Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys: The Legacy - 2005 - SPV

Track Listing1. The King For A 1000 Years 2. The Invisible Man 3. Born On Judgment Day 4. Pleasure Drone 5. Mrs. God 6. Silent Rain 7. Occasion Avenue 8. Light The Universe 9. Do You Know What You're Fighting For? 10. Come Alive 11. Shade In The Shadow 12. Get It Up 13. My Life For One More Day 14. Mrs. God (Video)

Before you even listen to this album you have to know that a mistake has been made. Calling this double album "Keeper Of The Seven Keys: The Legacy" is like Megadeth putting out a new album called Rust In Peace Revisited. It's just setting the new album up to be compared to what's regarded as their masterworks. Just a pointless move in my opinion and it's not going to do this album any favors.

All that being said... this album should please fans of the Deris era. I doubt it's gonna bring back any of the old fans who dislike Deris but as long as you don't compare this too much to the other Seven keys albums then there's plenty of good material. For starters, let me set many minds at ease and say that the song "Mrs. God" is not indicative of the sound of this release. It's the one real commercial track attempt here and is definetely the worst song in this collection.

The rest of the material here is very comparable to the various Deris albums on a song by song basis. I'd say the most similar album is probably "Better Than Raw" but other albums pop to mind on various tracks. My favorite here is easily the 11 minute epic "Occasion Avenue" which is pure "Dark Ride". The riffing here is fantastic and fucking heavy. The vocals are also a hell of a performance and the backing vocals are pure evil. Love it, Love it, Love it. I have a new favorite Helloween song. The other epic doesn't fair quite as well. "The King For 1000 Years" actually has quite a good sound but it's just stretched out too far. If it were trimmed down from nearly 14 minutes then I'd like it more. Good feel but it just doesn't have 14 minutes worth of ideas.

Really I have few complaints here. The whole idea behind making it a Keepers album and 2 cds is kind of dumb, but the songs are good so I don't care in the end. Certainly worth checking out for fans of the Deris era of Helloween. This will end up being my 2nd favorite from the band overall. "Dark Ride" is still the best from the band in my eyes, but this comes pretty close.

Highlights: Occasion Avenue, Born On Judgement Day, Silent Rain, Pleasure Drone

Rating 4.0/5.0



--Stygian Steel 10.09.05