Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy --- Helloween --- 2005 (Steamhammer)
A double album to link the two previous ones, it was seventeen years later that this album was released and a lot had changed within Helloween. Michael Kiske had been fired, and Kai Hansen had also left, so the basic core of the band that had recorded KotSK parts one and two was no more. In Kiske's place we find Andi Deris, with Michael Weikath now the main guitarist, backed by Sascha Gertsner and even Ingo is gone, replaced on drums by Dani Loble. The album kicks off with a very progressive metal sound, a spoken intro over dark melodies on the keys and then we launch into already the longest track on disc one, "The king for a thousand years", clocking in at almost fourteen minutes. It utilises more of the keyboards than had been the case on the other two albums, so much so that there are "additional keyboards" credited to Dersis and Gerstner, while the actual main keysman appears as a guest musician. The guitars of Weikath and Gerstner don't hold back either though, and you can hear the difference right away in vocals when Dersis gets going. His voice is a little more ragged, raw and less polished I think than Kirske's, more prone to growl and snarl than his predecessor was, but still a good singer.
The sound on at least the first track is very much more rooted in the progressive metal sound than were either of the other two albums, with sound effects and choral vocals, and generally a slower sound than much on either part 1 or 2. The song seems to have a lot more in it than either of the two epics from the previous albums though, as I'm rather surprised to look and see we're already into the tenth minute, and this track hasn't dragged or plodded at all. It picks up in speed near the end, hitting more the power metal vibe I had been used to with the last two recordings, but still a sense of bands like Kamelot in the mix. I suppose it's an indication of Helloween's confidence in their ability and the loyalty of their fanbase that they could start an album off with such an epic, but it seems to work.
Michael Weikath appears to have, by this time, stepped back from the songwriting, and only three of the thirteen tracks across the two discs here are penned by him solo, with the opener a group effort. Even at that, the lyrics here have improved considerably ---
"We are king for a 1000 years/ We are king of a million tears/ We're the ones who bring desire/ Blinding their greed and fears/ We are king of fallen men." Andi Deris, in fact, seems to have taken on the lion's share of the composition, most of it by himself: he pens five tracks on his own and collaborates on two others, not counting the opening epic. "The invisible man" is a little more uptempo but still nothing like the breakneck speed we've heard on the previous two albums, with a lot of really catchy hooks in it, though this one is mostly driven by the guitar sound of Weikath and Gerstner, with some fine soloing. I must say, I've nothing against Deris but I miss the clearer, purer voice of Michael Kiske, and think that Helloween suffered from his loss.
One thing I do notice about Helloween is that for a metal band they're not afraid to embrace their, shall we say, Christian side, with songs about angels and gods, Heaven and Jesus, titles like "Mrs God" and "Born on Judgement Day" and with Satan, when he appears, seen not as an ally but a foe, not as a role model or "dark lord" but as something to be fought. Of course, much of their lyrical content is at the very least humourous or tongue-in-cheek, and I'd never think to accuse Deris and Co. of being a Christian metal band --- perish the thought! --- but it's refreshing to see them shy from prayers to the devil or glorifying evil, even if many of the bands that do this have again their collective tongues wedged firmly in their cheek.
One of the only three songs written by Weikath, "Born on judgement day" (what is it with the American spelling, dropping the "e" after the "judg"? That's not how it's spelled!) kicks the tempo up another notch, with a big powerful chorus and a certain return to power metal on this, and surprisingly mature and heartfelt lyric, then "Pleasure drone" is fun but really nothing special, while "Mrs God", despite the controversial title, comes across almost as a new-wave pop song than a metal one. Very weird. Also the shortest track on the album, and features a rather odd vocal performance from Deris. Really don't like this one. Low point of the album for me. "Silent rain" happens to be the title of one of my favourite songs from Ten, but then you wouldn't know anything about that. It's a ballad on their album "Babylon", but not here. It's a fast rocker than closes disc one with a very Maiden feel to it (I know, I know!) and some fine unfettered drumming from Loble. If ever a Helloween song touched on a taboo subject, this one has the dirty handprints of child abuse and paedophilia all over it. Jarring stuff.
Disc two kicks off with another epic, the eleven-minute "Occasion Avenue", which features at its opening a radio tuning to different stations, all of which are, coincidentally, playing Helloween songs from the last two albums. Eventually an acoustic guitar introduces a distant, almost mono vocal before thick heavy bass and slow-pounding drumming ushers in the track fully, with choir-like vocal harmonies and heavy keyboards. The guitars and rhythm section then get going as the song trundles along, and it's hard and heavy but again nothing in the speed stakes to the last two albums in this series. The song has almost two separate identities, one being a fast hard rocker driven by the twin guitar attack of Weikath and Gerstner, the other is a sort of semi-cinematic, Dioesque grinder with the choral harmonies and keyboards laying down the soundscape, and "Occasion Avenue" kind of alternates between these two over the first six minutes of its run. A great little guitar solo takes it into the sixth minute after which the song gets a little stripped back, with a menacing, almost snarling vocal from Deris and echoing guitar and pulsing bass.
A military drumbeat then picks up as soft laidback keyboard and piano come in, the song slowing down now in the eighth minute in a very progressive vein before it comes back up on hard guitar and insistent bass, the choral vocals joining in now as the two halves of the song begin to meld, and it's quite a satisfying thing to hear. The first (only?) ballad on the album then features a duet between Deris and Candice Night, Mrs. Richie Blackmore, on the back of soft piano as "Light the universe" slows things down and gives us a chance to see how Deris handles the softer material. I must say he does quite well, though it's Night who makes the song. In fairness, I wouldn't put it up against some of the other great metal ballads I've heard, but it's a decent song, and Friedel Amon does a fine job on the piano. We're back rockin' and headbangin' then with "Do you know what you are fighting for", which has some really catchy guitar riffs and a good chorus, while "Come alive" has again certain elements of AOR (or at least, melodic metal) in it, with a song that I could hear on the radio with a lot of commercial potential.
A slow organ intro to "The shade in the shadow", but it quickly ramps up on frenetic guitar, with a pretty good vocal from Deris and things keep speeding along with the tongue-in-cheek titled "Get it up": some great guitar histrionics here. The album closes on "My life for one more day", not an epic but almost seven minutes long, and a good fast rocking closer. In fact, since "Light the universe" the pace hasn't really slackened once as the album pounds towards its conclusion. I still prefer Michael Kiske behind the mike, but Andi Deris is a decent replacement and this album a good followup, even if it's almost two decades later, to the first and second parts of this trilogy. Interestingly, the lyric to "My life for one more day" hint at a continuation of the story of the Seven Keys: in Part II they were thrown into the seven seas by the hero --- whom some say is Jesus; personally I don't see it --- but it would appear one has been recovered by the Lord of Lies as Deris sings
"Satan has taken and hidden painstakin'/ One of the Seven of Fate /Out of the sea; he has buried it/ Under the mountain of greed" and it would seem to be up to the hero --- new or old, I don't know: perhaps Helloween are talking to the fans here? --- to undertake the quest to retrieve it:
"The last key you have to find/ And so will save mankind ."
To be continued?
TRACKLISTING
DISC ONE
1. The king for a thousand years
2. The invisible man
3. Born on Judgement Day
4. Pleasure drone
5. Mrs. God
6. Silent rain
DISC TWO
1. Occasion Avenue
2. Light the universe
3. Do you know what you are fighting for
4. Come alive
5. The shade in the shadow
6. Get it up
7. My life for one more day
Great as these three albums are, and I can understand their place in the pantheon of metal divinity and their acceptance as being some of the first and seminal power metal albums, which laid down the basics for much of what was to follow, I don't get the link between them. Other than the name, and a vague reference to the Seven Keys in the closer to the 2005 album, there doesn't seem to be any common thread going through the three albums. There is no basic concept --- even within each album, that I can see --- and no recurring themes other than those we now associate with this genre. There's no story told, no tapestry revealed by the three albums, no overarching motif or story arc, so I have to wonder what links the three? Was it simply, in the case of the final album here, a marketing ploy to suck in those who had enjoyed the first two albums? Or is there something I'm missing? Rather like already-reviewed Virgin Steele's "The marriage of Heaven and Hell", there is to my eyes and ears nothing to tie the albums together.
Not that I suppose that matters too much, but unlike say Kamelot with "Epica" and "The black halo" or even Shadow Gallery with "Tyranny" and "Room V", neither album follows on smoothly from one to the other, and were they titled differently I doubt anyone would consider them related. That said, they are certainly three great power metal albums, although I wonder if seventeen years between the second and third parts was not asking a bit much from the fans.
Read more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helloween