The ”Helloween" EP showcased a band of raw unimaginable talent, bringing together melodic and harmonic guitars with a blaze of speed perpetuated by the rhythm of bass and drums, all with a bright personality and creating their own little version of the heavy metal genre. Their gigs were increasingly drawing bigger numbers, and their popularity in Germany and surrounding European countries was on the rise even without a full blown debut album to promote. That was sorted out very quickly, as their record label moved to quickly have the band back in the studio to rectify that problem.
As debut albums go, there is a lot that you can tear down when it comes to reviewing this in retrospect. Take a listen to many of the great debut albums of all time in the heavy metal arena – from Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth – and you can hear the flaws when you listen. The same occurs here for Helloween. The production of the album is a bit haphazard, the vocals are not pristine, picture perfect renditions, the guitars and drums are at times at the mercy of the speed at which the band wants to play. Those who are not fans, or want to live in times where music is preened and cleaned and smoothed to within an inch its life in order to make it ‘sound good’, will find these flaws and accentuate them into something they are not. What does come across here are songs that are played and captured here in the way the band was and performed them on stage, that they sound ‘real’ and not manufactured. And perhaps I am just looking to attack these thoughts head on, because of my long term love and bias of this album. But it is also the truth. In terms of production and music and performance, perhaps this album has a slight imbalance about it. But having listened to this album almost non stop for 38 years, the sheer energy and speed and power that comes out of the speakers from this album dominates and obliterates all of those arguments. This is “Walls of Jericho”, and it is time to bring the walls down!
The opening intro and song of “Walls of Jericho” is as good as any other album I have ever heard. The opening instrumental beginnings of the title track "Walls of Jericho", as we hear the attackers blow their horns and crash their walls such that is related in the fabled story, crashes us literally into the blasting beginning of "Ride the Sky", courtesy of Kai Hansen's amazing high pitched scream. Then we are speeding through the song, driven by those brilliant guitars and the unique and masterful bass line from Marcus running up and down the fretboard throughout. Kai's vocals on this song reach heights that were hinted upon on their first release EP. The solo break again defines what would become a signature of a Helloween song, with each guitarist having their own solo, intertwined with the harmony guitar duelling between, and finished off by Kai's amazing rising cacophony. As an opening track on an album, this one ticks every box, leaving you exhilarated to the very end. It perhaps wouldn't surprise you to know that this is one of my favourite songs of all time. "Ride the Sky" has been so probably from the first moment I ever heard it, played on a tinny old portable cassette player at a party on the beach at the collection of rocky outages called the Boneyard in Kiama Downs on the NSW south coast. As I sat there that evening and listened to this album for the first time, I was transfixed, because up until that point in time in my life I had never heard anything like it.
“Send me a sign, wanna leave it all behind, I'll be leaving the hands of doom
Rearrange the master plan, take the future in my hands, to be free and not trapped anymore
Ride the sky, ride the sky, Give me wings to fly, ride the sky”
God I love that song.
"Reptile" snuggles its way in between the faster songs on the album, and does slow the momentum that was created by the opening track. Coming off the high that "Ride the Sky" has created, “Reptile” has to work hard to keep you engaged. The tempo is completely different, and Michael Weikath's monster obsession comes to the fore, as it would again. It is one of two songs on this album that perhaps misses a trick, just doesn't quite fit the raging madness around it, and that has as much to do with the positioning of the song on the track list. Still a good song, but out of place. Following though is a return to the manic speed that epitomised the opening track. Michael Weikath’s "Guardians" blazes along with speed, with Kai at high end of his vocal range for almost the whole length of the song, with no pause for breath for any of the group. And that bass riff from Marcus at the start of the song, but all the goddamn way through the track. He is a monster on this album, and I love how he is given the level in the mix that he deserves, because the bass lines make Helloween who they are. It's a beauty, but goddamn Kai makes it hard to sing along given the high register, especially the closing lines "PUPPETS ON A STRING! PUPPETS ON A STRING!". The solo playoff between Kai and Michael in the middle of the track again highlights their magnificence as well. Great stuff. And then, just because there hasn’t been enough brilliance yet, let’s have "Phantoms of Death", which has been another of my favourite tracks for almost 40 years. This is not only a great song lyrically about the destruction we bring upon ourselves, musically it is also another belter, blazing along at a great rate, and mixes a fantastic solo section where both Kai and Weiki trade licks at an alarming rate, before we come to the conclusion of the song and the grand reveal of the root of the song, "Who are they? Who are the Phantoms? Will they end our lives? It's you and me, you and me, open up your eyes!". Simply outstanding. What an incredible first side to the album.
So if you have had such a superb and energy driven first half of the album. How would you go about kicking off the second side of the album? Well, why not attack it with "Metal Invaders" which maintains the rage by mixing the metaphors of invaders from space in metal machines and the mental visions of heavy metal also within the song. Kai's voice again reaches for the ceiling while Marcus's bass line dominates throughout in the same brilliant way it has on the rest of the album. the harmony guitars through the middle of the track again, punctuated by the individual solo exploits, then crash back into the main riff again, charging along well over the speed limit and careering to the conclusion. The flame keeps burning here. This is followed by the groove of "Gorgar", a slower tempo song but with a great guitar riff throughout. It also incorporates the well known riff passage of Edvard Greig’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” that has been sampled in many heavy metal songs through history. The lyrics from this song surely must be written from experience, about spending all of their money on playing on this pinball machine, as Gorgar was the first talking pinball machine ever produced. It's another example of a great lyric coming from something so simple. The chanting chorus "Gorgar will eat you" plays over and over in your head. It's catchy as hell. The anthemic "Heavy Metal (Is the Law)" raises the stakes once again, enhanced by the fact that it has added faux live sounds added to the track. Kai’s chanting in the middle of the song is met by the pre-AI crowd singing along and chanting back at him. recorded as 'live' background chants to give it a live feel. It helps make the song as terrific as it is. And especially listen to Marcus's ridiculous bass guitar through the 'crowd chant' led by Kai. It is ludicrous and shows off his amazing talent. It’s another anthem, and a ripper.
The closing track is the epic of the album. Michael Weikath's "How Many Tears" began life as an orchestral and operatic piece that he wrote in high school and had a school friend singing on it. In itself it is a wonderful song, one that you can still find out there on the internet, but this transformed version is the forebearer of the incredible epic songs that Helloween would produce over the next 40 years - “Helloween”, “Keeper of the Seven Keys”, “King for 1000 Years” and others, they are have their germination in this song. It has been transformed into this full boar, no holds barred finale. Incredibly fast and furious, with lyrics that hold true today, it isn’t until the breakdown in the middle of the track, where the speed drops off, the melodic and harmonic guitar solos take place and the song shows a piece of its original form, that you begin to understand the depths of this track and this band. And then, Ingo hammers the song back into pace and fire as the guitars rejoin and we are off again. I still get goosebumps hearing Kai sing that chorus, his vocals soaring again throughout, to the heights of that closing note.
“How many tears flow away, to become a sea of fears
How many hearts are torn apart, till another torment starts
But before the world, turns into a sun
All cruelty and violence, on Earth will be dead and gone”
This is a masterpiece to finish the album; it's message still as relevant today as it was back in 1985. And the showcasing of this amazing band and its four amazing members could not be greater than what it provides.
Back in 1987, in my final year of high school, our school hosted an exchange student from Norway called Hans Hoie. He was a personable funny guy, awkwardly tall, almost goofy in his conversational English, but was a much loved person amongst our student collective. Apart from all of his other friendly attributes, Hans had his own musical tastes, and he had fortunately brought cassettes with him of his favourite albums. Two of those albums were by a band that we had never heard of, called Helloween. The C90 cassette that he had brought with him had two albums on it, albums that were to change my life. The side B had an album that was something about a keeper of some description, something to do with seas and being part 1 of a series. The album that took up the first side of the cassette was titled “Walls of Jericho”.
The first time I heard this album, I was sitting on a grassed bank, looking over Cathedral Rocks and the Boneyard, a popular spot for teenagers to gather away from prying eyes to sit on the beach and indulge in a few underage alcoholic beverages and listen to music very loud. Hans had been with us for six months, but was heading home to Norway in a few days, and this particular gathering was acting as his farewell. And as such he got to choose the music we listened to. And he pulled this tape out and we began listening. And as the album progressed, I had to keep exclaiming to him ‘why have you kept this from me?’ Everything about it immediately found my sweet spot. It was one of those few true major moments in my life where I heard a song and immediately thought - ‘this is it, this is what I have been searching for’. In this case it was an album – two actually, but that story is for another day. To start with it was the fast and melodic music, but mostly, it was those vocals, the voice of Kai Hansen. I still remember this night, the night I first heard Kai Hansen sing. Because that has been with me every day since. One of the most important discoveries of my life, listening to Kai Hansen singing “Ride the Sky”, “Guardians”, “Phantoms of Death”, and “How Many Tears”. Hans left a few days later, and we stayed in touch for a while on his return to Norway, but the gift of these two albums and this band was something that has lived with me ever since.
I couldn’t tell you how many times I have listened to this album in the 38 years since I first heard it. A thousand times would be a fair bet, and probably more. Though I am sure you have already gathered what it is that draws me to this album, I was just completely blown away when I first heard this album. The combination of everything is like a perfect storm. The speed of the songs and music is incredible. The melodic and harmony guitars between Kai Hansen and Michael Weikath are just amazing, as is their songwriting. They share the credits on this album, three songs together, and the rest share individually between them. The bass guitar of Marcus Grosskopf is outstanding, not just on this album, but in particular on this album. And Ingo’s drumming is metronomic, a sometimes overlooked player on these early Helloween albums but just as important in the creation and production of these amazing songs. And everything on this album is superb. “Ride the Sky” as I mentioned is one of my favourite all time songs, and when I finally got the chance to see Kai playing and singing this live, with Gamma Ray in 2006, I could easily have moved on to the next plane after that moment, because it was all I needed in my life. The rest of the songs here have the same qualities.
And so, for the last three weeks, I have had “Walls of Jericho” back out on all music playing systems and saturating myself in it again. It is one of those albums that rarely spends too long away from getting another listen, so whether this anniversary was coming up or not I would probably be playing it again. Because on the day this episode is released, it is almost 38 years to the day that I first heard the album and last saw Hans. So it is at this time of year that it always comes out anyway, because it reminds me of that time of my life, where I had just finished my final school exams, and the future lay at my feet. And Helloween, as it turns out, was to be a massive part of that future.
Earlier in this episode I mentioned the debut albums of Iron Maiden, Metallica and Megadeth, the production anomalies they have and that each of those bands was still finding their feet on those albums, and which despite all of that are masterful and terrific albums. The same is true of “Walls of Jericho”. For me, and this will be a controversial statement that will be seen to be ludicrous by most, this album is a far better debut album than either Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut, Metallica’s “Kill em All” and Megadeth’s “Killing is My Business, and Business is Good”. The songs, the musicianship and the skill performed on “Walls of Jericho” is still amazing to this day, though with the same restrictions that were mentioned at the top of the episode in all four cases. And those other three albums were heavy influences upon their own genre of heavy metal – Iron Maiden on NWoBHM, Metallica and Megadeth on thrash. “Walls of Jericho”, and the self titled EP released six months earlier, brought together speed metal with a new melodic influence that would be the basis of what became power metal, and influence the next generation of bands in that sphere. And yet it is more than that genre description is now seen to portray. There are no keys here, it is twin guitar melodic and harmony that Iron Maiden possess, it is speed like Megadeth, and it is heavy like Metallica. They were setting a brand new benchmark.
This album, and the one that follows, both became milestones for my music listening tastes. It opened up new doors, a real pathway to the burgeoning and building metal scene in Europe. It was my first step in the direction of the power metal wave, that for me has since become one of my main metal listening pleasures. The quartet that played on this album could not have wished for a better platform to thrust themselves into the world of heavy metal, and for me it still stands as a testament not only to their talent and ability as musicians and songwriters, but what can be achieved when the stars align in their magical way.
“Send me a sign, wanna leave it all behind, I'll be leaving the hands of doom
Rearrange the master plan, take the future in my hands, to be free and not trapped anymore
Ride the sky, ride the sky, Give me wings to fly, ride the sky”
God I love that song.
"Reptile" snuggles its way in between the faster songs on the album, and does slow the momentum that was created by the opening track. Coming off the high that "Ride the Sky" has created, “Reptile” has to work hard to keep you engaged. The tempo is completely different, and Michael Weikath's monster obsession comes to the fore, as it would again. It is one of two songs on this album that perhaps misses a trick, just doesn't quite fit the raging madness around it, and that has as much to do with the positioning of the song on the track list. Still a good song, but out of place. Following though is a return to the manic speed that epitomised the opening track. Michael Weikath’s "Guardians" blazes along with speed, with Kai at high end of his vocal range for almost the whole length of the song, with no pause for breath for any of the group. And that bass riff from Marcus at the start of the song, but all the goddamn way through the track. He is a monster on this album, and I love how he is given the level in the mix that he deserves, because the bass lines make Helloween who they are. It's a beauty, but goddamn Kai makes it hard to sing along given the high register, especially the closing lines "PUPPETS ON A STRING! PUPPETS ON A STRING!". The solo playoff between Kai and Michael in the middle of the track again highlights their magnificence as well. Great stuff. And then, just because there hasn’t been enough brilliance yet, let’s have "Phantoms of Death", which has been another of my favourite tracks for almost 40 years. This is not only a great song lyrically about the destruction we bring upon ourselves, musically it is also another belter, blazing along at a great rate, and mixes a fantastic solo section where both Kai and Weiki trade licks at an alarming rate, before we come to the conclusion of the song and the grand reveal of the root of the song, "Who are they? Who are the Phantoms? Will they end our lives? It's you and me, you and me, open up your eyes!". Simply outstanding. What an incredible first side to the album.
So if you have had such a superb and energy driven first half of the album. How would you go about kicking off the second side of the album? Well, why not attack it with "Metal Invaders" which maintains the rage by mixing the metaphors of invaders from space in metal machines and the mental visions of heavy metal also within the song. Kai's voice again reaches for the ceiling while Marcus's bass line dominates throughout in the same brilliant way it has on the rest of the album. the harmony guitars through the middle of the track again, punctuated by the individual solo exploits, then crash back into the main riff again, charging along well over the speed limit and careering to the conclusion. The flame keeps burning here. This is followed by the groove of "Gorgar", a slower tempo song but with a great guitar riff throughout. It also incorporates the well known riff passage of Edvard Greig’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” that has been sampled in many heavy metal songs through history. The lyrics from this song surely must be written from experience, about spending all of their money on playing on this pinball machine, as Gorgar was the first talking pinball machine ever produced. It's another example of a great lyric coming from something so simple. The chanting chorus "Gorgar will eat you" plays over and over in your head. It's catchy as hell. The anthemic "Heavy Metal (Is the Law)" raises the stakes once again, enhanced by the fact that it has added faux live sounds added to the track. Kai’s chanting in the middle of the song is met by the pre-AI crowd singing along and chanting back at him. recorded as 'live' background chants to give it a live feel. It helps make the song as terrific as it is. And especially listen to Marcus's ridiculous bass guitar through the 'crowd chant' led by Kai. It is ludicrous and shows off his amazing talent. It’s another anthem, and a ripper.
The closing track is the epic of the album. Michael Weikath's "How Many Tears" began life as an orchestral and operatic piece that he wrote in high school and had a school friend singing on it. In itself it is a wonderful song, one that you can still find out there on the internet, but this transformed version is the forebearer of the incredible epic songs that Helloween would produce over the next 40 years - “Helloween”, “Keeper of the Seven Keys”, “King for 1000 Years” and others, they are have their germination in this song. It has been transformed into this full boar, no holds barred finale. Incredibly fast and furious, with lyrics that hold true today, it isn’t until the breakdown in the middle of the track, where the speed drops off, the melodic and harmonic guitar solos take place and the song shows a piece of its original form, that you begin to understand the depths of this track and this band. And then, Ingo hammers the song back into pace and fire as the guitars rejoin and we are off again. I still get goosebumps hearing Kai sing that chorus, his vocals soaring again throughout, to the heights of that closing note.
“How many tears flow away, to become a sea of fears
How many hearts are torn apart, till another torment starts
But before the world, turns into a sun
All cruelty and violence, on Earth will be dead and gone”
This is a masterpiece to finish the album; it's message still as relevant today as it was back in 1985. And the showcasing of this amazing band and its four amazing members could not be greater than what it provides.
Back in 1987, in my final year of high school, our school hosted an exchange student from Norway called Hans Hoie. He was a personable funny guy, awkwardly tall, almost goofy in his conversational English, but was a much loved person amongst our student collective. Apart from all of his other friendly attributes, Hans had his own musical tastes, and he had fortunately brought cassettes with him of his favourite albums. Two of those albums were by a band that we had never heard of, called Helloween. The C90 cassette that he had brought with him had two albums on it, albums that were to change my life. The side B had an album that was something about a keeper of some description, something to do with seas and being part 1 of a series. The album that took up the first side of the cassette was titled “Walls of Jericho”.
The first time I heard this album, I was sitting on a grassed bank, looking over Cathedral Rocks and the Boneyard, a popular spot for teenagers to gather away from prying eyes to sit on the beach and indulge in a few underage alcoholic beverages and listen to music very loud. Hans had been with us for six months, but was heading home to Norway in a few days, and this particular gathering was acting as his farewell. And as such he got to choose the music we listened to. And he pulled this tape out and we began listening. And as the album progressed, I had to keep exclaiming to him ‘why have you kept this from me?’ Everything about it immediately found my sweet spot. It was one of those few true major moments in my life where I heard a song and immediately thought - ‘this is it, this is what I have been searching for’. In this case it was an album – two actually, but that story is for another day. To start with it was the fast and melodic music, but mostly, it was those vocals, the voice of Kai Hansen. I still remember this night, the night I first heard Kai Hansen sing. Because that has been with me every day since. One of the most important discoveries of my life, listening to Kai Hansen singing “Ride the Sky”, “Guardians”, “Phantoms of Death”, and “How Many Tears”. Hans left a few days later, and we stayed in touch for a while on his return to Norway, but the gift of these two albums and this band was something that has lived with me ever since.
I couldn’t tell you how many times I have listened to this album in the 38 years since I first heard it. A thousand times would be a fair bet, and probably more. Though I am sure you have already gathered what it is that draws me to this album, I was just completely blown away when I first heard this album. The combination of everything is like a perfect storm. The speed of the songs and music is incredible. The melodic and harmony guitars between Kai Hansen and Michael Weikath are just amazing, as is their songwriting. They share the credits on this album, three songs together, and the rest share individually between them. The bass guitar of Marcus Grosskopf is outstanding, not just on this album, but in particular on this album. And Ingo’s drumming is metronomic, a sometimes overlooked player on these early Helloween albums but just as important in the creation and production of these amazing songs. And everything on this album is superb. “Ride the Sky” as I mentioned is one of my favourite all time songs, and when I finally got the chance to see Kai playing and singing this live, with Gamma Ray in 2006, I could easily have moved on to the next plane after that moment, because it was all I needed in my life. The rest of the songs here have the same qualities.
And so, for the last three weeks, I have had “Walls of Jericho” back out on all music playing systems and saturating myself in it again. It is one of those albums that rarely spends too long away from getting another listen, so whether this anniversary was coming up or not I would probably be playing it again. Because on the day this episode is released, it is almost 38 years to the day that I first heard the album and last saw Hans. So it is at this time of year that it always comes out anyway, because it reminds me of that time of my life, where I had just finished my final school exams, and the future lay at my feet. And Helloween, as it turns out, was to be a massive part of that future.
Earlier in this episode I mentioned the debut albums of Iron Maiden, Metallica and Megadeth, the production anomalies they have and that each of those bands was still finding their feet on those albums, and which despite all of that are masterful and terrific albums. The same is true of “Walls of Jericho”. For me, and this will be a controversial statement that will be seen to be ludicrous by most, this album is a far better debut album than either Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut, Metallica’s “Kill em All” and Megadeth’s “Killing is My Business, and Business is Good”. The songs, the musicianship and the skill performed on “Walls of Jericho” is still amazing to this day, though with the same restrictions that were mentioned at the top of the episode in all four cases. And those other three albums were heavy influences upon their own genre of heavy metal – Iron Maiden on NWoBHM, Metallica and Megadeth on thrash. “Walls of Jericho”, and the self titled EP released six months earlier, brought together speed metal with a new melodic influence that would be the basis of what became power metal, and influence the next generation of bands in that sphere. And yet it is more than that genre description is now seen to portray. There are no keys here, it is twin guitar melodic and harmony that Iron Maiden possess, it is speed like Megadeth, and it is heavy like Metallica. They were setting a brand new benchmark.
This album, and the one that follows, both became milestones for my music listening tastes. It opened up new doors, a real pathway to the burgeoning and building metal scene in Europe. It was my first step in the direction of the power metal wave, that for me has since become one of my main metal listening pleasures. The quartet that played on this album could not have wished for a better platform to thrust themselves into the world of heavy metal, and for me it still stands as a testament not only to their talent and ability as musicians and songwriters, but what can be achieved when the stars align in their magical way.
No comments:
Post a Comment