson. Again, it's intended as a compliment. A great solo from Hansen takes us into the fifth minute, then it slows down on a sort of a horror violin sound as Kiske warns of the horrors that stalk the streets on this most supernatural of nights: "A knock at your door/ Is it real or is it a dream?/ On trembling legs you open the door/ And you scream. . . .on Halloween!" Yeah, I'm shakin'...

Another fine solo and we're heading into the seventh minute, then jangly guitar introduces something of a break in the music as Kiske delivers another powerful yet restrained vocal performance and Hansen winds up for yet another screaming trip up and down the fretboard.Slowing everything down then on the back of a military slowbeat before it all takes off again with some mad backing vocals, but I would have to say I find this track unnecessarily long. It's not that it feels overstretched or repetitive, and there's some great guitar work in it, but I think thirteen minutes was probably pushing it a bit. Maybe they wanted it to reflect the superstitous connotations of that number? I don't know, but I think eight or less would have been fine. Nonetheless, it's a great track and good value for money given that there are only seven other tracks on the album, two of which are short ones.

Speaking of which, the album winds down then on "Follow the sign", the song on which Hansen teams up with his guitarist compatriot, essentially an instrumental that bookends the album. It's decent but I have to say nothing special, and a bit of a disappointment as a closer.

TRACKLISTING

1. Initiation
2. I'm alive
3. A little time
4. Twilight of the Gods
5. A tale that wasn't right
6. Future world
7. Halloween
8. Follow the sign

Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part II --- Helloween --- 1988 (Noise)

Much less a Kai Hansen production this time around, the followup to the wildly successful part 1 contains only three songs written by the guitarist, with four penned by the other axeman, who had by now recovered and was able to play both guitars and, for the first time, keyboards. Having written one track on the previous album Michael Kiske adds another two here. But it's Weikath who gets things rolling with two compositions, the opener another instrumental, loosely it would seem based around Pachelbel's Canon in D Major before one of the songs which would become a fan favourite and a mainstay of their set, "Eagle fly free" gets things underway. It will in fact not be until near the latter part of the album that we hear the contributions from Hansen in terms of songwriting. Ingo's maniacal drumming drives the beat and keeps this song rocking at full speed, while both Hansen and Weikath let fly with some great solos, though perhaps the standout solo of the song is the one on fretless bass, courtesy of Markus Grosskopf. It's interesting to see Helloween tackling some quasi-political themes here, though the lyric is laughable really: "Hey, we think so supersonic/ And we make our bombs atomic /Or the better quite neutronic/ But the poor don't see a dime." Yeah, I know they're German but I don't think that excuses such poor writing. However it is to be fair a pretty prevalent problem throughtout the genre, where "if it rhymes, use it" seems to be the mantra, with very little if any consideration given to whether the lines scan or make sense. Still, there's no doubting the classic status of the song, and it does have a very impressive and powerful vocal ending from Kiske.

The first song written by the singer is "You always walk alone", which despite its balladic sound is anything but, a real headbanger with thumping guitars and a brain-melting rhythm. He sings really well, does Kiske, but I can't stop comparing him to Bruce Dickinson, as I really think the two sound quite similar, both in tone and style. Still, there are worse vocalists to be compared with! Decent lyric too, with lines like "Look at the drunk man, look into his eyes /See his strong hands/ But tomorrow they will tremble cold as ice" and "But if you can't see the life around/ You'll always walk alone." A grinding solo from Hansen with plenty of echo and then a kind of semi-boogie rhythm before the song takes off again on the back of Weikath's guitar, while "Rise and fall" has an almost punkish guitar melding with a Queen vibe, but it has some of the worst lyrics I've ever heard and it ends really weirdly. I mean, really weirdly. The approach of dark footsteps then drive in "Dr. Stein", one of the singles taken from the album and another song that would go to be a favourite. Not as breakneck as the previous song, or indeed any of the preceding ones, and betrays some of the dark humour that would leak into some of their later albums.

There's a nice bassy intro to "We got the right", the other song written by Kiske, which hammers along nicely once it gets going, again not as heads-down speed metal as much of the rest of the album with a nice little introspective guitar solo in the middle. There's also a sense of Thin Lizzy and, again, Queen, in the later guitar work in the song, with some nice choral vocals, presumably made by Weikath on the synth. Quite a commercial song in its way, it's probably one of the better ones on the album so far, and is followed by "March of time", the first Hansen contribution, which kicks down on the pedal and racks the speed all the way back up. Kiske in is fine voice on this, almost dramatic at times. Another rip-roaring solo from Hansen as Ingo bashes away on the drumkit and keeps everything ultra-heavy, then "I want out" is another single and another popular track, boogeying along nicely with a great guitar attack, a lower register vocal from Kiske, until he hits the chorus that is. Good vocal harmonies on this too, and I can see why it was chosen as a single. Very anthemic, very much playing into the disaffected youth angle, mucho dinero to be made. Some of the best lyrics on the album too, quite prog metal in feel: "Hours of lust, hours of tears passing by before my eyes/ Today, tomorrow, yesterday...one life /Days of joy, day of sadness come and go /To pass me by/ A month, a year, one hundred years, they fly."

I'm rather surprised to find that the title track, another thirteen-minuter, is written by Weikath on his own. That's quite an achievement. It's introduced on a soft little acoustic guitar, a gentle vocal from Kiske with some attendant keyboard lines, but this lasts for less than a minute before the heavy electric guitar powers in and Kiske's vocal changes to meet it. Uptempo percussion cuts in as the song develops and runs into its second minute, then a really surprising vocal hook appears in the chorus, almost incongruous to the previous parts of the song. This track slides into the progressive metal area, with a lovely Gilmouresque solo from Hansen in the eighth minute as the whole thing slows down into a nice blues vibe. Of course this doesn't last and the song builds up in power and intensity again as it heads into the final section, Hansen bringing in some classic influences as he flirts with Bach's "Tocatta and fugue" during one of the solos. Nice!

A powerful, dramatic and thrilling end to the track wraps this up, and indeed did originally signal the end of the album too, as this was the last track on the vinyl version, but when re-recorded for digital media there was an extra track added, and "Save us" is the closer now, with a rather confused, NASA-style monologue opening a hard rocker that cannons along, and it's good but I think the vinyl album ended better with the title track. This almost seems tacked on, which I guess in some ways it is.

TRACKLISTING

1. Invitation
2. Eagle fly free
3. You always walk alone
4. Rise and fall
5. Dr. Stein
6. We got the right
7. March of time
8. I want out
9. Keeper of the seven keys
10. Save us

10-14-2013, 11:36 AM	#1952 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,971	Perhaps odd, perhaps not, that the second in our "Triple Box Set" feature is again centring on a heavy metal band, but this is Metal Month and I wanted to do one of these for it. Had I not already reviewed the Virgin Steele triumvirate then that would have been perfect for this, but as I don't always know in advance what kinds of ideas I'm going to have from one week to the next I uploaded that when I thought the time was right, and it was well received. That band I knew something of, being a minor fan in my youth, but I can't say the same for Helloween. I know their reputation and like their music, but this will be the first time I've reviewed one, never mind three, albums by them. As is the format here, the three albums have to be linked. Often this can just be the fact that they're by the same band, but I like to try to establish a more concrete connection between the three than that. So here I've chosen what is essentially seen as a three-volume epic, with a gap of seventeen years between the second and third in the trilogy. Generally accepted as some of the band's best work, the "Keeper of the Seven Keys" series begins with the first album in 1987, followed by the second the next year. This was partially because the label refused to allow Helloween to release a double album to showcase their new lineup, featuring eighteen-year-old Michael Kiske taking over vocals from guitarist and previously also singer Kai Hansen, and partly because of the perhaps unexpected success of the first album which must have taken the label by surprise and made them kick themselves for vetoing the idea of a double. Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I --- Helloween --- 1987 (Noise) The opener is a short instrumental, very prog metal, called "The initiation", and quite cinematic with choral vocals, marching drums and Kai Hansen's guitar growling all over it. It leads directly into "I'm alive", the first track proper, and the first on which we hear what the new guy behind the mike can do. Michael Kiske certainly gives it his all, and perhaps the title might provide some of the impetus as he attempts to stamp his own identity on the song, cementing forever his place in heavy metal history, and in the annals of Helloween lore. Freed of the constraints of trying to double as vocalist, Kai Hansen is able to give full vent to his guitar work, and the track thunders along with power and passion, energy and a definite sense of intention. Great guitar solos pepper the song, and in fact it's fair to say that Kiske plays really a minor part in it, with most of its three-and-a-half-minutes taken up by Hansen's guitar histrionics. "A little time" then provides more of the same, bouncing along on a very Maidenesque rhythm, with Kiske even emulating the "Oh-Oh-Ohhh!" that Dickinson tended to utilise back in the eighties. The young lad doesn't seem strained on any of the vocal work so far, with a very controlled and yet powerful voice: he never screams or roars, nor seems to feel the need to growl. In some ways I would rate him as more a powerful AOR vocalist than a metal one, which is not meant as an insult or a slight, but I could hear him singing over keyboards as easily as he does here over Hansen's guitars. Co-guitarist Michael Weikath is also credited on the album but it appears he had injured his hand and was unable to play for much of the recording, leaving the axework pretty much in Kiske's hands. And what capable hands they are! "Twilight of the gods" ramps everything up to ten, with a galloping drumbeat from Ingo Schwichtenberg and thumping bass from Markus Grosskopf, Hansen's fretwork so good that at times it sounds like keyboards. Kiske is all over this, vying with the likes of Manowar and Hammerfall as he puts all the passion he can into his voice. Even so though, and considering the title and your expectations of the subject matter, this is where Helloween step beyond the likes of Manowar and Virgin Steele, with the lyric actually concerning not the old Nordic gods of Asgard but a war between superpowerful artificial intelligences on a distant planet. Kiske sings mournfully "Silicon brain powered voices /Are crying "attack" tonight/ Our gods are now fighting/ In anger, burning our world." Certainly not what I expected from this song. You can see why Helloween became one of the emerging talents and driving forces behind the power metal movement, and there's so much of them in today's power metal bands. An almost acoustic guitar intro gets us into "A tale that wasn't right" with a style which is sort of a cross between Gary Moore and Ross the Boss of Manowar. A slower song, it gives Kiske a chance to relax his vocal and yet stretch it, as he enunciates each word perfectly, hitting the higher notes with ease as the song breaks into something more of a punchier feel. Mind you, as with many power metal ballads, the lyrics aren't anything to write home about: "In my heart, in my soul/ I really hate to pay this toll/ Should be strong, young and bold/ But the only thing I feel is pain." Um, I know how ya feel, Mike! The album is really quite a Kai Hansen vehicle, the guitarist writing six of the eight tracks, and five of those solo. This is one of the only ones on which he has no input, although he does collaborate with his fretmate Weikath on the closer, but here the other axeman writes this solo. The next one up was chosen as the album's single, and "Future world" is a powerful slab of grinding metal, a good example of some of the best Helloween can churn out, with a guitar riff that's a little too close to Maiden's "22 Acacia Avenue" for my liking, at least at the start. As I mentioned, there are only eight tracks on this album, and one of those a short instrumental that opens the album. However, that is offset by the penultimate track, "Halloween", which I suppose could almost be seen as the band's signature tune despite the replacement of an "e" with an "a" in the word. It's a truly epic piece, running for over thirteen minutes, a big spooky guitar intro kicking it off with something similar to the opener, keyboard samples and choral vocals before it jumps into life alonsgside the twin rails of Hansen's snarling guitar and Schw -- Swic --- Schc -- Look, let's just call him Ingo, all right? It's easier to write --- Ingo's punch-your-face-in drumming. Four minutes in and the pace hasn't slackened once, and when Kiske screams you just hear Bruce Dickinson. Again, it's intended as a compliment. A great solo from Hansen takes us into the fifth minute, then it slows down on a sort of a horror violin sound as Kiske warns of the horrors that stalk the streets on this most supernatural of nights: "A knock at your door/ Is it real or is it a dream?/ On trembling legs you open the door/ And you scream. . . .on Halloween!" Yeah, I'm shakin'... Another fine solo and we're heading into the seventh minute, then jangly guitar introduces something of a break in the music as Kiske delivers another powerful yet restrained vocal performance and Hansen winds up for yet another screaming trip up and down the fretboard.Slowing everything down then on the back of a military slowbeat before it all takes off again with some mad backing vocals, but I would have to say I find this track unnecessarily long. It's not that it feels overstretched or repetitive, and there's some great guitar work in it, but I think thirteen minutes was probably pushing it a bit. Maybe they wanted it to reflect the superstitous connotations of that number? I don't know, but I think eight or less would have been fine. Nonetheless, it's a great track and good value for money given that there are only seven other tracks on the album, two of which are short ones. Speaking of which, the album winds down then on "Follow the sign", the song on which Hansen teams up with his guitarist compatriot, essentially an instrumental that bookends the album. It's decent but I have to say nothing special, and a bit of a disappointment as a closer. TRACKLISTING 1. Initiation 2. I'm alive 3. A little time 4. Twilight of the Gods 5. A tale that wasn't right 6. Future world 7. Halloween 8. Follow the sign Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part II --- Helloween --- 1988 (Noise) Much less a Kai Hansen production this time around, the followup to the wildly successful part 1 contains only three songs written by the guitarist, with four penned by the other axeman, who had by now recovered and was able to play both guitars and, for the first time, keyboards. Having written one track on the previous album Michael Kiske adds another two here. But it's Weikath who gets things rolling with two compositions, the opener another instrumental, loosely it would seem based around Pachelbel's Canon in D Major before one of the songs which would become a fan favourite and a mainstay of their set, "Eagle fly free" gets things underway. It will in fact not be until near the latter part of the album that we hear the contributions from Hansen in terms of songwriting. Ingo's maniacal drumming drives the beat and keeps this song rocking at full speed, while both Hansen and Weikath let fly with some great solos, though perhaps the standout solo of the song is the one on fretless bass, courtesy of Markus Grosskopf. It's interesting to see Helloween tackling some quasi-political themes here, though the lyric is laughable really: "Hey, we think so supersonic/ And we make our bombs atomic /Or the better quite neutronic/ But the poor don't see a dime." Yeah, I know they're German but I don't think that excuses such poor writing. However it is to be fair a pretty prevalent problem throughtout the genre, where "if it rhymes, use it" seems to be the mantra, with very little if any consideration given to whether the lines scan or make sense. Still, there's no doubting the classic status of the song, and it does have a very impressive and powerful vocal ending from Kiske. The first song written by the singer is "You always walk alone", which despite its balladic sound is anything but, a real headbanger with thumping guitars and a brain-melting rhythm. He sings really well, does Kiske, but I can't stop comparing him to Bruce Dickinson, as I really think the two sound quite similar, both in tone and style. Still, there are worse vocalists to be compared with! Decent lyric too, with lines like "Look at the drunk man, look into his eyes /See his strong hands/ But tomorrow they will tremble cold as ice" and "But if you can't see the life around/ You'll always walk alone." A grinding solo from Hansen with plenty of echo and then a kind of semi-boogie rhythm before the song takes off again on the back of Weikath's guitar, while "Rise and fall" has an almost punkish guitar melding with a Queen vibe, but it has some of the worst lyrics I've ever heard and it ends really weirdly. I mean, really weirdly. The approach of dark footsteps then drive in "Dr. Stein", one of the singles taken from the album and another song that would go to be a favourite. Not as breakneck as the previous song, or indeed any of the preceding ones, and betrays some of the dark humour that would leak into some of their later albums. There's a nice bassy intro to "We got the right", the other song written by Kiske, which hammers along nicely once it gets going, again not as heads-down speed metal as much of the rest of the album with a nice little introspective guitar solo in the middle. There's also a sense of Thin Lizzy and, again, Queen, in the later guitar work in the song, with some nice choral vocals, presumably made by Weikath on the synth. Quite a commercial song in its way, it's probably one of the better ones on the album so far, and is followed by "March of time", the first Hansen contribution, which kicks down on the pedal and racks the speed all the way back up. Kiske in is fine voice on this, almost dramatic at times. Another rip-roaring solo from Hansen as Ingo bashes away on the drumkit and keeps everything ultra-heavy, then "I want out" is another single and another popular track, boogeying along nicely with a great guitar attack, a lower register vocal from Kiske, until he hits the chorus that is. Good vocal harmonies on this too, and I can see why it was chosen as a single. Very anthemic, very much playing into the disaffected youth angle, mucho dinero to be made. Some of the best lyrics on the album too, quite prog metal in feel: "Hours of lust, hours of tears passing by before my eyes/ Today, tomorrow, yesterday...one life /Days of joy, day of sadness come and go /To pass me by/ A month, a year, one hundred years, they fly." I'm rather surprised to find that the title track, another thirteen-minuter, is written by Weikath on his own. That's quite an achievement. It's introduced on a soft little acoustic guitar, a gentle vocal from Kiske with some attendant keyboard lines, but this lasts for less than a minute before the heavy electric guitar powers in and Kiske's vocal changes to meet it. Uptempo percussion cuts in as the song develops and runs into its second minute, then a really surprising vocal hook appears in the chorus, almost incongruous to the previous parts of the song. This track slides into the progressive metal area, with a lovely Gilmouresque solo from Hansen in the eighth minute as the whole thing slows down into a nice blues vibe. Of course this doesn't last and the song builds up in power and intensity again as it heads into the final section, Hansen bringing in some classic influences as he flirts with Bach's "Tocatta and fugue" during one of the solos. Nice! A powerful, dramatic and thrilling end to the track wraps this up, and indeed did originally signal the end of the album too, as this was the last track on the vinyl version, but when re-recorded for digital media there was an extra track added, and "Save us" is the closer now, with a rather confused, NASA-style monologue opening a hard rocker that cannons along, and it's good but I think the vinyl album ended better with the title track. This almost seems tacked on, which I guess in some ways it is. TRACKLISTING 1. Invitation 2. Eagle fly free 3. You always walk alone 4. Rise and fall 5. Dr. Stein 6. We got the right 7. March of time 8. I want out 9. Keeper of the seven keys 10. Save us __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 10-22-2013 at 05:09 PM.