839. Helloween / Metal Jukebox. 1999. 4/5

Back in 1999, when the idea was still slightly new and unbroken, Helloween found a way to break up the gap between tours and albums and keep their fans happy by releasing an album of cover versions of songs by other bands. This they then titled Metal Jukebox, which is a very strange thing to call it. Of course, I got excited by it, because I thought it would contain a dozen top shelf metal songs from other bands re-done by Helloween in their own style, a concept that was rather enticing. When I finally received my copy of the CD in the mail, what I saw on the back cover made me think my original decision to buy the album may have been an error.

The song list is a mixture of traditional heavy songs and some rock and pop hits along with some songs and artists of which I had no idea of. A metal jukebox, or my idea of a metal jukebox, it certainly is not.
As mentioned, there are songs here that I don't know - ones I have never heard of before this, and only perhaps heard since. "Juggernaut" is a beauty, flying along with guitars and drums and vocals. It is a cover of a Frank Marino cover, someone I've never heard of nor listened to his material, but I have thought ever since buying this album and hearing this song that if this is indicative of what he has written and performed that I should get around to listening to some of his work. "Hocus Pocus" is by a Dutch rock band called Focus, and is pretty much an a six and a half minute instrumental with a bit of 'hey-diddle-diddle' every so often that masks as a chorus. It's strange choice here, and one I rarely thought of until the original version was used as the basis of the Nike 2010 Football World Cup ad, and was played ad nauseum for weeks leading up to and during that tournament. It's still a strange choice. "Mexican" is a cover of a Babe Ruth song, an English band rooted in the 1970's, and it too has made me think I should track down some of their material. Helloween's version here is excellent. "Faith Healer" by Alex Harvey is a seven minute monster that, perhaps like the original which I don't know at all, is a little overblown and long winded. This and "Hocus Pocus" are out of place for my liking.
Of the songs here I know, some work great while others fall flat. I have never been a Jethro Tull fan, so the version of "Locomotive Breath" is in my opinion much better than the original, but still fails to light any fires in me. The cover of Scorpions "He's a Woman, She's a Man" is excellent and worthy of addition on this album, but it doesn't match the original. The same can be said for their version of "From Out of Nowhere" by Faith No More - Helloween's version here is excellent, but it lacks that vital element that the original versions have that makes the song special. There's no shame in that, the same can be said of cover versions made of Helloween songs. Ditto on David Bowie's "Space Oddity". It sounds just brilliant here, and Andi's vocals are quite superb. The speeded up and more belligerent version of The Beatles' "All My Loving" is okay without being super. I guess there is always that risk in trying to cove their songs. However, the band does a cracking version of Cream's "White Room", it is every bit as good as the original version, while the uptempo version of ABBA's "Lay All Your Love On Me" is also worth the price of admission.

I've said it before, and I guess I'll say it again. These types of albums are a novelty. You by them, you listen to them for awhile, and then you put them back on the shelf. From there, they may get a run occasionally, but in most cases you are more likely to either put on a real Helloween album, or go for an album that has an original version of these songs. The musicianship here is as you would expect from Helloween, and their versions of all of these songs is generally excellent. But eventually I'm going to go for their own albums when I want a taste of Helloween.

Rating:  "All my loving, I will send to you".  4/5