HELLOWEEN – KEEPER OF THE 7 KEYS PART II LP – Nr MINT THRASH METAL

Helloween – Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II
(Noise International Records  1988 N01171)

Gatefold Sleeve & Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are a few light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Helloween is a German power metal band founded in 1984 in Hamburg, Northern Germany. The band is a pioneering force in the power metal genre, and their second and third studio albums, Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part I and Part II, are considered masterpieces of the genre.

Helloween was formed in 1984 by members of bands Iron Fist and Gentry. Its first line-up consisted of Kai Hansen, Markus Grosskopf, singer and guitarist Piet Sielck and drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg. Sielck left in 1985 and was replaced by guitarist Michael Weikath and Kai Hansen took over vocal duties as well as guitar. After the release of a self-titled EP and a first album in 1985, it expanded into a quintet when singer Michael Kiske joined, with Hansen only acting as guitarist. Under this line-up, they released the Keeper of the Seven Keys albums (1987 and 1988), which established Helloween as a notable heavy metal band and led to the creation of the power metal subgenre. However, Hansen left the band quickly after the release of Part II and was replaced by Roland Grapow. He then created the band Gamma Ray.

Helloween’s first two albums without Hansen, Pink Bubbles Go Ape (1991) and Chameleon (1993), were commercial and critical failures, which created tensions between band members and led to the firing of Schwichtenberg and Kiske. They were replaced by Uli Kusch and Andi Deris respectively. The albums released under this line-up, consisting of Master of the Rings (1994), The Time of the Oath (1996), Better Than Raw (1998) and The Dark Ride (2000), received a warm reception from both fans and critics, gradually establishing Helloween as a successful band again.

However, tensions following the release of The Dark Ride led to the dismissals of both Grapow and Kusch, who then went on to found Masterplan together. Grapow was replaced by Sascha Gerstner, but the attempts to find a new drummer were chaotic and no band member was credited for drums on the album Rabbit Don’t Come Easy (2003). The band finally found a stable drummer in Daniel Löble in 2005. Under this new line-up, the longest in its history, the band has released four successful studio albums: Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy (2005), Gambling with the Devil (2007), 7 Sinners (2010), and Straight Out of Hell (2013), with all members except Löble contributing to songwriting. Their fifteenth studio album, My God-Given Right, was released on 29 May 2015.

On November 14, 2016, the band announced that both Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske were rejoining Helloween for a world tour, titled Pumpkins United World Tour, to conclude in 2018.

Since its creation, Helloween has released fifteen studio albums, three live albums, three EPs, and twenty-seven singles, and has sold more than eight million records worldwide.

Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 2 is the third studio album by German power metal band Helloween, released in 1988. The album capitalized on the success of Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 and picks up where it left off. Success bloomed all over Europe, Asia and even the United States. The album went gold in Germany and reached #108 in the US.

The album contains two singles, which are “Dr. Stein” and “I Want Out”. “Dr. Stein” has a very long and moody solo, played with a blues tinge, very unlike other solos in the album as well as an organ solo. “I Want Out” remains one of the band’s most popular songs, and has been covered by Gamma Ray, Unisonic , HammerFall, LORD and Sonata Arctica. The title track is the longest song of the album. Michael Weikath’s “Eagle Fly Free”, one of the well known songs of the album has also been covered, as Kai Hansen’s “I Want Out”, by bands like Vision Divine, and Bassinvaders.

Track listing

Helloween

• Michael Kiske – vocals
• Kai Hansen – guitar
• Michael Weikath – guitar, keyboards
• Markus Grosskopf – bass guitar, fretless bass in “Eagle Fly Free”
• Ingo Schwichtenberg – drums

Others

• Engineered by Tommy Hansen and Tommy Newton
• Mixed by Tommy Newton for “I Got Confused Productions”