Customer Reviews

Instant Clarity

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After the ill-received and incredibly schizophrenic Chameleon album, Michael Kiske found himself ousted from the legendary German power metal outfit Helloween. His solo debut - 1995's Instant Clarity - marked Kiske's return to making music, if not his return to heavy metal.

Instead of the power metal sound he was best known for, Kiske, aided by no less than Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith and former Helloween bandmate (and current Gamma Ray main man) Kai Hansen, released an album of melodic rock songs that range from AOR to hard rock that verges on metal. In truth, much of the material on Instant Clarity is not that far removed from the songs Kiske wrote for Chameleon, but what was hard to swallow from the band that brought us the famed Keeper of the Seven Keys albums is a lot easier to take coming from Kiske as a solo artist.

Given Kiske's somewhat uneven solo output (Supared, anyone?) as well as his often derogatory statements about heavy metal, I was prepared not to like this album. The combination of strong melodies and a voice that is synonymous with European power metal proved too hard to resist. It's not a perfect album by any means. When it's bad, it's bad. Thanx a Lot and So Sick bring back the worst excesses of Chameleon and Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Time's Passing By seems incredibly out of place here), but when it works it works well. The Calling, New Horizons, and the ballad Always are very strong songs, and while the 10-minute Do I Remember a Life wasn't quite the metal epic I was hoping for, there's no denying it's emotion and power (or Kiske's ability as a songwriter).

While Instant Clarity should appeal to Helloween fans, those expecting a return to the power metal glory days of the Keeper albums are going to be sorely disappointed.

NOTE: The 2006 Frontiers reissue of Instant Clarity features 4 bonus tracks. The first - A Song Is Just a Moment - was originally only available of the Japanese import of Instant Clarity. The remaining three tracks - I Don't Deserve Love, Sacred Grounds, and Can't Tell - are laid back acoustic songs that bear a strong resemblance to Extreme, as well as the material on Kiske's Place Vendome project.

After being kicked out of Helloween (1987-1993), legendary heavy-metal vocalist Michael Kiske disappeared from the music scene for a couple of years. In 1995, he appeared as a guest vocalist in Gamma Ray's Land of The Free album and not long after he re-emerged with his first solo album "Instant Clarity".

This album finds Michael Kiske reunited with his former band mate Kai Hansen (ex-Helloween, Gamma Ray), who is a guest guitarist on the album, together with Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden). There is plenty of musical variety on the album. The music can be described as hard-rock with metal, grunge, AOR and classical influences. The vocals are as powerful as ever, but even more mature and controlled. The singing varies from emotional lower and mid-range vocals to really powerful and clean higher pitched ones.

The strongest tracks on the album are "Be True To Yourself", "The Calling", "New Horizons", "Always" and "Do I Remember A Life?".

"Be True To Yourself" is a grunge influenced rock song with mainly higher pitched vocals, which sets the mood for things to come. "The Calling" is a track written by Kiske, Hansen and Smith. It can been described as a strong, groovy and uplifting heavy-metal track, with great guitar riffs/solos, that hankers back to Michael's Helloween days. "New Horizons" is a catchy mid tempo power metal song written by Smith, which also contains a Helloween vibe. "Always" is one of the most emotional and memorable songs on the album. A beautiful piano ballad, backed by truly emotional and warm lyrics and vocals (dedicated to early Helloween drummer Ingo). "Do I Remember A Life?" is the masterpiece of the album! A classical and hard rock influenced track, which exceeds the 10 minute mark. The song's main force are the lyrics and vocals, while acoustic guitars, piano and drums play a secondary role. In this song Kiske uses many of his outstanding vocal skills, delivering a breathtaking vocal orgasm that varies constantly until the end of the song!

This re-release comes with 4 bonus tracks. All 4 tracks are nicely arranged acoustic rock songs. Three of the four tracks were recorded in 2006 and feature a much more mature vocal performance by Kiske. "Can't Tell" and "Sacred Grounds" are probably the strongest of the bunch.

As a whole the album is really strong and varied and will surely appeal to all fans of Michael Kiske's voice and songwriting. Fans of rock and hard rock should also give it a try, as the man is considered to be one of the best rock vocalists ever!

Fans of Michael Kiske should not expect him to be doing songs like Helloween on his solo CD's. Helloween tried to capitalize off Kiske since he sounded like Geoff Tate of Queensryche. It is good to hear him doing his own thing but this music is much different that the material from his past.

The great merit of Kiske was to avoid some metal cliches. But the result was so uneven that I did not like most of the album, even with Adrian Smith and Kai Hansen supplying great solos in some songs.