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A marked improvement over many of their
other releases, most of which produced some excellent music in
their own right, "Better Than Raw" favors a heavier
direction from the German quintet, 'Helloween." In fact,
most of it stirs up memories from their leaner years. Could this
be the reason for the meaner look on the pumpkin's face on the
album cover? Of the two studio recordings since current singer
Andi Deris took to fronting Helloween a few years ago, "Better
Than Raw" is better than each of those on all counts as
the band continues to set the standard for melodic metal played
with a power-driven purpose.
The key word to the album title is "raw,"
as this is the most emphatic attribute of the release when it's
compared to many of their others. This fact is quickly determinable
at the conclusion of the opening theme "Deliberately Limited,"
when "Push" abruptly transcends whatever those "limitations"
might be, in a wall of extreme aggression highlighted early by
the rising crescendo of Deris' in-discernible wail, and the group's
forcefully-backed chorus. Soon after, with the next track, "Falling
Higher," which holds the aggressive pace established by
its predecessor only with more of an up tempo, it becomes clear
that this is a record that will "bury the red" rather
easily at high volume. The drums suffer the most in the production,
as they are often times distorted, proving a too-powerful presence
for the other components to come close to matching.
At around the third or fourth track though,
the output broadens a little, simply because the songs change
tempo and thus seem to thin the overblown production quality.
A perfect example would be in contrasting the catchy "Hey
Lord" in settling things down, with the mighty "Revelation,"
with all its several different parts and a glut of riveting percussive
distortion. Song-wise, this is one that outperforms its rival
"Mission Motherland" from "Time of the Oath."
Other songs, like "Time," a favorite
of mine, and "I Can," are among the more straightforward
and polished songs, using a strong bed of rhythm, and slick choruses,
to provide the character which has always been in "Helloween's"
makeup-so to speak. The latter portion of the album reverts back
to the pace set in its earliest moments, concluding with the
U.S. version bonus track, "A Game We Shouldn't Play."
"Better Than Raw" comes close to embracing, if not
totally surpassing, "Helloween" at their finest hour.
It is representative of their usually strong song-writing skills
and fiercely potent musicianship, while returning to that brasher
attitude they began with long ago. "Better Than Raw"
is the definitive "Helloween" album for the nineties. |
