Helloween Pink Bubbles Go Ape CD

 GOOD!
I never compared this one to Keepers or something like that. I prefer to take new material as "new" and enjoy if that's the case. It was the case here, for me at least. Actually, the band sounds melodic as usual, maybe less inspired in some songwriting. But, there are some great songs here, like Metal Hamsters, Goin' Home (why so underrated?), and Your Turn, a wonderful ballad imo. Also the bonus stuff is great, an Elvis cover and some Kiske solo sounding like songs. The most important s that this album was remastered in a nice manner. The guy who did it(Nik Watson), no matter what he did,did it right. Original issues was bright...That brightness is gone now!
Submitted by Dan (London, ON, Canada) 
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 One of Helloween's great!
Well-written songs with great musicianship.
Submitted by Zifo (Singapore)
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 Underrated even today! Great & improved sound
Coming out from a law-suit after their label change and a huge line-up change which leaves legendary guitarist-songwriter Kai Hansen out of the band, Helloween come back with "Pink Bubbles Go Ape". A record which was bashed by music critics due to the fact that the band changed their music to a small effect when compared to their highly praised Keeper Of The Seven Keys records. "Pink Bubbles..." admitably has a really strange, even silly title but this is not the case with the song writing. The music departs a bit from the continuous double-bass drumming stile and is enriched with more progressive and at parts mainstream ideas. Some songs are softer than the usual tracks found on the Keeper records reminding more of heavy metal than power metal, but that's not a drawback for sure. Without diving into each and every song, I'm going to name only the outstanding ones! "Mankind" is a great-epic and progressive song with wonderful vocal and musical variations. "The Chance" is a mid-paced heavy metal anthem, which contains some of the albums best vocals and is the most known track from this relish. "Someone's Crying" is the only song that could be categorized as pure power metal (fast double-base drumming), a truly great song, which reminds a lot of their previous albums. "Your Turn" is a wonderful rock-blues ballad with great vocals and finally "Kids of the Century" is another fast song with smart lyrics and great solos. The new guitarists R.Grapow proves to be a worthy replacement, as his guitar playing is outstanding and he also contributes some great tracks to the album. Vocalist Michael Kiske has improved even more (if that could be possible) in both technicality and emotion delivering his best vocal performance up to that point. While the other 3 band members, especially drummer Ingo, continue to show how talented musicians they are. The main drawback of this album was the thin production, but now this relish offers a remaster of the original sound, thus a truly improved sound quality. The other drawback are tracks 1,5,9, but the 4 Bonus Tracks make up for that one also, especially the cover of Blue Suede Shoes. You should definitely give this album a chance, if you enjoyed Helloweens previous relishes, as you can see how the band progresses and doesn't continue repeating itself for the sake of record sales.
Submitted by John (Greece)
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