Dr. Stein, Mr. Murder, Mrs. God And Other Stories - The Offical Helloween Thread

[TheLoony]

Let me put it this way. The Kinks in 1983 were more of a heavy metal band than Soundagarden. I'd swear Soundgarden were wax figurines from Madame Tussauds.

Hopefully I'll remember why I said that. My train of thought is sketchy as I'm really not doing well.

So. First, there was Ritchie and Ronnie doing their Dungeons & Dragons imagery in Rainbow. Ten years later, the genre of Power Metal was born, in the wake of Rainbow, starting with Helloween. I realize many here wont dig this band as many aren't into the heavier side of things. For those who aren't and are, I'm maybe thinking I can convert some of you guys.

Yeah, right. Sure, sure.

Four pieces in the beginning. Kai Hansen on vocals. Not bad for a heavy metal band. I described them as Iron Maiden on speed. Pretty accurate, I must say. Twin guitar attack which is nice but it didn't take until Michael Kiske joined on vocals, then the classic albums were born. Here's a early show, before Kiske, that show this band had potential. Unfortunately, How Many Tears isn't on this first show. Ride The Sky, Guardians and Victim Of Fate are the highlight of this show.



Now we get to the good stuff. Keeper Of The Seven Keys, Part 1 &2. The only time I saw Helloween live was in '88, on the Keeper two tour and it was lame. They were not able to play the epics and it sucks, as Michael Kiske has a great voice but the stage presence only rivaling Soundgarden. I told you I might remember, and I did. Some guys have presence, and he doesn't. Watch his solo videos from after his stint in Helloween and you'll see what I mean.

But goddamn, his voice is unequaled in Rock as far as I'm concerned. Annie Haslem can hit those notes but I don't know of anyone who could do what he did in his prime. No joke. His ow register is awfully good too, listen to songs like We Got The Right, or A Tale That Wasn't Right.

The Epics. Keeper Part 1 & 2, yeh well, they don't speak English very well, so one must understand that when dealing with their concept albums. You don't take a syringe and "blow" someone's life out (Dr. Stein) so the story is a little ambiguous, to say the least, but it's the struggle between good and evil, God and Satan. If you can understand it.

But those epics. Halloween from Keeper Pt. 1 and Keeper of the Seven Keys from Pt. 2 are excellent. Basic songwriting, for the most part, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, guitar solo, verse, chorus, fade to black. Except these guitar solos go on for a while and there's your progginess(thought I forgot what board I was on, eh?) and they totally kick ass(way better than those lame ass movies that are called Kick Ass). Totally, like, dude, that shit ROCKS!!!!


Live, 1987. How Many Tears, A Little Time, Victim Of Fate, Twilight Of The Gods, A Tale That Wasn't Right, all killer tunes.



The record company screwed them and Kai Hansen left to form Gamma Ray, the second Power Metal band as far as I know. Some really great stuff on those first three albums with Ralf Scheepers on vocals.

It turns out Michael Kiske was a asshole, so they booted him. But not after the stellar IMO Pink Bubbles Go Ape and the so much more than stellar Chameleon. Roland Grapow had replaced Kai Hansen and he's pretty damned good. He wrote some killer tunes and plays quite well.



END OF PART ONE.

[TheLoony]

High Live with Roland Grapow. This is after Pink Bubbles and Chameleon, after the album after that, Master of the Rings(billed as a sequel to the Keeper albums but they are full of it) taken from the tour for The Time OF The Oath. Maybe the greatest Heavy Metal riff I've ever heard. Here's the song isolated from High Live.



Godsdamn, that song rocks and I didn't even listen to it. It's in my head right now and very cool.

I'll come back with more later, as I'm fading a little bit right now. One thing I'd like to mention before I go. One thing I noticed early on is songs like Eagle Fly Free, the quintessential Helloween tune. Fast speed metal with slow vocals. Gives the song a feel unlike that of Iron Maiden, or, really, anybody else which they really are close too in the styles they play.



I put up mostly whole concerts but it really is better to see them this way. I'd bet most, if not almost all, of the PE members are not familiar with this band so there you go. Helloween, the early years, expurgated.

[SteveSly]

I always liked the "Keeper" albums. I also have a live album from them that I dug (can't remember the title off the top of my head). Never saw them live unfortunately.

[JKL2000]

They're a fun band. Some Stratovarius is similar.

[Wisdomview]

I always liked the "Keeper" albums. I also have a live album from them that I dug (can't remember the title off the top of my head). Never saw them live unfortunately.

This.

[TheLoony]

I had to take a few days off to "recuperate" as when I wrote this I had lost a bit of my mind. I'm in the process of getting rid of the asswipes in my life that have caused me so many problems recently so hopefully that crap won't happen again. Friggin' people, man.

Steve, was the live album Live in the U.K./I Want Out Live? Two different titles for basically the same album, but the U.K. version has a extra tune Rise and Fall. If it's from the Keeper days that would be it. Other than that the live stuff from the early days is the Judas EP with Kai Hansen singing. They didn't put out a proper full length live album until High Live, which was 1996. I did get to see them on the Headbangers Ball tour in '89, opening for Exodus and Anthrax so at least I can say I've seen them once. They don't play the U.S. very often so that's a bit rare.

As far as Stratovarius goes, I've only heard a couple of tunes. Don't remember what I thought, really.

I was watching a live show, one of thousands on Youtube, the other day that I hadn't seen before. Couldn't tell you when it was from, exactly, as it's burned to a disc with no labeling, but it's from the 2000's, after Sascha joined on guitar(replacing Roland Grapow) and it had a few of the songs from the first album. I'd never heard Andi Deris sing any of those before so that was kinda cool.

Spinal Tap has nothing on Helloween as far as drummers go. Their first, Ingo Schwictenberg(think I spelled that right) jumped in front of a train and killed himself and since then there have been quite a few in the band.

[SteveSly]

The album I have is "I Want Out Live".

[Scrotum Scissor]

I'm into colossally heavy rock music at times, but I could never stomach stuff like this. I disliked it during those "golden years" of the 80s and I don't think it has improved much with time. Except for the first three Rainbow albums, I was never much into the bands that influenced Helloween either, like Judas Priest, Demon, Saxon, Sledgehammer, Mercyful Fate and so on.

[TheLoony]

I'm into colossally heavy rock music at times, but I could never stomach stuff like this. I disliked it during those "golden years" of the 80s and I don't think it has improved much with time. Except for the first three Rainbow albums, I was never much into the bands that influenced Helloween either, like Judas Priest, Demon, Saxon, Sledgehammer, Mercyful Fate and so on.

I had wanted to do this thread for a while just to see what response would be had. I had to have a crisis of mental health to actually do the darned thing(I did ramble just a bit there) but hey, I didn't expect many here to know/like this band.

Priest and MF(if you can stomach KD) had their moments, Demon and Sledgehammer I've never heard of and Saxon IMO just bites. Helloween is one of those bands that struck me back then and still does a decent job these days. Heck, there's one album, 7 Sinners I believe, that has a song with a flute solo. Who the hell in Heavy Metal does that?

[Digital_Man]

He can hit the high notes huh? I'd like to hear him try Deep Purple's "child in time." He sounds strained to me. I like the Helloween song but don't know much else from this band.

[GuitarGeek]

I only have the original two Keeper Of The Seven Keys albums (I understand more recently there's been a third one), which I ended up buying a lot more recently than I'd like to admit. I always thought Halloween and I Want Out were cool songs.

On Journey Of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, I once segued from a Christian boy band into I Want Out to open my show one night.

[TheLoony]

He can hit the high notes huh? I'd like to hear him try Deep Purple's "child in time." He sounds strained to me. I like the Helloween song but don't know much else from this band.

Michael Kiske sings Halloween on that album so I'll assume that's who you are talking about.

Doesn't sound like Kiske is straining at all but what do I know. Here's his version of Victim Of Fate and the high note in there doesn't sound strained at all to me. Maybe my ears just suck or I don't know enough about vocals. You tell me.

[Jay.Dee]

So. First, there was Ritchie and Ronnie doing their Dungeons & Dragons imagery in Rainbow.

No, the first was Uriah Heep with demons, wizards and magicians!



Then Rainbow, then epic heavy metal (Irons, Dio, King Diamond, Helloween), then progressive metal and finally... symphonic metal with Rhapsody as the recent culmination of the developments in the Dungeons&Dragons genre.

[presdoug]

I figure Helloween gotta be cool, they had Dirk Steffens as a producer/engineer at times. Anybody know whatever happened to him?

[Digital_Man]

[Michael Kiske sings Halloween on that album so I'll assume that's who you are talking about.

Doesn't sound like Kiske is straining at all but what do I know. Here's his version of Victim Of Fate and the high note in there doesn't sound strained at all to me. Maybe my ears just suck or I don't know enough about vocals. You tell me.]

Being that you are the one who started this thread it's obvious that this is important to you therefore you will get defensive if anyone disagrees with you.

[TheLoony]

DM, you misread me. I don't know. I'm no expert. I like his voice, but that's just my opinion and it's all subjective.

Not important at all. You can like or dislike whatever you care to for whatever reasons.

JayDee, you are technically correct. I was referring to the Power Metal episode of the show Metal Evolution - damn, I think that;s the name. It was on VH1 classic. Anyway, that's what they said so I went with it. Hell you could throw in Zeppelin and others with the Lord of the Rings thing going on as influences also. Probably.

There's always someone on PE that knows more than I do so you guys tell me. I wasn't there when the '70's happened.

Dirk Steffens? Never heard of him but his wiki page tells little.

I forgot Mr. Ego in the title. They sure like to write songs about characters.

[Digital_Man]

Well, I was just going by the first clip you put up(the live one). The other stuff I heard it didn't seem like he was singing in that high of a register but I'm no expert. I like this band but need to explore more.

[TheLoony]

Ah, I see what happened. You were listening to Kai Hansen sing and I totally agree with your assessment. While not completely awful, he's not that great either. This is why I like the first three Gamma Ray albums much more than anything they have done since. When he took over the melodies weren't as good and his voice just isn't that strong.

I remember first hearing this band, it was Twilight of the Gods:



On A.M. radio, even. I didn't know who they were(the station didn't even have dj's) and I really didn't know what to make of them with that crazy singer(Kiske). He's a acquired taste, I might say. Took me a while to figure out if I liked him/them. After hearing Future World and Save Us I figured they weren't all that bad, bought the second Keeper album and really dug it. Been a fan since.

I probably should have just put up individual clips. Easier to go through the good songs that way. Who really has the time to watch a bunch of full concerts? Oh well, live and learn.

[davis]

I'm into colossally heavy rock music at times,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H6MKhiaouY

[Scrotum Scissor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H6MKhiaouY

Not too much. And neither very heavy to my ears. "Heavy" would be stuff like Crowpath, NoPlaceToHide, Car Bomb etc.

[TheLoony]

For the first time in my 30 something years love of this band I get to see them tonight. Well, I did see them back in '89 but I missed the first part of the show and they were a opening act so only about 45 minutes.

It's not like this gig, either.

All three versions of the band will be represented tonight with Hansen and Kiske reunited with the band that is today.

I just have to figure out where to park. One thing about Vegas that totally sucks.

[SteveSly]

For the first time in my 30 something years love of this band I get to see them tonight. Well, I did see them back in '89 but I missed the first part of the show and they were a opening act so only about 45 minutes.

It's not like this gig, either.

All three versions of the band will be represented tonight with Hansen and Kiske reunited with the band that is today.

I just have to figure out where to park. One thing about Vegas that totally sucks.

I would love to see this show if it came to my area.

[TheLoony]

I would love to see this show if it came to my area.

OMFG!

I do mean that. It was amazing how they worked everything out.

I kinda thought they would start with Mark 2, which they did with the epic Halloween. But they changed it up with both Kiske and Deris singing the song, back and forth. I kinda thought they would just do the Mk. 1,2,3 thing with a harken back to the old days with a few numbers from the old days in the encore.

They screwed it all up with both singers on stage, trading lines. I so didn't see that coming.

And they had real fun doing it. They pulled out a couple of ballads, A Tale That Wasn't Right and If I could Fly which had a great leadup as the song with the gay piano intro. Guys are guys, fight?

The visuals were not only well done, with the pumpkin imagery they have used over the years, but damn, they are German and it gets a little confusing as I had a bit of confusion watching the videos. It was all about pulling songs out of the vault, which they did for sure, but I was lost and amused by that portion of the show.

They pulled out two of the three epics, Halloween to begin with and later, Keeper of the Seven Keys with the sort of Alex Lifeson version of introducing the band. Completely stupid but in the life of a band on the road, playing a city they have never played in, WTF? Why not go goofy and have some fun?

At the end, they threw out some balloons, rather larger than usual, with pumpkin imagery on them. I caught one and I almost got into a fight about it. But I got out of there alive with my balloon.

I subsequentially or however it's spelled, busted the damn balloon trying to get it into my car.

Of course that had to happen.

All in all, a most amazing band. They played three hours, with no break.

[Zeuhlmate]

There ar usually too many cliches, too little imagination and attempts to try something out of context to my taste, in the different lines of metal. Especially the rythms irritates me.

But there are bands, single albums, single tracks I enjoy from time to time.

[GuitarGeek]

Are they doing a full US tour, or just the one Stateside show?