Went and saw Helloween. Jesus christ.

[JiveTurkey]

Went on Friday with the wife to Chicago to catch the Helloween tour. I have been wanting to catch this the minute I heard Kiske came back. So 2017? I saw them 36 years ago and it was cool revisiting that experience in a modern timeframe.

I can't really do what I saw justice. I posted about this elsewhere and it was long winded. But my god these guys are ON FIRE. If you are anywhere near them and you love some traditional heavy metal or power metal; GO NOW. The triple guitar attack is NO JOKE. The combination of 3 vocalists (not even counting the backing vox by the other 2 guitarists who weren't singers historically) are god tier. If you dig that operatic/trad metal style. I can't do it justice. The best metal vocal performances I have ever witnessed.

[Tortuga]

Awesome to hear - have never seen them. Might just have to now

[Yarbicus]

Awesome to hear - have never seen them. Might just have to now

This!

I have always loved them. Their first two albums are near perfect.

[JiveTurkey]

They are in LA, Vegas and San Francisco. Then it looks like they head back to Europe? Catch them while you can! They do a ton of Kiske stuff obviously but also a bunch of stuff with Kai on vocals which was awesome. The Andi stuff is great too \m/

[nightflameauto]

Wish I had a chance, but I can't justify a trip to the cities right now, and that's as close as they come. Sigh.

[JiveTurkey]

I had some serious back and forth. Because old people, old dogs and traveling to Chicago I had an "out" at one point because tickets were bought up by the resellers. Which meant I couldn't go anyway. The tickets opened back up once they figured out they couldn't scalp them for 8x face value and at that point; I had to make it work. I am glad I forced myself out of old man comfort zone to go

[nightflameauto]

I had some serious back and forth. Because old people, old dogs and traveling to Chicago I had an "out" at one point because tickets were bought up by the resellers. Which meant I couldn't go anyway. The tickets opened back up once they figured out they couldn't scalp them for 8x face value and at that point; I had to make it work. I am glad I forced myself out of old man comfort zone to go

Yeah, I'm more stuck in the "work demands 24/7 availability right now" sitch. It's temporary, but it really cramps my free-wheeling lifestyle, where I go to a big show maybe once a year or so, smaller ones once a month. Stand back, bitches, this peasant's gettin' uppity again.

[BroSlinger]

Did they play heavy metal hamsters? That song has one of my favorite guitar harmonies of any somg.

[JiveTurkey]

Did they play heavy metal hamsters? That song has one of my favorite guitar harmonies of any somg.

They did not. They concentrated mainly on Keepers Pt 2, Walls of Jericho, the newest album and a couple of choice Andi era cuts. I wish they would have added some Keeper 1 stuff beyond Future World (though that was so jaw dropping \m/)

If you love guitar harmonies; you really can't go wrong with any era. Biggest thing is back in the day; I don't remember listening to post Keepers II and going "ugh". I have been revisiting the Kiske stuff (Chameleon, Pink BUbbles) and I see why they couldn't continue on at the time. Great musicianship and certainly interesting songwriting but Kiske was just meant to leave for what his songwriting direction was taking him. I am not a fan of this era really at all. The 90's were quietly not kind to this band it seems. I wrote them off before Andi came in and never gave them a second thought beyond Keepers II.

The dynamics between the vocalists (Andi included as he is a showman like no other. KILLER) was just a treat to watch and listen to. The band is a master of their craft and they are smartly choosing to focus on their strong periods instead of "hey let's trot out that brass section we used on that one psuedo funk metal song we tried in the 90s!"

[long standing member]

Would you mind posting a youtube link of what you think their best song is/was?

[JiveTurkey]

Would you mind posting a youtube link of what you think their best song is/was?

Can't boil it down quite that much.

Old era not-quite-obvious choice:


New era obvious choice:


New era EPIC choice. Long but just The idea behind having all 3 vocalists is fully realized in this song


This is all predicated on the assumption that you are a fan of power metal and dig the Geoff Tate-ish approach of Kiske.