Michael Kiske is still amazing.

[Talking Backwards]

I had absolutely no idea that one of my top three favorite metal vocalists of all time had been back to doing metal since 2009. After Helloween, he had not really done much with metal outside of a few stints in Avantasia. Kai Hansen is in the band too no less.


[youtube]VcVL-Z4fgXg&index[/youtube]


Too bad the band name sucks ass.
Discuss.

 

[fading]

And Kiske still sounds killer too!!

 

[Talking Backwards]

And Kiske still sounds killer too!!

He always sounded so much like a hybrid of Geoff Tate and Bruce Dickinson to me, yet somehow sounding better than both. His voice is so strong for being 46. Halford, Dio and Dickinson to a lesser extent were similar.

 

[lorinc]

want some german cheese?

 

[El Stormo]

Kiske's a great vocalist but he's not my cup of tea. Plus, he pronounces the -s- as -sh- and that always irritates me in a singer.

 

[nckissfan]

his work with Amanda Somerville is great, too!

 

[Talking Backwards]

Plus, he pronounces the -s- as -sh- and that always irritates me in a singer.

At first I didn't know what you were talking about. He does do that, but it's not like it's going on with every word, or even most of them that begin or end with an s. His diction has improved a lot since Helloween.
Did you listen to the first song?

 

[El Stormo]

his work with Amanda Somerville is great, too!

For a minute, I read that as Jimmy Sommerville and thought, holy shit this I gotta hear!

Did you listen to the first song?

Yes.

 

[neal]

TIL about Adult Contemporary Power Metal

 

[Talking Backwards]

I have never liked Deris, but this is pretty pathetic, even for him. In a way, this is like Blaze Bayley singing songs that were written for Bruce. Blaze isn't necessarily a bad vocalist at all, but he just doesn't sound good singing the Dickinson stuff. Deris may have been okay fifteen years ago with songs specifically written for him, but he's totally trashed his voice like Cornell through drinking and smoking.



strange falter at the very start, considering how the rest of the song goes.

 

[El Stormo]

Yeah, his falsettos are cringe-inducing. They should have hired Piet Sielck instead of Deris. He would have brought a great sound to the band, and wrecked the old songs too (in the good way). I'm a Sielck fanboy, but with good reason. And Kiske dropping the ball in the beginning a bit is forgiveable, it happens to the best vocalists. Kiske is without a doubt a better vocalist than Deris, but I assume the band prefers not to work with a swollen-head prima donna, which is why they booted Kiske in the first place.

 

[Dead Winter]

If you wanna see how great Kiske still is, check out his live performance of March of Time with his new band. He's still got that scream.

 

[lorinc]

Kiske is definitely a better singer than Deris on all points. Still, I love some of the Deris songs mostly from Better than raw. Probably some nostalgia going on here rather than astonishing performance.

 

[Talking Backwards]

but I assume the band prefers not to work with a swollen-head prima donna, which is why they booted Kiske in the first place.

I'm not sure where this strange hate for Kiske comes from, but according to everything that was written about his departure, that's not what happened at all. Similarly with Hansen. Most of it was them being sick of the way management was handling things, as well as Hansen feeling strange that they were ending up on the cover of teen girl magazines. Kiske in general just didn't like the way metal music scene was at the time, or the image you were supposed to show if you were a part of it.

MB: Part of your disappointment with heavy metal came from leaving Helloween?

MK: Mmmm, it’s a big bunch of things; it has a lot to do with how creativity is treated, especially on the German metal scene. It’s different in other countries; you can’t really generalize the metal scene, honestly, it’s different in every country. When you go to Italy or Spain is a completely different world than in Norway or whatever.
I am a very spiritual person and I believe in good and that we are here for doing something beautiful, and I have a huge problem with this idealizing of evil that goes on in that scene, that was huge portion of why I was pissed with it.

Nowadays, when I look back, I understand a bit better why some bands act in a certain way, I don’t blame them if they like a certain record of a band and the band changes and they’re frustrated about; I understand that, from a fan point of view. But in terms of journalists, people who write for magazines and stuff like that, they should know a bit more about music culture, and that music culture has a lot to do with expressing yourself and to do what you think is exciting; it should be the way that when you have success with a certain record that you try to copy that record for the rest of your life just to keep the business going; I think that’s artistically wrong but, in many ways, in the metal scene that’s requested. If you do something that’s different, it doesn’t really matter if it’s good or not, it gets destroyed in many ways. I’m not saying [it’s like that] in every country, but in Germany I was fed up with that attitude, I thought it was anti-music; every music scene has to die if you are not allowed to move on and try out new things.

I started making music, especially this type of music, because I was excited about some bands; it was Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, this kind of bands that, I thought, were awesome and made records that I liked. It was pure excitement for music, why I started this; I never thought about success, business or anything in that direction, it was pure excitement for music. I was very “blue-eyed” when I started doing that.
The first couple of years in Helloween were just a blast, awesome, I’d say the first 4 years, they were really great, and then things started to become more and more painful. There are a lot of things that came together; there will always be a conflict in me when it comes to the metal scene, because I like most of the music and I like most of the fans (I think they’re really sweet) but I will always be against this devil-worshipping and idealizing of Satanism and things like that. How can anyone hold that up? How can anyone hold up an ideal like that? Like inhumanity, brutality and things like that.

If you wanna see how great Kiske still is, check out his live performance of March of Time with his new band. He's still got that scream.

Kind of did that right above your post, although with "I Want Out". People were commenting about his scream at the 4:00 mark too.

You guys really need to listen to the entire Light of Dawn album. To me, it sounds kind of like something in between Operation Mindcrime, Empire and Fortress (Alter Bridge).

 

[El Stormo]

I'm not sure where this strange hate for Kiske comes from, but according to everything that was written about his departure, that's not what happened at all.

That's not what the rest of the band claimed. One of my colleagues is good friends with several members, and they all agree Kiske was booted because of his massive ego.

And I don't hate Kiske at all, I don't know where you're getting that from. He's just not my cup of tea as a singer.

 

[Talking Backwards]

That's not what the rest of the band claimed. One of my colleagues is good friends with several members, and they all agree Kiske was booted because of his massive ego.

And I don't hate Kiske at all, I don't know where you're getting that from. He's just not my cup of tea as a singer.

It was also stated many years later that the band members were saying what the management wanted them to say about the issue. That's also supposedly what caused the exchange of many heated words that happened for a few years in the 90s in various magazines. Kiske was just a kid at the time anyway, but he ended up becoming embittered when Hansen left and the rest of what was going on just drove him to quit, he wasn't kicked. Of course, that could be a bunch of lies too, so /shrug.

Q: What is your most memorable moment from your time in Helloween?
A: The first tours we did. Keeper 1, Keeper 2. People might say that I say that because I'm back together with Kai, but it's just a fact. When he was in the band, the band was totally functioning. When he wasn't in anymore, it stopped functioning, and it turned into a nightmare, especially for me. There was one special thing in France in a very little village around the Keeper 1 time. We were very successful in France, and we went there to do a show. But the promoter who did the show didn't advertise it, so people didn't know we were there. We played for about 80 people. But it was the most fun we ever had. It was more like a Monty Python thing than a concert.

 

[El Stormo]

Well, the fact that quite a few band members have confirmed that the song "Mr. Ego" is about him says enough. Maybe Kiske still thinks it's not true, but the rest of the band certainly disagrees. But you're right, it's not like it's important.

 

[Dead Winter]

Helloween sucks anyway. Anything after Keeper 2 is typical German power metal cheese. Kiske is a great singer for that era, but shit man, it was 30 years ago and an era of rock music that was known more for being superfluous and artificial than anything else.

Why the fuck are we still talking about these powerprog frontmen as if they were still relevant and not a total nostalgia act? It's all the same falsetto bullshit over and over again, and nothing has changed since 1987 with these bands. They're caricatures of themselves.

Furthermore, why aren't you listening to the new Enslaved?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhbqvYzvxhY

 

[Talking Backwards]

Why the fuck are we still talking about these powerprog frontmen as if they were still relevant and not a total nostalgia act? It's all the same falsetto bullshit over and over again, and nothing has changed since 1987 with these bands. They're caricatures of themselves.

I'd probably agree if this was actually true at all. It's like you're arguing that people with any kind of range should simply not use it because it makes YOU think of 80s cheese or some such nonsense. Everyone should just stay in plain, everyman levels of range, or grunting/shouting everything right? You must also not know the difference between falsetto and full/head voice.

On top of that, the very first video in this thread shows how it's actually changed. It doesn't sound like it's stuck in the 80s at all, even if you can hear the history.

They should have hired Piet Sielck instead of Deris. He would have brought a great sound to the band, and wrecked the old songs too (in the good way). I'm a Sielck fanboy, but with good reason.

LOL. I just started listening to Iron Savior's latest, and thought "Wow, if this is what Pete now sounds like, Stormo probably likes Savage Garden/Persuader a lot too". But it's just because Joachim Küstner (aka mini Hansai) is doing much of the backing vocals and leads on a few songs. I'm not really much of a fan of this kind of power metal in general though, but it has more to do with the ultra-bombastic choruses than anything else. Blind Guardian is about the only band I actually enjoy that uses choruses like this for the most part.

 

[Dead Winter]

You're missing the point. Of course people change. Of course we all like old 80s metal sometimes for nostalgia, but all these bands you post are just the reincarnation of the same thing over and over again. It's all leather pants, shiny hair, stupid poses and too much vibrato. Yes, they're all great musicians but there's no soul in it; it's all aped from some other place.

Of course I don't think everyone should sing in the Eddie Vedder "range" or just scream in monotone for 5 minutes, but these other 80s-worshipping bands are just as trite and tired. And yes, I know the difference between falsetto and singing from your diaphragm with a full voice. What I don't understand is how people can circle jerk over almost literally the very same song played by 100 different bands for 30 years and act like they've just discovered fire for the first time in history.

I'm not trying to offend or say you have shit taste in music, I would just like you to post something that doesn't either sound like Ryche, Maiden, washed-up has-beens or the endless sea of garbage German power metal bands. Nostalgia has its place, but find me something really great. Nevermore was really great.

Again, no offense whatsoever, it's just that I think some of this stuff is a bit ho-hum and I'm always searching for something better.