Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy: the real deal and a worthy addition to the "legacy" of the other Keeper Of The Seven Keys albums or just another Helloween album with a title that's trying to ride the coat tails of past glories? A lot of people were wrestling with this thought as soon as the title of Helloween's new album was announced many months back. Most of the buzz on the net was not positive with many questioning just how they could use the Keeper Of The Seven Keys title when neither Michael Kiske nor Kai Hansen who both were such an essential part of the band when both original Keeper albums were made were not involved or even invited to be involved. The band has endured a lot of pressure and high expectations because of their decision but they felt so strongly about the strength of the material that they had no problem putting the "keeper" name to their new CD. I notice that they didn't call this album Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part III but rather "The Legacy" and in doing so are not quite sticking their necks out as far in actually putting this album up against Parts I and II. The Keeper albums really had a particular vibe and ongoing thematic threads throughout that created an air of excitement in the saga about the battle between the forces of good and evil and mankind's ability to influence his destiny in the face of biblical prophecies and the signs of the impending apocalypse. With such foreboding subject matter, the Keeper albums were intensely heavy and melodic with a very tongue-in-cheek playfulness. It was hard not to feel the uplifting vibe and in fact, melodic Speed/Power metal was practically invented on these two albums. After Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen left, I felt that the subsequent albums Master Of The Rings and Time Of The Oath had some Keeper like elements in the flow of the albums, the types of songs and subject matter whereas later albums like Better Than Raw, The Dark Ride and Rabbit Don't Come Easy (94 / 100?? What the hell was I thinking!!) were all but devoid of any resemblance to the Keeper era of Helloween. With a new line-up and a solid guitar partner for Michael Weikath in Sasha Gerstner, I really think it was a critical time for the future of Helloween with their next studio album and tour. With waning popularity, they had to recapture the glory and energy that's been missing for many years now and for them there was one viable but risky option; create another Keeper album worthy of the name and they will be back on the map again. The verdict as far as I'm concerned and shared by many others is that this album is in fact worthy of the name and sound quality-wise, veteran producer Charlie Bauerfeind has succeeded in making THE best sounding Helloween album ever.

You certainly get your money's worth with this album in that it clocks in at almost 80 minutes and comes as a 2 CD package for the price of a single CD. The Keeper style album graphics are back and this album is a celebration of the best that Helloween has to offer. After a cool narrative (allegedly provided by an older tennis buddy of Andi Deris') the first track King For a 1000 Years gets underway. With a mix of acoustic passages, chunky speedy riffs and an awesome charging metal style, this one's very similar in feel and style to the track Keeper Of The Seven Keys from the Part II album. With many tempo and riff changes, it uses orchestrated and choral voicing effects to enhance the atmosphere and the clever use of refrains and instrumental passages makes this track not only one of the best Andi Deris era tracks but one of the best Helloween songs ever! The choruses are huge and Andi Deris' voice has never sounded better. After getting a copy of this album, I had a hard time getting past this track to listen to the rest of the album. It's a masterpiece of epic heavy metal with its dynamics and complex arrangement. After some solid bass lines from Markus, the band rips into Invisible Man, a track that again uses much more dynamics in the arrangements than the band ever has in the past. With a solid chorus, this track also features some great guitar interludes as well as solid lead guitar work. There's even some power chord blasts sprinkled with piano that has Savatage written all over it. Born On Judgement Day gets back to the more traditional speedy Helloween metal with another huge chorus and the drumming just kills!! Both Michael and Sasha provide some great lead harmony work and Markus joins in for another example of his bass-playing prowess with another killer bass interlude. This track truly has the Keeper feel. Pleasure Drone uses a mix of driving speed and muted riffs over the main beat and once again, solid choruses and amazing instrumental interludes color the track very nicely. The first single from the album is an Andi Deris penned track entitled Mrs. God. It gets the nod for the obligatory quirky/novelty type of track that many Helloween albums have but it's also very catchy and although seemed like a throw away track at first actually grows on you to become a great song. Disc One finishes with Silent Rain, a track the uses the killer Helloween speed once again. This one has another killer chorus over slicing power chord riffs and overall is a bit simpler in it's arrangement.

Disc two opens with another monumental achievement, Occasion Avenue. With a classic opening reminiscent of the first Helloween E.P. where you hear someone flipping radio stations, excerpts from songs from both Keeper albums can be heard. Markus provides another killer bass intro and orchestration and choral voice effects are very effectively used to add atmosphere. This track has some very heavy moments all over a rather abstract vocal style by Andi. Complex and intense arrangements mixed with quieter progressive interludes add to an amazing piece of work. This is Helloween with a more progressive edge but still retaining all the heaviness and other trademarks that make them so unique. This track is truly one of a kind and sounds like nothing they have ever done before. Andi does a nice duet with Candice Night (Blackmore's Night) on the power ballad Light The Universe. The chorus is great and both Candice's and Andi's voice sound great together. Do You Know What You're Fighting For, although a solid track, is really not up to the quality of what we've heard so far. With a very typical riff pattern that's been used by many other bands before, it's not really standard Helloween fare. It has a solid heavy sound with great lead harmonies but the chorus and overall feel just aren't there. The same can be said for the next track Come Alive. It's a more straight ahead track with a fairly simple arrangement but the layered vocals by Andi Deris for the chorus help spice it up a little bit. The Shade In The Shadows gets things back on track with it's muscular amd metallic Keeper Part II era riffs. Mixed in with quieter interludes, this one has an awesome classic Helloween sound with yet another killer chorus. Get It Up has a bit of the feel of I Want Out from Keeper Part II and has the sort of "happy" up tempo feel of the classic Keeper albums. Another "fun" song yet one that really works very well. The album ends with another gem entitled My Life For One More Day. Using thematic lead fills over speedy riffs, this one again has the metallic edge to the guitar sound that was such a staple of the original Keeper albums. Andi provides another huge chorus and although the second disc stumbles a little in spots, it ends on a huge note with a track that's one of many album highlights.

There's instances with this album where you hear a fairly typical Helloween sound but they are outnumbered by an amazing sense of dynamics and a much more epic and dramatic style. This raises the bar quite high for other bands in the same genre and results in some of the best song writing of the band's career. All the catchy choruses are still there as is the speediness but it's used tastefully, which results in it being much more effective than just blasting the listener with blinding speed for an entire album. Although it's not overdone, some of the speediest interludes Helloween has ever done can be found on this album. On that note, drummer Stefan Schwartzmann (Accept, U.D.O.) who joined the band for the tour to support Rabbit Don't Come Easy, called the band together to announce his departure during the recording of this album. The reason? The speed that was required to properly play these new songs was beyond his ability and he just couldn't do it. The album was finished with new drummer Dani Loble (ex-Rawhead Rexx) who is now a permanent member of the band. It's also great to see the bass playing of Markus Grosskopf being more prominent in the overall mix of this album. He's a great bass player and those who have seen him live will attest to that. This is the best bass sound of any Helloween album and it's great to finally hear him. Andi Deris' voice shows no signs of wearing out and his performance on this album is the best of his career. Michael Weikath's new guitar partner, Sasha Gerstner seems to be settling in very well and it's great to hear those lead harmonies again that were such a prominent aspect of their sound when Kai Hansen was still in the band. If it wasn't for a couple of tracks on the second disc, I would have absolutely no problem in declaring this a possible candidate for one of the best Helloween albums ever. It's arguably the best Andi Deris era album and one that is worthy of bearing the Keeper name. I think Helloween have finally pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat with this album and will no doubt re-establish themselves as THE premier melodic power metal band in existence. This album is still growing on me, as there's tons of music on this CD to be listened to and enjoyed for many years to come. Think that power metal is getting boring and stagnant? Not when you hear albums like this!! Definitely on my list for the years best, it could take the top spot.