TAC: Michael Kiske – “Do I Remember A Life?”: Huh. Helloween. I remember a video that looked almost like an early Maiden performance video, and it was so over the top it was like watching a heavy metal “Steel Panther” without the scat humor. Piercing, clichéd, “Jim Gillette Metal Method” vocals and generic riffage (to be fair, that was decades ago, and the only time I’ve listened to them). But this… song of the round. This was KILLER. I loved the atmosphere and the smoothness in his voice as he elevated the song. This really connected with me, and I’d like to hear more from this album (assuming it’s more in this vein and not the over-the-top, Priest on steroids cartoonery of the Helloween I know. 9
Glad you liked that. But while 80's Helloween may not be your thing, they are pretty much responsible for a lot of what is going on today in Power Metal. In many ways, they laid the blue print.
Stadler, Kiske joined them for 1987's Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt1, which was actually their second album. The crazy thing about it is that Michael Kiske is one year YOUNGER than YOU! He recorded those Keepers albums as an f'n teenager! I remember buying Keeper Pt.1, and I put the tape in after leaving the record store. I'm Alive started and I literally pulled over into a nearby park and just sat in my car and listened to the entire album. I literally could not move!
Here's a pic of a 19 y/o TAC and a 19 y/o Kiske!
Taken 9/24/87 in downtown Providence
Anyway, this track is from his first solo album, 1996's Instant Clarity. What's cool is that Adrian Smith plays on 3 tracks, two of which he is joined by Kai Hansen (Helloween's guitarist, who left a couple of years before Kiske). This was the last album of his that featured "heavy" music. He became disillusioned with the scene. While vocally, he remained amazing, musically he would released some crap. He has since returned to the heavy scene with Unisonic (with Kai Hansen) and the upcoming Pumpkins United Tour (Helloween reunion, also playing in Worcester next September!)
Anyway, Instant Clarity is quite varied. There's actually no other song like DIRAL?.
Here's Always, which was dedicated to Ingo Schwitchenberg, the late ex-Helloween drummer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-ekkmZgyG0New Horizons (With Hansen and Adrian, you'll recognize the prechorus from Iron Maiden's New Frontier's prechorus)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpAKzW_Ix3U