Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2 [Expanded] (CD - 1988)

Helloween: Markus Grosskopf (bass guitar); Michael Weikath, Ingo Schwichtenberg, Kai Hansen, Michael Kiske.

Personnel: Michael Kiske (vocals); Michael Weikath, Kai Hansen (guitar); Ingo Schwichtenberg (drums).

Audio Mixers: Tommy Hansen; Tommy Newton.

Liner Note Author: Dave Ling.

Released in 1988, Helloween's third full-length studio album firmly established the band as a force on the international scene. KEEPER OF THE SEVEN KEYS PART II expanded beyond their neo-progressive and Iron Maiden influences, and allowed Helloween to lay the blueprint for the entire power metal movement. Rich with equal amounts of emotive drama, theatrical pomp, and musical humor, KEEPERS invokes the triumphs of the human spirit through grandiose songwriting and Michael Kiske's anthemic vocal style. The album also features perennial favorites "Dr. Stein" and "I Want Out", which are spotlighted in Helloween's live performances to this day.

Having established an immensely influential blueprint with Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1, Helloween released the obviously titled follow-up, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2, a year later. But it seemed that Helloween's heretofore leader, guitarist Kai Hansen, had lost interest in his own band, and the result was a terribly inconsistent album. Except for the excellent "I Want Out," his few song contributions reek of indifference, leaving vocalist Michael Kiske and second guitarist Michael Weikath to try and pick up the slack -- with mixed results. Weikath gets it right on the catchy and humorous "Dr. Stein," but his attempt to replicate Hansen's epic songwriting on the 13-plus-minute title track collapses from early promise into a complete mess of embarrassing proportions. Still, the album sold well, delaying the problems looming on the horizon. Hansen would confirm his apathy by quitting soon after to form Gamma Ray, and though Helloween continue to record, they have never recovered from his departure. [Keeper was reissued by Sanctuary in 2008 as a two-disc Expanded Edition that included five bonus tracks and remixes.] ~ Eduardo Rivadavia

Can you get a more bombastic opening than "Invitation" on Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2 (in which victorious horns and marching drums signal Helloween's triumphant return)? Probably not, but that's exactly how the German metalists start off the follow-up to their cult hit predecessor, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1. Having caught the ears of prog metalists worldwide with Pt. 1 (which was praised in such metal publications as Kerrang! at the time), Helloween wasted little time issuing a follow-up. And once more, the same exact brand of material is offered -- Bruce Dickinson-esque operatic vocal wailing (see how singer Michael Kiske ends "Eagle Fly Free"), plenty of guitar shredding ("You Always Walk Alone"), and, of course, the obligatory epic ("Keeper of the Seven Keys"). While it may not have caused quite as big a buzz in the metal underground as Pt. 1 did, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2 completed a trilogy of prog metal masterworks that were all issued in 1988 -- Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime and Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. [In 2006, the album was reissued as a double-disc remastered version via Sanctuary Records, in which several B-sides and remixes from this era were included.] ~ Greg Prato minimize