Helloween & Gamma Ray

It's OK but not something I'll be listening to a whole lot in the future. When it comes to power metal, new Powerwolf album slays Helloween this year.
 
Yax said:
A couple of months later - How do you guys think the latest record holds up? As for me, I don't spin it as much, but I stand by my initial assessment that this is a really, really good record. It is definitely the best since The Dark Ride for me. The average song quality is very high, but it does lack a song of "Keeper of the 7 keys", "Eagle Fly Free" or "I Want Out" level of quality, although I think Mass Pollution comes rather close. It's the top album highlight for me.
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The album is good. Agree about ''Mass Pollution'' - I will add ''Fear Of The Fallen'' too. The great epic ''Skyfall'' and the song that screams HELLOWEEN, ''Indestructible''. I mostly listen to these four classics (+ Pumpkins United).
 
I have trouble with listening to the whole album. But I have that with Helloween releases in the last 20 years.
In this case, some hard to bear vocal work by Kiske spoils the pleasure. Deris has been doing very well, I'm glad he is still in the band.
 
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Surprisingly the new album ranks quite low in my Helloween rankings, at least so far. It's lacking real standouts. The only songs that I often keep returning to are Best Times and Cyanide. If Golden Times and Save My Hide were included instead of Robot King and Down in the Dumps the album would be a lot better.
 
Anybody heard a new live album from Gamma Ray with new co-singer and with Ralph as guest on few songs?

Only 14 songs and 90 min.of music, a not too much for Anniversary concert.
 

I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet, but “Avalon” sounded pretty good. I’m hoping they’ll release a standalone Blu-Ray at some point.
 
WHAT? Newly released footage of Gamma Ray?

WHAT?? Newly released footage of Ralf Scheepers on stage with Gamma Ray? Wait a minute ...

WHAT??? Ralf Scheepers on stage with Gamma Ray?

WHAT???? AWESOME newly released footage of Ralf Scheepers on stage with Gamma Ray?


Totally missed it. Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy:

 
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gazda said:
Anybody heard a new live album from Gamma Ray with new co-singer and with Ralph as guest on few songs?

Only 14 songs and 90 min.of music, a not too much for Anniversary concert.
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Yeah, it's a kinda short set for Anniversary concert (strangely, a song from Ralph's 3rd album with the band was not included).

The performances are very good.

Here is the full concert:

 
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A new EP called Best Time will be released on May 20th (click here).

-> it will contain an exclusive alternative vocals remix of the song... probably with Andi on lead vocals.

The cover is classic Helloween:

best time.jpg
 
The alternative vocal remix could also include more of Sasha's demo vocals.


Anyone here going to either the Manchester of London shows?
 
www.setlist.fm

Helloween Setlist at Manchester Academy, Manchester

Get the Helloween Setlist of the concert at Manchester Academy, Manchester, England on May 4, 2022 from the United Forces 2022-2023 Tour and other Helloween Setlists for free on setlist.fm!
www.setlist.fm www.setlist.fm

Helloween started their 2022 tour two days ago (in support of their new album, I guess):

The setlist is 17 songs.

They played only 3 songs from the new album - ''Skyfall'' (it's the opening song), ''Mass Pollution'' and ''Best Time''.

''Save Us'' was also played for the first time since 1989!

''Straight Out Of Hell'' is a great song.

Kai's medley is ''Metal Invaders''/''Victim Of Fate''/''Gorgar''/''Ride The Sky''. He has a new ''spider web'' guitar.

The stage set is almost the same as for the previous tour, but they added a giant inflatable pumpkin on stage:


''Save Us'':


BIG pumpkin.jpg
 
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Somehow I missed that:

Live debut of another new song - ''Angels''


It's one of my least favorite songs from the album, but live it sounds better.

We need ''Fear Of The Fallen'' and ''Indestructible''. I thought they will play ''Out For The Glory'' for sure.
 
blabbermouth.net

HELLOWEEN Is Working On Material For Next Studio Album

In a new interview with Canada's The Metal Voice, HELLOWEEN singer Michael Kiske was asked if he and his bandmates have commenced work on material for the follow-up to their self-titled effort, which came out in 2021. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Actually, 10 days ago, or maybe...
blabbermouth.net blabbermouth.net

Work on the new album has begun. Kai with more songs this time! Great news.

Kiske:

''Actually, 10 days ago, or maybe a week ago, Kai has sent me a demo of a song that he was working on that I was very happy about, because it's not what you would expect; the song was a bit outside of the box, which I am always grateful for. I always thought that was exciting about HELLOWEEN. When you check out the 'Keeper [Of The Seven Keys: Part] I' and 'Keeper [Of The Seven Keys: Part] II' records, now they're classics, but when they came out, it was very different to what the 'Walls Of Jericho' record sounded like. And I think that's why I'm still here, because those records had an impact because of being pretty fearless. And it is always the benefit of the youth; most of the time, the younger people are very fearless.

What I like about Weiki and Kai, they can't fool themselves. They just write songs. They don't function in any other way but just making the song, and whatever it is, that's what it is. And that song was a bit QUEEN-like. It had a lot of piano parts in it — very operatic, with big choirs. And then it gets rocking again and stuff like that. It's another Kai Hansen sort of symphony. But I really liked it. And I'm glad that he does something like that.

I'm not so much of a metal songwriter. I was when I was a teenager. But these days I just don't write metal songs; I just write songs on acoustic guitar somehow. And if I have something where I feel like the band could make a HELLOWEEN song out of it, of course I will present it to them, and then if they get a kick out of it, something's gonna happen. But we have so many songwriters in this band now. And they're all really capable of writing that sort of material that everybody loves, and that's mainly Andi, Sascha, Weiki and Hansen. And I think that's more than enough. If I have an idea, I sneak it in. But I don't really push myself.

I know that Andi has songs, and I know that Kai has a whole bunch of songs. He was a bit lazy last time; he only had that one great song, [the 12-minute] 'Skyfall', which was maybe good for three songs, and that's why it's justified, but I would have wished for even more from him. And I think this time he will be presenting a whole bunch of songs more. At least that's my impression, the feeling that I have — there might be more coming from him this time. Andi is always in the game. Andi has this gift; he can just sit down and write 10 songs. He can just do it. I don't know how he does it''.
 
Black Bart said:
Just found a 1994 unreleased pro-shot! :clap:
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They played ''Where The Eagle Learns To Fly'', a great ballad from Andi's previous band before Helloween. Cool.

This band has another superb song called ''Take Those Tears'' - it could have fit perfectly in Helloween's 1994 album. Both songs choruses are very Helloween-esque. Their first 2 albums are solid. Riffs!
 
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