Review by Rexorcist for Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II (1988)

Helloween, the pioneers of power metal, made the genre possible from their early days.  Their self-titled extended play was already showing early stages of metal brilliance, but that speed metal album was only the beginning.  They had perfected themselves more and more with their albums Walls of Jericho and Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. I.  And Pt. II cemented their footprints in the everlasting heavy metal hall of fame.  Pt. II is everything a metal fan can ask for.  While the structures of most of these songs are very poppy, making the album seriously accessible, the metal energy is still very strong.  Maybe it doesn't reach the thrashing heights of Walls of Jericho, but the anthemic energy makes up for that.  Anthems to freedom like "Eagle Fly Free" and "Rise and Fall" make a full grown man wanna jump on the bed when he's just chilling in the bedroom.  But there's also a weird side to it, bringing out Helloween's jovial childishness.  Songs like "Dr. Stein" and "Keeper of the Seven Keys" bring out the sci-fi and fantasy that so many power metal bands sought to imitate and build their images off of, but they hardly feel cheesy because Helloween weren't TRYING to do anything, they just did it.  And with Michael Kiske's vocal range rising beyond the stratosphere and scratching Heaven, there's no way to resist the band's raw force.

Keeper of the Seven Keys is considered to be Helloween at its most iconic.  And while I'm not sure I'd call it their peak, it's certainly something that needs to be heard.  This was the first power metal album I ever heard, and because of that I got an early start on looking through dozens of power metal acts.  But very few of them could replicate the energy and independence that Helloween stood for during the Kiske era.  Purely incredible, and definitely essential.