Chamelon
| • 1- First Time • 2- When The Sinner • 3- I Don't Wanna Cry no More • 4- Crazy Cat • 5- Giants • 6- Windmill • 7- Revolution Now • 8- In the Night • 9- Music • 10- Step Out of Hell • 11- I Believe • 12- Longing |
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| This was the album that left a multitude of
Helloween fans scratching their heads in complete bewilderment and shock - cause after
all, what the hell is a band who played precise, epic power metal suddenly doing by
putting out an album with 72 minutes of jazzy, funky, and - yes - country music (you heard
right...)?? Granted, there are some rocking tunes here, but they definitely do not
comprise the majority of the material. This sort of 'disregard' to form proved quite
controversial among fans, many of whom Helloween lost due exactly to the aforementioned.
There were of course also the folks who praised the band's courage for experimenting
rather than releasing what was supposedly expected of them; so kudos to those few brave
souls capable of withstanding the entire album - something that I unfortunately can't
do...at least not at this point. Country, jazzy, funky crap aside, there is still some definite quality nestled in here and there. "First Time" is a melodic, rocking opener, and the more epic oriented "Giants" features some ultra smooth vocals, as well as some deft guitar interplays - the overall feel of the track is reminiscent to a tighter and faster Judas Priest 'Turbo'-esque sound. "Revolution Now", clocking in at over eight minutes, is more of a take it or leave it track - the bluesy riffs, extremely distorted vocals, total stoner atmosphere throughout may turn a lot of people off, but I personally find myself loving the song for all it's worth. "Music" is relatively solid throughout, but it's the nine minute opus "I Believe" which gets the nod for best track; Kiske writes about becoming a Christian and the music is constantly (and suitably) epic with relative heaviness to boot; there's also a really cool, flawlessly integrated mid-tempo break-off bridge section. Finally, the closer "The Longing" is Kiske's swan song for the band, and a worthy one at that - just him with an acoustic guitar and an orchestra - inevitably enough, the results are quite pleasing to the ear. |
| Anything else of quality here? Well, sort
of..."Windmill" is a soothing, lullabye-like ballad (with drums though), and
"When the Sinner" has a relatively decent, pulsing beat at first before
escalating into a whole mess with the overdubbed vocals and horns...err, yeah. This
absolute slew of variety (which as it turns out, isn't as good as it's cracked up to be)
makes it kinda hard to recommend this to all but the most open minded metal fans. It
should be known that I'm all for originality, but not at the price of good music, which is
sort of the case here. Some songs are indeed very good, some are pretty solid, and some
are, for lack of a better word, just plain shitty. Granted, I need to listen to the album
some more myself, so the rating is subject to change - maybe for the worse, maybe for the
better - time will tell. Overall though, while the verdict is still out for now, there can
be no doubt in my mind that this is one of the most original discs I own - but we'll see
if that makes it any better... By
Ilya Ulberg |
