Helloween – Best of 25th Anniversary

Releasedate: 29-01-2010; Label: Columbia d (Sony Music)
By: Nina Mende

Helloween’s history dates all the way back to 1978 when Kai Hansen and Piet Sielck formed a band called “Gentry“. Around 1981 Kai and Piet changed the name of the band to “Second Hell” and recruited drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg and bassist Markus Großkopf who at the time had been playing in a band called “Traumschiff. In 1982 Piet Sielck leaves Second Hell to become a record producer and sound engineer and the band changes their name to “Iron Fist”. Michael Weikath of the band Powerfool tries to lure Kai Hansen to join his band, but in the end decides to join Kai’s band Iron Fist.

This album is epic; the sound is amazing and impressive. Beside the known Helloween sound you also have choirs and orchestra on this album which create a huge and deep sound, sucking you into a tale told in eleven pieces. Especially “The Keeper’s Triology” sounds like a musical than a single song on an album, which is by the way 17 minutes long. Amazing depth and width of sound, music and emotions they created in the studio and packed onto this Long Player. I guess you could sum it up with Heavy Metal Opera. You can hear how much effort Helloween put into this album and they seemed to have used every possible element they could think of. Female and male vocals take turns on “Eagle Fly Free”. The tunes are catchy and get you at least nodding along. On “I Want Out” you can hear a boys choir. This album is an amazing piece of art, and even if you don’t like Helloween you should give it a listen!

Disc: 1 1. Dr. Stein 2. Future World 3. If I Could Fly 4. Where The Rain Grows 5. The King For A 1000 Years – Part 3 6. Eagle Fly Free 7. Perfect Gentleman 8. Forever & One 9. I Want Out 10. Fallen To Pieces 11. A Tale That Wasn’t Right Disc: 2 1. Making Of Unarmed – Videoclip 2. Dr. Stein – Videoclip 3. Making Of Dr. Stein – Videoclip 4. Interview – Videoclip

Links:
Helloween MySpace
Helloween Official