114. Helloween / The Best, The Rest, The Rare. 1991. 4/5.

With the band's record contract coming to and end - and probably not a moment too soon, as it had already cost them a bandmate in Kai Hansen who had left due to the handling of money situation  - the record company threw together this compilation best-of album in order to squeeze the final ounce of money from the money making machine that Helloween was at the time of its release. Coming after the wonderful run of the debut EP and three monster follow up albums, a greatest hits compilation was both an easy and tough task to do well.

The album contains material from the three albums to date, songs such as "Ride the Sky" from Walls of Jericho, "Future World" and "Halloween" from Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I and "I Want Out", "Dr Stein" and "Keeper of the Seven Keys" from Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II. The remaining songs are either bonus tracks from Japanese editions or B sides from singles. They include the bonus songs such as "Judas" with Kai Hansen singing, "Livin' Ain't No Crime", "Save Us", "Savage" and "Don't Run For Cover", as well as a re-recorded version of "Victim of Fate" with Michael Kiske singing, which to me takes all of the sting out of a great song. At the time of this album's release, most of these songs were almost impossible to find in Australia, and thus this release was well worth purchasing because of the spasity of these songs. Of course since then, with multiple re-releases of albums and singles, all of these songs can be found everywhere.

Thus this is not a greatest hits album, but a collection of memorabilia from the first great age of Helloween. Its release marked the end of this first age, and signalled troubled times in the immediate future.

Rating:  Give me wings to fly!!  4/5.