Helloween
The Dark Ride

No beating around the bush: "The Dark Ride" is a kick, a shovel hit right in the face of happy power metal that for many years the legendary pumpkins of Hamburg have pushed forward with powerful, melodic, and in some ways amusing songs. For this reason, "The Dark Ride" is a controversial album that older fans of the Hamburg pumpkins just cannot stomach. Let's make a brief summary of their history, complicated, dense, and rich with continuous line-up changes: sensational flops and total successes.

It begins with three amazing albums at the end of the '80s. Raw power metal, fast, and incredibly powerful and guitar-driven for the debut "Walls Of Jericho" that made waves with horrible production and a flat voice (that of Kai Hansen). General bewilderment? No, curiosity for a passionate work, fast for an aggressive genre, but wonderfully melodic at the solo and break phases. (See: listen to How Many Tears and Ride The Sky just to name two). With the arrival of singer Michael Kiske, the band undergoes a melodic turn and the successive release of "Keeper Of The Seven Keys part I and II." Practically, the "Bible of melodic power metal" that has been popular for the last decade. I Want Out, Future World, Eagle Fly Free, Dr. Stein, Rise And Fall are songs that are regularly taken as a model of "inspiration," not to say imitation, by the emerging generations even 20 years after the release of the Keeper albums. With the departure of Kai Hansen, heading towards Gamma Ray, Helloween faced a crisis, saving themselves with two records featuring a lesser inclination towards metal.

The controversial "Chamaleon," which follows "Pink Bubbles Go Ape," marks the end of an era with Kiske's departure, who heads towards a brief solo career. The suicide in 1993 of the drummer, who, stricken by depression, threw himself in front of a speeding train, is the darkest moment in Helloween's history. Weikath shoulders the band and with the addition of Deris on vocals and Uli Kusch on drums, revives the new pumpkins thanks to inspired songwriting. Escalation of three albums of happy and powerful power metal and Helloween is reborn up to "Better Than Raw" in 1998. Then comes the kick, the hit in the face to the dear happy power metal named "The Dark Ride."

The dark side and never a more appropriate title. Airy, happy melodies can only be found in All Over The Nations and Salvation. Already with the opener, the listener is bewildered. The riff of Mr. Torture and Deris's gritty singing project us into a new sound for the pumpkins. The melodies act as a backdrop, a mere enhancement for refined but never pompous choruses, while the real heart of the album is represented by the meticulous use of dark keyboards, rough vocal lines, riffs, solos, bass lines, and rhythm changes that suit well with an aggressive power metal devoid of double bass. Songs like Mirror Mirror and Escalation 666 see Andi Deris excel in low tones, no longer a prisoner of Kiske's ghost and his high notes. Weikath and Grapow don't frantically seek lightning solos but erect metallic walls with heavy riffs purely for headbanging. Even the single If I Could Fly with its melodic inclination is a hypnotic mid-tempo with gothic shades. I Live For Your Pain, We Damn The Night, The Departed (Sun In Going Down) are all songs that fit well with this new sonic revolution by the band that invented melodic power metal. Less speed and solos for a more cerebral, powerful, and cadenced heavy metal. The CD concludes with the title track. A gem from Weikath with a wonderfully long break and a plethora of tempo changes for 8 exceptional minutes in constant motion and worthy to close a groundbreaking CD.

"The Dark Ride," precisely because it strongly renounces the past (even the recent past as it is light-years away even from "Better Than Raw") is a CD that many fans hated. However, I believe that Andi Deris offers his best performance and the level of songwriting, mostly entrusted to Kusch and Grapow, is high with that right mix of melody and power. The production is professional and encourages you to turn up the volume. An album, therefore, that angered and disappointed many fans who didn't expect this change. Almost as an apology, Weikath, after the tour, fired the two innovators mentioned above, who formed Masterplan, and returned to happy power metal with "Rabbit Don't Come Easy" and "Keeper III" (in my opinion, mediocre).

I am convinced that "The Dark Ride" is a great album of the pumpkins even though it is totally alien to the rest of their discography, and I recommend it without reservation to those who love heavy metal in general and not just the Keepers Of The Keys.

Tracklist

1. Beyond The Portal (Intro)
2. Mr. Torture
3. All Over The Nations
4. Escalation 666
5. Mirror Mirror
6. If I Could Fly
7. Salvation
8. The Departed Sun Is Going Down
9. I Live For Your Pain
10. We Damn The Night
11. Immortal
12. The Dark Ride