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by Sebastian Kluth

A Legendary Band in a Legendary Location - A Review of Helloween's Live at Budokan

A Legendary Band in a Legendary Location - A Review of Helloween's Live at Budokan

Helloween isn't only Europe's most influential power metal band but also one of the greatest groups to ever see in concert. Especially the current line-up featuring former guitarist, singer and songwriter Kai Hansen as well as legendary former singer Michael Kiske is worth the attention, respect and support of any metal fan. Five years after the masterful live record United Alive in Madrid, the dynamic, motivated and sympathetic septet has released another live album entitled Live at Budokan. The legendary German power metal band plays in front of an enthusiastic crowd at Japan's most legendary contemporary conert hall in the heart of Tokyo. This record offers anything a power metal fan could be craving for: diversified vocals from three different singers, fast and melodic guitar play, powerful pumping bass guitar segments, energetic and versatile drum passages, an energetic crowd enhancing the band's splendid performance and a setlist with cuts from the very early years, the experimental middle years and a few recent cuts from last self-titled studio album Helloween.

What stands out most to me on this record is the band's phenomenal chemistry as exemplified by lead singers Andi Deris and Michael Kiske. They complete each other splendidly, call each other their respective favourite vocalists and when Michael Kiske gives a little kiss on Andi Deris' head, it's obvious for everyone to see that the current line-up of Helloween is a passion project and not an attempt to cash in before retiring.

You might now be wondering how come this excellent output isn't worth one hundred percent like last live record United Alive in Madrid. To be sincere, I would have given this release the exact same rating if it had ended with joyful, optimistic and uplifting anthem "Dr. Stein" that symbolizes the essence of European power metal and the identity of Helloween alike. However, the band then loses its coherency, energy and flow when performing "How Many Tears" and later on "Keeper of the Seven Keys". The former is stretched to a challenging twelve and a half minutes while the latter almost breaks the twenty-one-minute mark. Instead of improving these legendary classics with dynamic crowd interaction, heartfelt solo sections or a thorough introduction of the different members of the septet, both songs mostly feature aimlessly meandering, pointlessly plodding and dreadfully repetitive passages that will even challenge the most adamant fans of European power metal epics. The simple verdict here is that less would have been so much more.

Except for those two failures, the rest of the live record is however excellent from every perspective including band chemistry, crowd participation and production values. I would thus suggest adamant fans to purchase this output and simply skip "How Many Tears" and "Keeper of the Seven Keys" after having made it through both tunes just once for the sake of completion. For those who have a more limited budget or who wouldn't call themselves unconditional genre fans, I would simply suggest purchasing previous live record United Alive in Madrid that avoids such lengths and entertains magnificently for two hours and forty-one minutes that you will want to revisit time and again. On a closing note, some fans might wonder whether to purchase these live records for auditory pleasure only or also for visual satisfaction. My verdict here would be to enjoy the auditory treatment of the excellent United Alive in Madrid and to opt for visual entertainment in the case of Live at Budokan that truly captures the septet's magical chemistry. Here's hope that Helloween will release a new studio record next year and continue to play concerts and festivals all around the world to its faithful fans.

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