HELLOWEEN Survivor 2017 - The Dark Ride - round 1

[The Silent Cody]

THE DARK RIDE

The Dark Ride is the ninth studio album by Helloween, released in 2000. The album's style was quite different from Better Than Raw as it had a much darker sound, very tuned down guitars, and gruffer vocals. The album was produced by renowned figures Roy Z and Charlie Bauerfeind. It is also the last studio album to feature guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch, both of whom were fired after completion of the supporting tour for the album. They went on to form the band Masterplan.

I only want to say two words about that album - FUCKING BRILLIANT. I know that is darkness and evil in it, there are tuned down guitars, there are no orange pumpkins etc etc... For me, it's one of my top 3 Helloween albums. Every song has some specific elements that I love in music, every song. Let's get down to voting.

Andi Deris - vocals
Roland Grapow – guitar
Michael Weikath – guitar
Markus Grosskopf – bass
Uli Kusch – drums

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I put Beyond The Portal separately... Why? because I don't have an idea what should go first.... So, let's get Beyond The Portal out of here and tomorrow we'll be thinking

[Mladen]

Beyond The Portal

This album has some of their best material (and several extremely underrated, forgotten tunes), but also at least four truly average ones. Lets kick out the intro first.

[MirrorMask]

Of course the intro is the way to go.

The album kicks ass. It was an experiment, but it was a good one. Maybe some lyrics here and there are trying too hard to be evil and scary, but all in all the album is wonderful and obliterates the poor "comeback" album that followed.

Ironically I think the least convincing songs are the happy ones, the ones supposedly in "true" Helloween style. Everything else is brilliant!

[wolfking]

Obvious vote is obvious.

[Mladen]

Ironically I think the least convincing songs are the happy ones, the ones supposedly in "true" Helloween style. Everything else is brilliant!

I agree. It's also fairly obvious which ones those are, so lets go after them next.

[MirrorMask]

Ironically I think the least convincing songs are the happy ones, the ones supposedly in "true" Helloween style. Everything else is brilliant!

I agree. It's also fairly obvious which ones those are, so lets go after them next.

That was precisely my plan!

[Eldomm]

Obvious vote is obvious.

[jjrock88]

I think the band should have stuck with this line up and this sound.  Excellent album

Intro

[Dittomist]

Excellent album! I'll be rooting heavily for the title track, Escalation 666, and If I Could Fly

[wolfking]

I think the band should have stuck with this line up and this sound.  Excellent album

J, are you actually Notepad? 

Ironically I think the least convincing songs are the happy ones, the ones supposedly in "true" Helloween style. Everything else is brilliant!

I agree. It's also fairly obvious which ones those are, so lets go after them next.

That was precisely my plan!

While the darker tones on this album really make it a highlight in Helloween's discography, I also think that the likes of Salvation and All Over Nations are two of the strongest, happy and classic sounding Helloween tunes out.  This album has it all.