Helloween is one of the metal acts of the 80's that, while talented, never really clicked in the US, at least not to the extent of other similar acts of the day. Although, they did do well in their native Europe. At this point I will admit, like I have done many times in the past, to not being familiar with the band. This is actually my first experience with them. It seems the more that I peruse the music shelves, the more acts I see that I haven't listened to. Helloween is one of those acts that I had always meant to check out and never did. Now I have, and I am interested in more.
Helloween's music seems to tread between the straight up power metal of Iron Maiden, and the more hair metal sounds of bands like Ratt. The music has a strong melodic base, but isn't terribly heavy. I'm surprised that they never caught on that big, the music is definitely there.
This disk has 13 videos covering the albums between 1987's Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part I and 2003's Rabbit Don't Come Easy. You know, while looking that up, I was amazed at how long they have been around, and still consistently putting out albums. It's not often that you find a band that isn't A-list (no offense intended) to be that enduring. I find that encouraging, knowing that there are bands keeping metal alive.
The early videos, such as "Halloween" and "I Want Out," have some seriously high doses of cheese. The videos are low budget affairs, but they have a certain old school charm. The band displays a penchant for the goofy, a slapstick styled sense of fun, and that is something you don't see all that often in a metal band, kind of refreshing actually.
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