Helloween – Live On 3 Continents

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impulse buy

SPV
Produced by Charlie Bauerfeind

For the fans of German power metal veterans Helloween 2005 was a dream come true. Ever since the second installment of the band’s concept story The Keeper of The Seven Keys in 1988 they’ve wanted more, and not only did a third installment arrive, but it didn’t suck. Far from it. And as such, the ensuing World Tour was a huge success.

Taken from that tour the simultaneously released Live In Sao Paulo double CD and Live On 3 Continents double DVD documents their explosive live set from the tour in front of an ecstatic crowd. Truth be told, the “3 Continents” part of the DVD title is a little misleading. Aside from a guitar solo spot from Sascha Gerstner (edited together from recordings in Sao Paulo, Tokyo and Sofia) and a drum solo from Dani Loble (edited from the same three recordings) the entirety of the concert part of the DVD is from the same Sao Paulo show as the CD. The CD’s bonus tracks, from Tokyo and Vicovice (Czech Republic Masters of Rock Festival) respectively, appear on the second DVD as bonus tracks.

Opening with the epic The King of A 1000 Years from the new opus is a real statement of intent. Thankfully low on camera trickery (a few split screen shots and flashy fades are as complicated as it gets) the DVD is edited perfectly, showing the classic intense power metal performance in its fully glory. Power metal is, by nature, over-the-top, mildly camp and entirely grandiose, and the producers/editors/directors of too many power metal DVDs think the way to best show this is to make the editing so fast it induces epileptic fits in people that don’t even have epilepsy.

The footage here is excellent, the band are on top form, and above all it’s very, very loud. Of course, the CDs therefore sound amazing as well, being the same soundtrack as the DVD. Sometimes CDs of a show are more enjoyable than the DVD, but not in this case. It’s very hard to appreciate the spectacular show on the CD. It really is a much more intense and energy-packed performance than it seems purely from the audio. Watching the DVD also gives light to one other thing not evident on the CD. Long-serving guitarist Michael Weikath is a very lazy performer. He spends almost the entire set standing rooted to the spot gently swaying his guitar from side to side while the rest of the band put on the show. Although, it’s always worked for Tony Iommi, I guess. Of course, both are worth owning for the complete experience. Luckily, SPV have put both the DVD discs and the CDs in a four-disc box set. Europe only, mind you.

The setlist is more varied than I was expecting. Obviously there are choice tracks from the new album, including first single Mrs God, and the hits from the first two Keeper of The Seven Keys albums (Dr. Stein, Future World, I Want Out etc), which together take up the majority of the set, but I wasn’t expecting tracks from recent records The Dark Ride and Rabbit Don’t Come Easy. Neither album was particularly successful and I thought they’d drop material from those discs in favour of more from earlier in their career. Thankfully they didn’t, and brilliantly heavy tracks like Mr. Torture, If I Could Fly and Hell Was Made In Heaven occupy the rest of the set along with Power from 1996′s The Time And The Oath.

The two bonus tracks are equally good in terms of sound quality and aside from Halloween looking like it obviously comes from an outdoor performance, and therefore not quite fitting alongside the rest, are just as good in terms of video quality as well. Actually, the complete Masters of Rock Festival performance would have been an excellent second disc. Much better than the frankly tedious ‘Roadmovie’ and interview footage that even the most die-hard fans are only going to watch once. By all means make the Sao Paulo show the main feature, but I think every metal fan out there would always rather more live footage as bonus material than talking. Some of the most lavish and well-received DVDs released have bonus concerts on a second disc. It’s that extra value for money that fans really appreciate.

Small gripes aside, the DVD is pretty much flawless. Everyone will buy it for the main feature concert, and that part of the package is near enough perfect. With the almost-unwatchable High Live being the only available Helloween live DVD up to this point, this will be an exceptionally welcome release for the fans, and should serve as somewhat of an eye-opener for all the newly recruited power metal fans out there who think the genre begins and ends with Dragonforce.

“ classic intense power metal ”

CD 1 Intro / The King For A 1000 Years / Eagle Fly Free / Hell Was Made In Heaven / Keeper of The Seven Keys / A Take That Wasn’t Right / Mr. Torture / If I Could Fly / Power
CD 2 Future World / The Invisible Man / Mrs. God / I Want Out / Dr. Stein / Occasion Avenue (Bonus) / Halloween (Bonus)

DVD 1 contains all tracks from CD 1, tracks 1-5 from CD 2 plus an Outro track, a guitar solo and a drum solo
DVD 2 Occasion Avenue / Halloween / Roadmovie / Interviews / Mrs. God Video Clip / Light In The Universe Video Clip

Written by Andy Lye
More: Live DVDs, Power Metal, Helloween