Helloween is an AWESOME band… or at least were. In recent years their songs haven’t been nearly as good as their first few albums. And their 2000 album The Dark Ride had a few really good songs too. They did some great stuff, providing some great songs in the Power Metal genre. I mean, I Want Out is amongst the best metal songs ever.

When I saw this album at the store, I thought it would be a great idea. Orchestrated music, guest artists, and “re-imagined” versions of some of their best songs for the band’s 25th year anniversary. How could it go wrong?

Well… read on and see how bad it gets!

Song list/General Impressions

Well, this is a sort of “best of” album. It features previous Helloween songs that were originally awesome.

Dr Stein
Future World
If I Could Fly
Where The Rain Grows
The Keeper’s Trilogy (features: “Halloween”, “The Keeper of the Seven Keys”, and “The King for 1000 years”)
Eagle Fly Free
Perfect Gentleman
Forever & One
I Want Out
Fallen To Pieces
A Tale That Wasn’t Right

At first glance, this looks like it should be incredible. I mean, they added an orchestra to the mix, which should improve already great songs, or at least give them a new taste. But then you actually listen to the songs… Only about 3 of them are bearable, the rest just… suck. Instead of being “covers” of sorts with added harmonies by an Orchestra, they just go and make each song in a different genre, and that just doesn’t work. It just sounds like really bad parodies of the songs, and an insult to the original versions, and fans of the originals.

Just an example of what happened here: I Want Out (Original Version) and I Want Out (New version). The difference is staggering. And… What happened? I Want Out is one of the top Metal classics, but it’s reduced to…. whatever the fuck that is. The bastardation

Individual song impressions

I’ll just go and give my impressions of each song separately. Though listening to that sample above should be more than enough to see that the album isn’t worth it.

Dr Stein – Jazz? Blues? Kinda…  It’s not the worst song of the album, and one of the few that’s not TOO bad, but the original is so much better it’s not even funny. After hearing this song when I put it in my car’s CD player, I realized that I wasted $15 on a terrible album. And it gets worse.

Future World – This is one of Helloween’s best songs… originally. I… can’t even detect what genre this remade version is supposed to be. But let’s just say it sounds like crap.

If I Could Fly – This song is from The Dark Ride, and it’s a really good song. It featured awesome vocals and very nice musical composition. Here… Hum… The vocals took a massive drop, like the singer isn’t even trying. And the music is sleep-inducing.

Where The Rain Grows – I kinda like the original’s “Let’s have fun playing this!” feel, with great guitar, fun drumming, some nice solos and pretty good vocals. This version just sounds like a really lame Pop song. There’s no redeeming factor to this version of the song. It’s just bad.

The Keeper’s Trilogy (features: “Halloween”, “The Keeper of the Seven Keys”, and “The King for 1000 years”) – This is the closest the album comes to having metal music, with some cool drumming. And this is the best song in the album, no doubt about it. But it pales in comparison to the original versions of these songs. It’s 17 minutes long which is a bit much, but it does mix 3 songs. It actually sounds kinda interesting (though some parts confuse me to no end). But the bad back-vocals destroy it, and the main vocals aren’t nearly as powerful and passionate as the original versions. An the music itself isn’t as fun. And they removed the incredibly awesome solos too, WHY!?!?

Eagle Fly Free – The original version of this song is just masterful. It’s pure awesome power metal. But this version? Hum… Sounds like shit. Plain and simple. I’m not gonna go morei n detail with this one.

Perfect Gentleman – This is one of the really fun songs made by Helloween. The original version was very fun to listen to, and unlike anything they made, but it was still metal. This version… is just weird. It’s not fun anymore, it’s just boring, and the new style doesn’t fit at all. Lame.

Forever & One - This was originally a ballad, and it remains as one, with the cool guitar replaced with slow and boring piano, and the passionate vocals of the original replaced with… some guy seemingly singing the song while sleeping. Oh and they removed the drums. Yuck.

I Want Out – I already posted both the original and new version up there in the post. Check the links out. The original version is one of the best metal songs ever. But this new version? There’s no way to describe how bad it is.

Fallen To Pieces – The original song starts out a bit lame, but quickly enough it becomes pretty fun to listen to, with good music and nice vocals. It’s not gonna become one of Helloween’s classics, but it’s not a bad song. This version though is not very good. But I don’t have much to say about this one since I’ve only heard the original a few times. The vocals aren’t nearly as good, but they’re not as bad as in other songs in the album. The music is not too great either, and doesn’t really remind me of the original version.

A Tale That Wasn’t Right – This one is actually not as bad as the rest of the album, but it still pales in comparison to the original. The singer is nowhere near as good as in the original, the music isn’t as fun to listen to. But it’s one of the “okay” songs in the album.

VERDICT

DO NOT BUY THIS. Really. If you’re interested in the band, or in great power metal in general, check out the bands 2 best albums, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1 and Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2, those albums are incredible. This one? Well, if you really want to check it out there’s always Youtube or Torrent sites…
You know what I think? I think that this is intentionally bad, and that the band is joking around with us… but even if you go on with the joke and go at it with an open-mind… I just can’t imagine finding this appropriate for an anniversary album celebrating that band’s awesomeness. I genuinely feel insulted that Helloween released this.

jobocan metal, Music, Review