Helloween & Gamma Ray

OK, all three* do have some good music on them, some remarkable cheese as mentioned by @KidInTheDark666 (all of them not just Legacy), and some stuff that's not even cheese but rather, let's be kind and stay within dairy products, curd.
Legacy has some quite decent moments, (brief) occasions of pure genius and much that I found unnecessary; and both discs (it is a double album, right?) share the interesting trait of starting well and deteriorating after. "The King for a 1000 Years", and the next, at different points, reminded me of old Helloween (obviously), Blind Guardian (understandably, maybe), but also Candlemass and Savatage, which was a surprise. And a compliment, actually.
The second opener, "Occasion Avenue", gave me some Nightmare Before Christmas vibes at some point - which, again, seems to make sense, considering
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Better Than Raw: Liked Planet Caravan "Time", and quasi-Finntrollish "Lavdate Dominum" was fun, kinda.
Nice occasional Running Wild moments in Time Of The Oath.

All in all, there are about six or seven songs on those three albums I'd like to revisit at some point in the future (NOT the near future!) which is not bad at all, so thank you guys, @Onhell , @Black Bart and @KidInTheDark666.

Back to Master now. Heatwave mercifully over due to a storm, thank Perun, air outside is cool and clear now. At home, however, it's still 22 °Rø - which is quite a lot, I assure you - so, in a way, the Helloween heatwave not over yet. This post finally is though. :clap:



*Am listening to Master now as per @GhostofCain 's recommendation so comments refer to the other three.
 
Magnus said:
This post finally is though. :clap:
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Or not. :rolleyes:
I knew it I'd forget something in such a long post, two things actually:
One, all three are less environmentally friendly (read
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) than the last one, my comment on which triggered this whole thing;
Two, while I always have had and always will have a soft spot for Kai Hansen's vocals (but hey, I have a soft spot for Quorthon's clean vocals as well), Deris is objectively a better singer. I've always disliked Kiske's singing anyway.
 
That's cool, good to see that you didn't completely hate those albums. There's one more that I think you should hear someday, The Dark Ride (2000). It's easily their darkest and one of the heaviest works.
 
KidInTheDark666 said:
The Dark Ride (2000). It's easily their darkest and one of the heaviest works.
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Dark? Maybe, the better parts sound like very watered-down Annihilator to me. Escalation 666 was ok though. Mirror Mirror wasn't bad either. A few good moments on Dark Ride the song too.

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Looks like I parted ways with "classical" heavy metal (sensu lato) for good in the 1990s when I discovered black metal.

You know what they say, "once you go black..."
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GhostofCain said:
Master of the Rings, The Time of the Oath and Better than Raw are definitely worth a listen or two.
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Both better than everything that came afterwards and also better than at least half of what precedes these albums. Just very good stuff. Helloween never wrote better albums than in the 20th century.


I finally listened to the two bonus songs from the new Helloween album on my 2 CD edition. "Golden Times" is outright fantastic. Should have been on the album! Helloween have a long tradition of great bonus songs and this fellar is no exception.
 
Forostar said:
Both better than everything that came afterwards and also better than at least half of what precedes these albums. Just very good stuff. Helloween never wrote better albums than in the 20th century.
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^ Completely agree.

Master Of The Rings and The Time Of The Oath are two of the best and classic Helloween albums. The other ones are the two Keepers and WOJ.
Forostar said:
I finally listened to the two bonus songs from the new Helloween album on my 2 CD edition. "Golden Times" is outright fantastic. Should have been on the album! Helloween have a long tradition of great bonus songs and this fellar is no exception.
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All bonus songs are strong. Agree about ''Golden Times'' (typical song from the Kiske era). ''Save My Hide'' could have been added too imo (great chorus). ''We Are Real'' is a thank you song for the fans and fits as a bonus song. ''Pumpkins United'' is an amazing song which celebrates the reunion of the band and it was not added to the album probably because it was released in 2017 - top song!

And yeah, Helloween have some great bonus songs.
Forostar said:
I'd say a real bonus track is rather something that had a limited/restricted release (as an addition to a restricted audience, e.g. the Japanese market) or that was not available at all on earlier editions.

1985 - Starlight, Murderer, Warrior, Victim Of Fate, Cry For Freedom - from the Helloween EP
1986 - Judas

were releases of their own

The Helloween EP
The Judas single
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The songs from the Helloween EP + the song ''Judas'' were added to the 1987 CD edition of Walls Of Jericho.
 
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Dityn DJ James said:
In the Middle of a Heartbeat is a great ballad.
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Speaking of ballads, this new album don't have one. This is strange because the band has some great ballads. Actually, they almost always put a ballad in their albums.

Can't find the interview, but Kiske said that Andi wrote a good ballad for the album, but according to the band it was not a right fit for this album.
 
Kalata said:
^ Completely agree.

Master Of The Rings and The Time Of The Oath are two of the best and classic Helloween albums. The other ones are the two Keepers and WOJ.

All bonus songs are strong. Agree about ''Golden Times'' (typical song from the Kiske era). ''Save My Hide'' could have been added too imo (great chorus). ''We Are Real'' is a thank you song for the fans and fits as a bonus song. ''Pumpkins United'' is an amazing song which celebrates the reunion of the band and it was not added to the album probably because it was released in 2017 - top song!

And yeah, Helloween have some great bonus songs: ''Save Us'', ''Revolution'', ''Deliver Us From Temptation'', ''We Unite'', ''Pumpkins United''..., to name a few.

The songs from the Helloween EP + the song ''Judas'' were added to the 1987 CD edition of Walls Of Jericho.
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I could create an album, purely consisting of bonus tracks from the Grapow era (Pink Bubbles --> The Dark Ride) and still like it more than every album this band brought out in the last 21 years.
 
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