Revisiting Helloween- Chameleon

[Savage Pumpkin]

While I was on my Helloween- Pink Bubbles Go Ape retrospective I thought I would just tackle "Chameleon as well. I don't hate the album at all. Actually after listening to it again I have a new respect for it. It is as Michael Weikath put it "3 solo albums in 1" meaning Michael Weikath, Michael Kiske, and Roland Grapow" each wrote 4 tracks seperately with no one touching anything. The tracks I enjoy are "Giants", "First Time", "In The Night", "Step Out Of Hell". The ballads "Windmill" and "I don't want to cry no more" are good but I don't really think Helloween should have done any ballads at this point in their career. "When The Sinner" is a good song as long as you do not listen to it while watching the dumb video (lol). I also think that "Revolution now" has its moments. The expanded edition has 8 great b-side tracks which make it so worthwhile. Heres some of the best:

 

[nomisofsiman]

Not nearly as bad as people say. I never actually gave this one a chance. Thanks for the post! That instrumental was particularly awesome.

 

[Savage Pumpkin]

Not nearly as bad as people say. I never actually gave this one a chance. Thanks for the post! That instrumental was particularly awesome.

Thanks! I wanted to make sure you knew that that track "Oriental Journey" is only on the Expanded edition of "Chameleon" and not on the regular CD. Unless you have the cd single "When The Sinner" that is.

 

[Justin G]

Sorry, but this album is as bad as people say. It takes a lot to make Pink Bubbles Go Ape look good, but Chameleon does it.

 

[VenomGA]

Worst original Helloween album the band has released to date!! DREADFUL album

 

[Savage Pumpkin]

Sorry, but this album is as bad as people say. It takes a lot to make Pink Bubbles Go Ape look good, but Chameleon does it.

hey that's cool that's what's great about music. People can draw their own conclusions. I am curious though. What did you think of "Oriental Journey"?

 

[nomisofsiman]

Yeah went to look for the other Chameleon stuff. Still pretty bad. I do like that instrumental, so maybe someday if I see this thing for cheap used I'll pick it up. Otherwise I won't. Not worth it for that one track.

 

[RagePSV]

I own it and listen to it every couple of years.

 

[Angrafan]

I lke Pink Bubbles, but this one is truly awful. It has nothing to do with the fact that it's not very metal, but it's corny as it gets...

BUT it does have a few good songs (First time, for example) and one amazing song (Longing)... Longing is one of my favorite Helloween songs

 

[TheLongshot]

To be honest, I don't understand the hate. I actually really like the album. Maybe because I'm a latecomer to Helloween and I don't have a preconception of what Helloween should be.

 

[mel_progson]

While I am a fan of Pink Bubbles I can't say the same of this one. Back in the days before the internet there was literally no way of finding out any info on bands like Helloween etc. We were under the impression and had been told that the band had split up. Then when we saw this album at Utopia records in Sydney it was a big surprise. It was an even bigger surprise hearing the material...and not a good one.

 

[Palabra de Dios]

Here's the deal with Chameleon. I think the song "First Time" start the album off really well. I actually enjoy the song...but as the album goes on, I get less and less interested, and then listening to the full album becomes a chore. I'm not saying that an album has to have 100% great songs to be good, but this one just doesn't have it.

And this is especially evident when you compare it to, well, everything else the band has put out (which runs a spectrum of "damn solid" to "utterly amazing", in my opinion). While it has it's moments, still their 'least good' album from mine and others' points of view.

 

[tenebre]

As an old school fan and one who bought the when the sinner single before the album was released, I can say I honestly like the album. As a one-off its really nice. I am glad they did not stay with this style but very happy they tied it. I believe is one of my favorite all time songs.

 

[Jasonic]

I need to revisit the album.
This is easily the HELLOWEEN CD I have listened to the least.

Oriental Journey is cool. I have it on the 3CD boxset version of TREASURE CHEST.

 

[skyrefuge]

Yeah, great album, the variety of songs has kept it fresh for me all these years. The one-two punch of Kiske's hugely epic 'I Believe' and his mournful-hopeful 'Longing' make up one of the best album-finishes ever.

It marks the end of the first half of the story Helloween, the one where the band was constantly evolving and shifting. After 'Chameleon', they pretty much became "safe" and backward-looking, with the exception of some new directions brought in by Uli Kusch on 'The Dark Ride' and 'Better Than Raw'.

Here's how many times I've listened to each Helloween album over the last ~5 years, so clearly 'Chameleon' and PBGA have held up for me much better than anything else:

Chameleon - 15
Pink Bubbles Go Ape - 14.9
Master Of The Rings - 8.3
Helloween / Walls of Jericho - 8.1
The Time Of The Oath - 8
Rabbit Don't Come Easy - 7.7
Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I - 7.3
The Dark Ride - 7.3
Better Than Raw - 7.1
Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part II - 6.2
Gambling With The Devil - 4

Neil

 

[nomisofsiman]

Yeah, great album, the variety of songs has kept it fresh for me all these years. The one-two punch of Kiske's hugely epic 'I Believe' and his mournful-hopeful 'Longing' make up one of the best album-finishes ever.

It marks the end of the first half of the story Helloween, the one where the band was constantly evolving and shifting. After 'Chameleon', they pretty much became "safe" and backward-looking, with the exception of some new directions brought in by Uli Kusch on 'The Dark Ride' and 'Better Than Raw'.

Here's how many times I've listened to each Helloween album over the last ~5 years, so clearly 'Chameleon' and PBGA have held up for me much better than anything else:

Chameleon - 15
Pink Bubbles Go Ape - 14.9
Master Of The Rings - 8.3
Helloween / Walls of Jericho - 8.1
The Time Of The Oath - 8
Rabbit Don't Come Easy - 7.7
Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I - 7.3
The Dark Ride - 7.3
Better Than Raw - 7.1
Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part II - 6.2
Gambling With The Devil - 4

Neil

Did you start getting into Helloween with those two albums? If so, then it makes sense why those are the most playable for you. I must say I find it incredibly strange that those would be the most played, especially that the Keeper albums tend to be on the second half of that list.

 

[Justin G]

hey that's cool that's what's great about music. People can draw their own conclusions. I am curious though. What did you think of "Oriental Journey"?

It's a decent song, but a good b-side just isn't enough to salvage this album.

 

[Met-Al]

I can understand why most longtime Helloween fans don't like this album, but I really enjoy it. It's certainly nothing like any of their other albums, but I can really appreciate the songwriting and musicianship on it. To this day, I think that "Giants" is one of the best Helloween songs ever written.


Stay metal. Never rust.

 

[TheLongshot]

Yeah, great album, the variety of songs has kept it fresh for me all these years. The one-two punch of Kiske's hugely epic 'I Believe' and his mournful-hopeful 'Longing' make up one of the best album-finishes ever.

+1

 

[skyrefuge]

Did you start getting into Helloween with those two albums? If so, then it makes sense why those are the most playable for you. I must say I find it incredibly strange that those would be the most played, especially that the Keeper albums tend to be on the second half of that list.

First, although it's a ranked list, it's a little deceptive, because there's almost no difference between 3rd place and 10th place. If I listened to Keeper I just once more, it would jump from 7th to 3rd. So the real dividing line is between "Chameleon/PBGA" and "everything else". I basically listen to those two albums twice as much as I listen to the rest.

And, I sort of got into "Walls of Jericho" through "Chameleon" all at the same time, around 1993/1994 or so, with my fandom of the "Keepers" albums coming first, then leading to my interest in their Euro-only albums. So, on the one hand, you're right, PBGA/Chameleon were part of my early, passionate exposure to music, so they surely hold a special place in my heart due to that. But on the other hand, the Keepers albums were in the same boat, and they've since fallen off. Maybe it's because the Keepers-era has been cloned much more, so when I'm looking for that style, I have a lot more options, while PBGA and 'Chameleon' still stand out as unique records (this "uniqueness" theory is further supported by the fact that 'Walls of Jericho' has only grown in my mind over time, because I know of no other record with such churning intensity of guitar-playing as that one). Or, maybe as I've gotten older, my "heavy metal is for Neanderthals" mindset has taken over, and I appreciate the pretentious-pop-art stuff more. Or, maybe they're just the best Helloween albums!

Neil