Metal Reviews

So, what's the general consensus on this album? I have to be honest and admit my favorite Helloween is Better Than Raw (followed by The Dark Ride and Rabbit Don't Come Easy). But I do plan on buying this album a little later. What's the overall opinion here?

It's amazing! I really love Better Than Raw and it's generally the album I've enjoyed the most over the years, but I personally think this album is the best Helloween album to date. People complain about some of the songs not being of the same quality as the rest, but even if you take those songs away the album still kills! Best Helloween ever containing the best Helloween song ever, "Occassion Avenue."

Awesome.


"King for 1000 Years", "Invisible Man," and "Occasion Avenue" are three of my favorite songs for the year (all genres included).

Its good, but as I've said before, too long and has some pretty bad songs on it.

I say awesome but light the univers is a terrible song!

Between "Awesome" and "Good."

Ah Hell, I'll go for awesome.

I'd place it somewhere in the 70+ area; good but not amazing or anything. A few really cool songs, but also a lot of typical Euro-power styled filler. As I said in the other thread, it's probably their weakest Deris output.

That is ridiculous. Their weakest Deris album? Wow.

I really felt it could have been 1 album.

My cut would be a seven song set something like this:

A King for a Thousand Years
The Invisible Man
Born of Judgement day
Mrs. God
The Shade in the Shadows
Occassion Avenue
Light the Universe

It's not that the other tracks are bad... just felt it could have been more solid as a single disc. Either way - I gave it the pretty good. It has been getting lots of listening lately

Agree totally.

Whoawhoawhoawaitaminute no "My Life For One More Day"??? That is far and away the best song on there, reminding a bit of "We Burn" on TTOTO except more epic and featuring an absolutely killer thrash riff in the middle. The guitars sound absolutely perfect and the way the drums work it is spectacular - groove defined. By far the highlight of the album.

But in any case, yes, I am totally for trimming the fat on there and even shortening the two epics a bit. In particular they should've cut "Shade in the Shadow" and "Get It Up", being two of the worst tracks they've written in many years, they're just so flat-out completely goddamn bland and uninspired to a degree that they become painful listens.

I should do a set of my own too, but I need to spin the album again before I do that.

Ya, I agree with something like this, though with a different song selection. Mine would be:

King For A Thousand Years
The Invisible Man (shortened)
Pleasure Drone
Mrs. God
Silent Rain
Occasion Avenue (shortened)
The Shade in the Shadow
Get it Up
My Life For One More Day

Now that would be an album in the 90s!

I always enjoyed Master of The Rings more than any other Deris era album, though, I think we have a new champion.

First off, for the record, i selected "good" on the poll.

Now i have given this album a few good listens in the past couple of days and have noticed good points but also bad ones.
I dont think this is their best album in the Deris era, i'd put it somewhere in the middle. My favourite is still "The Dark Ride".

The songs are quite different. Some are your straight forward, pounding typical Helloween, while others are sounding more technical and it is there where i think this album falls down.

King for a 1000 Years is between ok and good. It goes for way too long and i felt myself getting bored after around 7-8 minutes. Despite that, its still a good song, but far from their best.
I think Born On Judgment Day is probably their weakest song. The overall structure and sound didnt appeal to me at all.

Reading the thread from the review of this album in these forums, i was seeing a lot of people saying that Occasion Avenue was Helloween's best ever song, or close to it. So when the song began to spin, i was hoping for a killer. Instead i was shocked and disappointed. The song is average at best. Not only that, but between the 6 minute and 30 second mark til the 9 minute and 30 second mark, the song is PURE SHIT! Totally not needed and ruins the song. I thought it was almost equal with Born On Judgment Day as being the weakest track.

For me, the 2 best tracks on this album are both from the 2nd disk. Do You Know What You're Fighting For and My Life For One More Day totally kick ass and is up their with "If I Could Fly", "Mirror Mirror" & "Hell Was Made In Heaven" as Helloween's best tracks from the last few years.

Light The Universe is an awesome tracks also, but just below the best 2 i mentioned. Other very good tracks include Silent Rain and The Invisible Man. The rest are alright.

So, IMO, the poll of "Good" seems fitting for this album. Personally, i feel that Helloween's previous two albums are better than this one. This album is good, but still a little disappointing. I was expecting something better than this.

I give it 82/100

Awesome nuff said!!!!!

I thought it was pretty good, hadn't heard any other Helloween (not big on Power Metal). It had some pretty cool songs but also some other songs that couldn't have ended fast enough for my liking (ok that's a bit of an overstatement)