Artist: Helloween
Title: “Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 2”
Label: Sanctuary Records
Release Date: 8/8/2006
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4/5

One might have found it strange that Helloween chose to follow up “Keeper 1” with a successor album immediately afterward but if you heard it originally back then- it made nothing but sense. The band was firming up their dominance in this new Power Metal genre that their music was largely responsible for and as the albums opener “Eagle Fly Free” blasts through your speakers you feel all the majesty and grandeur that Helloween would come to be associated with for a number of albums. With their third album being a sequel there were probably not many who felt it would be the success that is eventually became. Song wise there was no shortage of memorable tunes from the comical “Dr. Stein”, which finds the infamous Doctor now creating monsters who become Rock Musicians and Politicians, to Metal anthem “I Want Out”. The latter track had a very strange video to accompany it on the still fledgling MTV network which at the time showed a lot of Metal bands. This same track still sounds as fresh today almost twenty years later and not many bands can say that about their early material. Kiske has vocal lines on the album that soar high above the stratosphere at times and at others are subtle and passionate and on his own sophomore work with the group you can easily see why he will become one of the most respected Power Metal vocalists of all time and be someone who future singers measure their talents against. The album does not include a sequel to the mega-number “Halloween” from the preceding chapter but in its place we have “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” which serves well as the albums epic number. There is also the appealing heaviness of “Save Us” and this will remind you easily of the appeal of this building genre.
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