Helloween - 7 Sinners (2010)

2011-01-19T19:32:53Z

Helloween - 7 Sinners (2010)


01 Where The Sinners Go 03:36             play
02 Are You Metal? 03:35
03 Who Is Mr. Madman? 05:44
04 Raise The Noise 05:07
05 World Of Fantasy 05:16
06 Long Live The King 04:13
07 The Smile Of The Sun 04:37
08 You Stupid Mankind 04:04
09 If A Mountain Could Talk 06:44
10 The Sage, The Fool, The Sinner 04:00   play
11 My Sacrifice 04:50
12 Not Yet Today 01:12
13 Far In The Future 07:45
14 I'm Free (Bonus Track) 04:10

Andi Deris - Vocals 
Michael Weikath - Guitars 
Sascha Gerstner - Guitars 
Markus Grosskopf - Bass 
Löble - Drums

Helloween have been forging a new path for themselves for many years, seemingly cursed in the way that anything with the Helloween name on it will be compared to those influential Keeper... albums, and almost every time the new offering inevitably falls short.

7 Sinners is the third album with the current line-up, and the first since The Dark Ride that has been able to square up to the Keeper... albums and come off looking pretty good. The reputation of those early albums will never be matched again, but Helloween are determined to continually prove their worth as the genre's kings and still as a legitimate and current power metal band.

The album itself is faster, harder, catchier, and simply better than the previous few by a long way. 7 Sinners is a much more organic and natural-feeling album, perhaps due to the line-up bonding closer still and for the first time ever recording an album without a drum click track. Each band member except for drummer Dani Löble wrote songs for the album, and it perhaps the mixture of styles each of the four brought to the table that makes 7 Sinners a diverse and interesting album.

Andi's presence is felt with the tongue-in-cheek "Are You Metal?" but also with the "If I Could Fly"-esque ballad of "The Smile Of The Sun". Weikie's quirkiness is brought out with the flute solo in "Raise The Noise", and Sascha once again shows his merit in the writing department with the killer track "Who Is Mr. Madman?" and its catchy chorus. Markus' input comes out on top this time however, with the similarly catchy "World Of Fantasy" and epic "If A Mountain Could Talk", both keeping a good pace and making evident some of the best material the band have put out for years.

Indeed, quality-wise 7 Sinners has hit the jackpot. It has been many years since Helloween have released an album so solid and consistently enjoyable. It is therefore strange that the production of the album is a little muffled and actually quieter than most other modern albums. As long as you have the sound system though, this shouldn't be so much of a problem when it comes to enjoying this magnificent modern power metal album from the kings doing it their own way. ---metalstorm.net

Gdybym miał ułożyć prywatny ranking ulubionych płyt Helloween ten album znalazłby się tuż za podium, z niewielką (naprawdę bardzo niewielką) stratą do medalowej pozycji.

Warto przypomnieć, że „Grzesznicy” trafili na rynek po płycie, która wzbudziła sporo kontrowersji w szeregach fanów kapeli (i fanów heavy metalu w ogóle). Mam rzecz jasna na myśli kolekcję przeróbek własnych klasyków opublikowaną dla uczczenia (?!?) jubileuszu 25 – lecia Helloween. Panowie postanowili chwycić za gitary akustyczne, dodać trąby, chórki i Belzebub jeden wie co jeszcze... Dobra, było minęło. Przedmiotem poniższej recenzji jest wszak płyta „7 Sinners”.

Kwintet wita się z nami kawałkiem „Where The Sinners Go”. Nie ma co owijać w bawełnę – po prostu kapitalne otwarcie. Intrygujące bębny, orientalizujący riff, ciekawy wokal, moc, ciężar i ultrachwytliwy refren. Rzecz jakże bliska świetnemu albumowi „The Dark Ride”. Co prawda wraz z „Are You Metal?” czar nieco pryska (fajny numer, tylko te klawisze trochę od czapy, a refren mógłby być mniej oczywisty...). Humor zdecydowanie poprawia kolejna kompozycja z pytajnikiem w tytule, czyli „Who Is Mr. Madman?”, natomiast od „Raise The Noise” niemiecka maszyna wchodzi na najwyższe obroty. Trochę spadają one tylko przy nijakim „You Stupid Mankind”, ale w rozbudowanym, epickim „If A Mountain Could Talk” mamy do czynienia z turbodoładowaniem. To jeden z najlepszych kawałków jakie wyszły spod gitar muzyków Helloween w długiej karierze zespołu! No i ten refren, od którego nie sposób się uwolnić...

Drugiego „długasa” Helloween funduje na finał płyty. „Far In The Future” – poprzedzony wstępem „Not Yet Today” – trwa ponad siedem minut, ale nie dłuży się ani trochę. To „Dyniowaci” w najlepszym wydaniu.

Na japońską edycję płyty trafił jeszcze kawałek „I’m Free” – też bardzo udany. Weikath i spółka naprawdę byli wówczas z weną twórczą za pan brat... ---Robert Dłucik, rockarea.eu

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Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys part II (1988/2006)

2017-03-28T15:30:26Z

Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys part II (1988/2006)

Disc 1:
01. Invitation 01:06
02. Eagle Fly Free 05:08
03. You Always Walk Alone 05:08
04. Rise and Fall 04:20
05. Dr. Stein 05:03
06. We Got the Right 05:07
07. March of Time 05:13
08. I Want Out 04:39
09. Keeper of the Seven Keys 13:38
10. Save Us 05:12

Disc 2:
01. Savage (B-Side) 03:23
02. Livin' Ain't No Crime (B-Side) 04:41
03. Don't Run for Cover (B-Side) 04:44
04. Dr. Stein (Remix) 05:04
05. Keeper of the Seven Keys (Remix) 13:51

Michael Kiske - Vocals 
Ingo Schwichtenberg - Drums
Markus Grosskopf - Bass 
Michael Weikath - Guitars 
Kai Hansen - Guitars

Helloween's third release seems to be a step behind from its predecessors due to its excessively cheesy sound. Nonetheless, the concept established herein is still solid and it fits the standards of epicness and melody that made up the well-known European power metal sound. And to their credit, the German power metallers remained loyal to the concept of its predecessor, making altogether one of the most successful sagas in the history of heavy metal music. However, the band unfortunately started to run out of good compositions and they were victims of their own concept. Furthermore, it seems that they were pressured by the discography to write up more commercial stuff, and that is how their creative mind Kai Hansen felt sick of the direction that the band was meant to follow. This feeling was reflected in their album highlight "I Want Out".

From a merely musical perspective, the band seems to keep on exploiting the Maiden and Judas Priest influences. For instance, "I Want Out" mixes the riffs of the Judas song "Rock Hard, Ride Free" with the concept that they depicted throughout the album. And these influences are also present in other songs like "You Always Walk Alone", whose riffs are pretty much a Maiden thing. On the other hand, the band never abandoned their speed metal music roots which gave them a name in the German metal scene. And that's how pieces, such "Eagle Fly Free" and "March of Time" provided to the album certain moments of outrageous speed which were softened by the keyboard sound, which is a feature that made those songs different from other frenetic numbers like "Ride the Sky". Especially, since the aforementioned couple of songs became more melodic due to the high-pitched vocals of Michael Kiske. These songs were indeed a blueprint on which flower metal bands wrote their music.

Then, the epic title-track closes the album in such a glorious way through the epic lines which mainly deal with the battle between the good and evil. However, Weikath's songwriting abilities displayed herein are quite far from Hansen's brilliant compositions. Whereas Hansen's composition "Halloween" from the previous album of the saga was full of good riffs and quite fast moments, said number is slower-paced and it seems to be a quite lenghty ballad with some heavier moments. That said, the rest of the album shows serious songwriting deficiencies, like if they felt sick of the project. It seems that the band embedded the album with filling stuff rather than with serious compositions.

Despite of the aforementioned deficiencies, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2 represented their last moments of brilliance. After the release of this album, Hansen left the band to form Gamma Ray. His departure was such a painful loss from which the band was not able to recover. Thereafter, they suffered a lot his absence and sadly, their compositions became worse and more uninspired than ever thought, even turning their songwriting into a self-parody game, and any single attempt on regaining respectability became such a failure. --- ballcrushingmetal, metal-archives.com

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Rock, Metal

Helloween - 7 Sinners (2010)

Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys part II (1988/2006)