The Dark Ride

I listened to this album last night and the title track this morning. What a CD! You'd expect them to be writing music different than what the newer bands are up to (Edguy, Sonata Arctica, Dragonforce), but Helloween pleases me. I have Keeper... Part I and love it even more than this one. DO NOT get turned off because of the bands about 20 year career. These guys put out power metal no different than what the modern masters do.The first thing I must make note of is my favorite song, "The Departed". What a unique song! I love all the evens on the CD - that's it. The opening group of notes should catch your attention. I've never heard another song like it. I just love it!!!Also on my list of favorites lies the opening song, "Mr. Torture", which has awesome guitarring. A bit short, though (3:30). If I could Fly is okay, but I don't think the music is good enough for the lyrics. The title track is pretty good, but for a closer AND a title track, more should have been done. That song is the longest on the album clocking in at 8:50. The biggest surprises are the ultra-gloomy track 4 and track 10. 4 is great. You don't hear gloomy CDs like this one too much, and to have a song that stands out as gloomy on an already gloomy album says something. This song is so slow and the vocals are so dark... wow! Its another one of those different ones. However, I did earlier say that Helloween is no different from the modern bands, right? Well, track 10 doesn't disappoint you. At the 1:54 mark, one of the coolest "between choruses" starts, and boy is it awesome! Its nothing compared to the likes of "The World Will be Better" by Heavenly, but its my favorite "between choruses" on the album, with "Mr. Torture" (track 2)'s "between chorus" as a close 2nd.Now for keyboards... They're not that apparent, but this kind of music doesn't need them. Helloween isn't like Brainstorm or Manowar, but more like Gamma Ray. The Departed uses keyboards, but other than that, the vocals and bass are the focus, so keyboards aren't really needed to enhance the sound like they are say with Sonata Arctica. Oh yeah, the cover art is perfect for the gloomyness of this album, which is described well in other reviews. Just believe me when I say that these songs that I mentioned are all different from each other and that there is something here for every true metal lover.So much has been said about Helloween over time that I just don't know what else to write here. I expressed my opinion like all other times - what else can I do? ...I know... "BUY IT!"When you do get the chance, say if this review helped you or not and then go read some of my others. Thanks for reading!

It sounds great and the vinyl is colored. I appreciate that "special edition" is written directly on the cover as well as the individual records' stickers.

Got the CD before expected! I thought this special edition came in a standard CD case, but is a digipack (which is not an issue, just to clarify). Happy to get this Helloween amazing album!

Excelente

The Dark Ride is the swan song for two band members and I was torn by this album. About 3 songs were not to my liking, the rest were good but...what I am torn about is, is it an album you'd wanna hear more than once? Do any songs stand out to make you wanna listen to them over and over? I'd say, in my opinion, there are 4 songs I'd listen to a lot. One of them is ''If I Could Fly''. The song itself has a lyric that makes you inspired, it dares you. The chorus is very profound, a part like: "If I could fly, see the world through my eyes", it's a pretty good lyric and a very good song.The next one would be ''Escalation 666''. The song itself is very dark, the guitars are toned down and the voice Andi makes when mentioning ''Escalation 666'' is very eerie, I like it a lot.The next two are: ''We Damn The Night & I Live For Your Pain''. Both songs are raw, heavy, very deep songs which captivate the mind and upon reading the lyrics, makes them very personal and moody.The Dark Ride is an album that takes a few listens to understand but once analyzed, you'll find that the album is an underrated Helloween album.

I love this album.

Excelente trabajo

Good timing.