Stratovarius Community

First off I would like it to be known that I love all the singers helloween has had over the years, Kai, Kiske and Deris.

I think they are all exceptional talents and all have great material.
Now with that being said I'll continue with my rant, well some Assweed sends a text to me telling me that the Andi Deris material is way more commercial then even their Chameleon album with Kiske.

Now I really like the Kiske material but this statement I believe is completely untrue, Chameleon was by far(at least in my opinion)their most commercial album. I like so many others believe that Deris brought Helloween back to where they wanted to be and fit the band slightly better because with a name like Helloween you'd expect someone to have a more dark sinister type voice.
I love Michael Kiske's voice and he's a great musician and singer however you have to admit with his love of pop music he was bringing the band in a more commercial direction.

No matter how goofy or strange the Deris years got they have never even come close to the commercial feel that chameleon had.
Don't get me wrong I really like the Chameleon album and it does have some good songs on it, however I was happy when they decided to go back with their more traditional sound and I welcomed Andi as the new guy and not the interloper.

Commercial is too strange of a term to me. Every song has a target market and every mix has its followers. 9 minutes songs by traditional terms are not like the 3 minute radio songs geared towards the maximum audience possible. I see commercial as a good thing and as to mean a melodic song that is enjoyable to listen to. I would rather have music follow set melodic rules than to go off into the abstract and be displeasing. Songs like power and ms god to me would be more commercial than anything off of chameleon since it’s got the melodies and is very upbeat. A kiske era commercial songs could be songs like future world and i want out. I equate commercial with quality single potential and I want a whole cd that is filled with single potential songs that are ear pleasing.

you know I never thought of it that way but you do make an excellent point.

What I was saying though is that Kiske was bringing them over to something more mainstream like pop music whereas Deris keeps them in metal.

I'd say commercial is something that is made with the sole purpose of making money, not caring about quality or originality. In this case, I don't think Chameleon was commercial at all. It different tho and it does have some great songs (like Giants) but it didn't seem to be taking the band in the right direction. I love Michael Kiske's voice, he is extremely talented, but just wasn't right for Helloween anymore, he really needed to go.

Andi might not have the best voice around, but it is unique and powerful, plus he is one hell of a frontman and songwriter.

I completely agree with that, in fact I tend to like singers with more original voices then one's who just sound well.

I figure if your going to be in a band you need a singer who stands out and doesn't sound like everyone else out there.

Andi surely delivers in this manner.

Absolutely. Andi rocks!!

oh yeah, I even went backwards and got some of his pink cream 69 stuff.

he's just got the voice for metal I think, while Kiske tends to be more of a sucker for ballads.

not that ballads are bad but I think a metal album should have only one ballad or possibly two on them.

Kiske seems to stock up on ballads.

Oh yea, those first three PC69 albums are awesome. His solo albums are pretty damn good too!

I haven't got any of his solo work yet, any one in paticular you suggest I start out with first?

Saw gamma ray and helloween tonight and it was fantastic. For the last two helloween songs kai sings and plays guitar with the rest of the guys. Now if only they could get kiske to do one with the guys and they could have all three helloween singers. I prefer them the most when they do the melodic guitar lead songs sing along choruses in mid tempo.

hiro23 wrote:I haven't got any of his solo work yet, any one in paticular you suggest I start out with first?

Both of them are great, actually. But I think I like the first one (Come In From The Rain) better.

icecab21 wrote:Saw gamma ray and helloween tonight and it was fantastic. For the last two helloween songs kai sings and plays guitar with the rest of the guys. Now if only they could get kiske to do one with the guys and they could have all three helloween singers. I prefer them the most when they do the melodic guitar lead songs sing along choruses in mid tempo.

Sweeet! I will see them next Saturday Been waiting for it for 5 months, they were supposed to play here in May but it was cancelled because Andi got sick

both kai and andi gave great vocal performances. it;s so awsome to see these guys in the front row. with the small stage they could not do as much as they wanted but they still did a lot of those classic moves and grooves. they all looked like they were loving what they were doing and the crowd got really into it. all the guitarists did some fantasic versions of their solos.

Babylon wrote:
I will see them next Saturday

Lucky you !!

icecab21 wrote:both kai and andi gave great vocal performances. it;s so awsome to see these guys in the front row. with the small stage they could not do as much as they wanted but they still did a lot of those classic moves and grooves. they all looked like they were loving what they were doing and the crowd got really into it. all the guitarists did some fantasic versions of their solos.

Yea, shows in small venues can be the best. When I was living in the US I got to see Strato at the House of Blues in Chicago, front row. It was awesome

eagledreamr wrote:Lucky you !!

I can't wait!!!!

that is awesome man, I still have yet to see them live, hopefully one day.

but then again maybe I'll have to wait till my band takes off LOL

For some reason I love the masters of rock (with gammaray) version of I want out, Andi just looks so funny there.

though you can tell the difference between when Andi performs the song and when Kiske used to perform it.

Kiske sounds great and has an awesome voice however he lacks emotion. Andi while not being as technically good really puts the emotion into that song which in my opinion makes him a great singer.

I like singers who have more emotion in their voice.

Yea, some live versions from around 88 of stuff like Eagle Fly Free sound simply amazing with Kiske, but on the Chameleon in the East bootleg he sounds so bored!

I love the way Andi sings KOTSK or A Tale That Wasn't Right. Maybe not perfect, but the emotion is there like you mentioned.

that's exactly what I think is good about Andi's live performances is the fact that you feel each song, you don't just hear it.

I don't think someone should have a perfect voice, what I think matters is that they have heart.

Just got back from the concert a couple hours ago. It rained like all hell while we were standing in line to get in, got completely soaked but it was absolutely worth it!

Got to be in the front row. One of the best shows I've ever seen. Gamma Ray rocked! And well.. what can I say about Helloween? Simply unbelievable! Andi is one of the greatest frontmen ever, period. And they just sound perfect live. I'm still smiling!

I envy you, that must have been awesome

I haven't got to see gamma ray or helloween live yet, all I've seen are the live Dvd's.

First time for me seeing them. Helloween's played in my country a few times, but I never had the chance to go until now. I can probably upload some pictures tomorrow

what did they play ?

Saw them last May, blew me away, two awesome concerts in one gig! And Helloween opened with Halloween, so I came

stratoplayer wrote: And Helloween opened with Halloween, so I came

Same here, in June. I was in the first row, screaming "Weikiiii!!!!". I'm sure he looked at me at least once ( )
I wonder if it's the same setlist for the whole tour...

It's Deris without a question.
The Third Keeper album was by far the best.
The Dark Ride was an unbelievably amazing record, and Deris does the name of the album beautiful justice.

if you could upload pictures that would be awesome, thanks guys.

I also agree, keepers 3 and dark ride are excellent albums, I'm also quite fond of better than raw

eagledreamr wrote:

stratoplayer wrote: And Helloween opened with Halloween, so I came

Same here, in June. I was in the first row, screaming "Weikiiii!!!!". I'm sure he looked at me at least once ( )
I wonder if it's the same setlist for the whole tour...

I think it was pretty much the same list. They didn't play King For 1000 Years Here tho, they did Mr. Torture instead.

Here are some pictures. I just put the links because they mess up the forum layout because of the size. It was the best I could do with everyone jumping and going crazy, kinda hard to hold the camera still

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/ ... 060190.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/ ... 060186.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/ ... 060220.jpg

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/ ... 060236.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/ ... 060249.jpg


I will upload more later!

Thank you, these pictures are awesome, I love them.

your the coolest

Thanks Here's the rest of the pictures:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/ ... 060250.jpg

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