Customer Reviews

Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I wasnt a Helloween diehard fan to begin with, mostly i listened to the metal GODS: "Iron Maiden, Judas Priest"...and followers such as Gamma Ray, Rhapsody, Iced Earth...

I was able to purchase their entire CD collection and listened to all of them....The legacy (Pt. 3) is one of their best acommplishments over the years....If you are familiar with these German heavy-power metal rockers you must have heard the "Walls of Jericho" album, not to mention "Keeper 1 & 2"....It may not be as heavy as these prior albums but they kept up their trademark and have not let the fans down!

Not to mention that there's a digipack version (Both versions are double CDs....and the second CD is not an extra CD with 2 songs like most bonus disks, but a complete album CD with aprox.6-7 songs)

This album is the greatest since Master of the Rings. The songs are powerful, begining with "The King of A 1000 Years." "Invisible Man" is also a masterpiece. I don't know why some people complains about this album. This is really a Legacy of what Helloween is giving us! I recomend this album to all those Helloween's fans out there.

Keepers legacy is sure no keepers 1 & 2 but I pretty much loved it, The metal melody and deris's singing and songwriting all of that was not bad at all. When I first heard KOTSK the legacy I thought deris was going to be singing just the stuff from the classical KOTSK 1 & 2 albums but im glad he wrote his own songs on this album because I think this album would be a waste if thats all he did is just do other peoples songs. I have been a big fan of helloween for a long time and I never gave up on these guys but still I pretty much miss roland grapow and uli kusch after the dark ride and their replacements sascha gerstner and danny lobe were not bad at all but I don't think they can fill in for the stuff roland and uli created in helloween.

Any way good album can't explain much but for new fans I wouldn't recommend that you start here yet, I recommend the dark ride or better than raw first or the 2 classical keeper of the seven key albums 1 & 2 and stay far far away from chameleon and pink bubbles go ape never buy those albums.

Like Helloween in their long musical career, this album has its ups and downs. There are some masterpieces (King for 1000 years, Born on Judgement Day) there are also some boring ones (Silent Rain, Pleasure Drone [just my opinion here]). I wouldn't compare it too much to the Keepers pt. 1 & 2 albums, its not as harsh, and its also not nearly as consistant. Also, some songs like Occasion Avenue seem to go nowhere, it sometimes seems the band succeeds more with short tracks like "Shade in Shadow" and "Get it Up" than their progressive attempts.

But overall, I love this album, especially the singing. I hated most Helloween albums (except Better Than Raw) after Keepers pt. 2 and didn't like Deris' singing but this CD has completely changed my opinion of Helloween/Deris..so get this CD, you won't be disappointed!

Hmmmm. Always good to hear from HELLOWEEN, at their level of experience in songwriting and musicianship they can do no wrong...however they CAN stray from their metal roots (like Megadeth in RISK, or Priest in ANGEL OF RETRIBUTION). Although they use "Keeper of the 7 Keys" in the title, that was first and foremost a Metal Album (and one of their best, and the world's best). This is a Progressive Rock Album, long on hooks, melody and keyboard/synth fills, short on hammering metal riffs. All tracks are listenable but none of them really STOMP like their earlier works. The only link to "Keeper" seems to be in the soul-searching lyrics. Most Helloween fans will accept this but would rather listen to TREASURE CHEST or earlier works. Prog-rock fans should love this, and it's also 'safe' enough to get some radio play. It's growing on me, although I thought RABBIT DON'T COME EASY was better...K.K.

I've read a lot of reviews on this CD, and I honestly can not beleive some of the BS I've read. From the first time I listened to this CD I thought it was a pretty good recording, the songs were interesting and Andi Deris has a great voice. He's got better a much better vocal range than Michael Kiske will ever have (maybe that's why I don't own any CD's with him singing on them). Now a lot of reviewers I've noticed have been picking on the title that HELLOWEEN has taken for this release. I mean sure they could have eaily just named it Keepers of The Seven Keys part 3, but lets look a little deeper into the word 'LEGACY'. Now first off my thesaurus says a Legacy is: inheritance, birthright, bequest or a heritage. Now in my dictionary, it says that a Legacy is: a thing left to someone in a will, or handed down by a predecessor.. So the way that I understand it, is that the first keeper handed down something to the second keeper and in other words it's become a legacy. So in the future, lets try to concentrate more on the music that this great band has created and stop bantering about the title of the CD.

I wasn't holding much out for Helloween after Rabbit Don't Come Easy, which while not being the disaster some made it out to be, seemed fairly lacklustre. The departure of Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch, it seemed, had knocked that special something out of the band (although they then gave us the awesome Masterplan, so all is forgiven)

As a result, The Legacy was one of the biggest surprises I have ever had - truly Helloween have returned to show the world why they are considered the forefathers of this genre. This album combines the good production of RDC Easy, the epic scope of Keeper 1 and 2, mixed in with a little bit of wackiness and fun from Master Of the Rings.

Inevitable comparisons will be made to Keeper 1 and 2 - does it live up to the name? Well, give it time, but if you ask me, this easily holds its own. I have no idea what the original story was (nor do i care). Theres a few references to keys here and there, and some songs that clearly have nothing to do with anything. But then, neither Keeper albums stuck with the theme all the way through.

Kiske versus Deris? No contest. A few years ago I would have said otherwise, but Deris buys and owns Kiske with this album - the man has never, ever sounded so good. Like it or not, Deris, IS Helloween. He can't hit the high notes with the smoothness, but he can hit them, and when he does (quite frequently throughout the album) its all the more satisfying.

And the songs? This is the most consistent offering for a long time. The Opener, King For A 1000 Years, is an absolute monster of a song, one of the best they've ever done. Invisible Man, Pleasure Drone and Silent Rain are all similar - speedy rockers with catchy choruses, that would not be out of place on Master of the Rings, or Better That Raw.

The first half is better than the second, though not before delivering us the second epic of the album, Occasion Avenue, which is both dark and grand, complete with choir backing. In fact, there is no song that is particularly bad, save for Mrs God which isn't actually bad - but it sticks out and was truly a daft choice for a single. It doesn't reflect the rest of the album at all!

This review is a bit long, but only because I believe this album truly is worth a listen from any Helloween (or metal) fan. I was so surprised at how good this album was - if you were like me and had written Helloween off, think again. Hopefully, with a more solid lineup, and some success with this, they'll keep up the good work!

It took me about 2 weeks to get used to this album. The more I listen to it however, the more I discover just how musically diverse it truely is. Legacy is it's own album and sounds nothing like past works. I am blown away by the creativeness of this band everythime they release an album. I have been a loyal Helloween fan 14 years now and I know the good from the bad. This one is worth your time.

I will keep this review short and sweet, this album is a must have for helloween fans, but not a must for the new listener. This album will not win any new fans for helloween. This will re-kindle the passions of many an old fan (like myself). The songs are overall fall short of the novelty of the first two Keeper albums, but still manage to grasp the key elements of great guitar solos, and an occasional catchy melody/chorus (IE Ms. God good lyrics, Silent Rain good intro riff), but the flow of the story/music isn't there for me. It seems very forced. Times are different, and helloween need to continue to evolve, and not get stuck in a rut like this. I give it a 4 out of 5 compared to their past few efforts, but if I were a fresh listener, only a 3 at best. New folks must be introduced to "I want out-live" or "Keepers Live" first, then The Best, The Rest, The Rare. After savoring those, then dive into Keepers I and II for the complete hook. Oh, and by the way, there was no need to make two discs out of thes (run time around 78 minutes for both combined). They could added the bonus tracks "Run(the name of your enemy)", "Revolution" or the Ms. God video on the standard usa cd and not just the Ms. God Single or Japanese Imports.

There are some good parts in some songs but nothing special. By hearing the title i was believing that this album was going to be another amazing album like Keeper on the seven keys part 1 & 2. There is no comparison between them two. This album is just for Hellowween collectors and nobody.