Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
...no, it's not Keeper Pt IV..., 21 Oct 2007
Life is not really fair for Helloween. No matter what they do, huge bouts of the metal population are going to go "oh, it's not as good as Keepper...blah, blah, blah", regardless of whether their new album is any good. Or, indeed, whether said mumpers have actually heard "Keeper...".
Of course, they did themselves no favaours bringing out "Keepers...3", a hunnerd years after the original with the new lineup, but I'm an easy going kind of fellow, so chose to stick my fingers in my ears and went "la, la, la" until it went away. Which means I'm still favourably inclined to the current veriosn of Helloween, who have produced some tasty tracks of late. And os it proves to be with "Gambling With The Devil". Which is a pants name for an album, by the way. Unless your name is Rambling Blind Lemon Jefferson Airplane.
Things kick off with an odd spoken word intro by Biff Byford from Saxon. Eh? Let's get Biff in the album and have him speak. Not a sensible conversation by any means, but then 'Kill It' arrives and we're off into early nineties Priest mode. Which is not a bad place to be. But things really take off with the thrasy 'The Saints', which is an absolute peach of a track.
The centrepiece of the album is the thematically linked 'The Bells Of The Seven Hells', 'Fallen To Pieces' and 'I.M.E.' 'Bells...' is the out and out classic on this album, a song as good as anything in their extensive canon, with some incredible, ferocious riffing and a memorable hook and chorus. It's a song that should be in their live set from now until the end of their career.
"Gambling With The Devil" is without doubt the best Helloween album for a long time, taking in all aspects of the sounds they've been exploring over the last ten years, without ever straying too far away from the power metal formula they're best known for. The whole band is on song, and it could prove to be the highlight of the Andi Deris era. So far.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
First exposure to Deutsch Uber metalists, 5 Feb 2008
I am loathe to criticise this album and band because when one does, fans of the band bombard your review with unhelpful comments etc (witness my scathing attack on Nightwish - which was tongue in cheek but obviously upset more than a few people!)
I am also loathe to criticise this album because it is blooming good! You'll have noticed the 4 stars - one dropped for being derivative, or ploughing the same old furrow, or regurgitating the same old stuff, or however else you may criticise this sort of release. Yes it is all of these things, but here's the rub. If this IS derivative, then it is excellently so and it is is ENJOYABLE! You know, music that makes you smile, music that get's you nodding your head, music that is FUN!
Lets face it, this lot have been doing this for years now and hopefully, like me, those of you who haven't yet caught up with them will now dip into the back catalogue and SMILE!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No more comparisons to the glory days of helloween, this CD can stand on its own!!!, 20 Nov 2007
I love the CD, even te filler tracks are good. Its the best helloween CD ive heard in a LONG time. Great melodies, pounding drums, awesome guitars, AUDIBLE BASS.... its just a great CD.
It starts with one of the most ass kicking and heavy helloween songs to date, 'kill it' it simply awesome, with some great and un-charactaristically extreme vocals from deris. Great double bass in the chorus and even a nice melody thrown in for extra spice.
The album continues strong, and im not going to do a track by track, it would take too long, every track here is good, and the ballads verse is ever so slightly too soppy for me this time (and i like ballads).... but apart from that the CD just kicks ass, and you can tell by the demenor of the band in the booklet photos that they are well aware of it too!!!
for any power metal fan, this is a MUST.... for a helloween fan still waiting for their fave band to return to form. It just happened
GO OUT AND BUY IT NOW!!!!!
90/100
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