HELLOWEEN don't often treat their fans to official live recordings. The band formed way back in 1983, the first studio album appeared two years later, and in 1989 came the live recording "Live in the U.K." — just 7 tracks running slightly over 45 minutes, with Kiske on vocals and the guitar in Kai Hansen's hands, a truly historic recording. What happened next is too well-known to retell — in 1996, after the second studio album with Deris on vocals, the live album "High Live" appeared, a ninety-minute recording where 12 of the 16 songs came from the two albums of 1994-1996, with only three songs from the legendary Keepers. Thus, until this year an interesting situation persisted: excluding bootlegs, there was not a single recording featuring a worthy number of songs from 1987-1988, the albums that made the band world-famous. After completing the trilogy with the third installment of Keeper Of The Seven Keys, it quickly became clear during the ensuing tour that it was essentially a retro-tour revisiting those very albums, and for the first time fans could hear and see on disc (the live recording was released in both CD and DVD format under the title "Live On 3 Continents") the band's most famous and time-tested hits performed by Andi Deris, who has been with the group for 14 years now. Well then, let's walk through the album's compositions.
So, these are 14 tracks recorded at a concert in Sao Paulo during the tour, plus two additional tracks recorded in Sofia and Tokyo. The intro presented on the album is familiar to those who attended the band's concerts or listened to bootlegs, but it doesn't appear on studio recordings. From the latest album, we have the undeniable new hit — the epic "The King For A 1000 Years," the quite popular but actually very weak "Mrs God," as well as "The Invisible Man"; in the second part of the tour they played the more successful "Occasion Avenue" instead, so the latter composition is also featured on the disc. Two hits from "Dark Ride" — "If I Could Fly" and "Mr. Torture," one song from the previous album, and "Power" from the 1996 album; everything else came from the first two parts of "Keeper of the Seven Keys." The album features the famous "Eagle Fly Free," which Deris sings simply brilliantly, far better than on the previous live album, nailing every single note without exception; the ballad "A Tale That Wasn't Right"; and of course the universally beloved "Future World," which stretches to 10 minutes of active audience interaction. Naturally, the disc includes the songs that traditionally close the band's concerts — "I Want Out" and "Dr. Stein." The main surprise is the presence of both legendary epics "Keeper Of The Seven Keys" and "Halloween" — they were never played together at a single concert, only one or the other, which is precisely why the disc features recordings from two different shows, to include both of these legendary compositions.
What else can be said? The vocal performances are simply flawless; compared to the previous live recording, Deris sounds far better this time around. The recording quality is top-notch. Everything blends harmoniously, every instrument is audible, the vocals aren't drowned out, and the crowd is clearly heard as well. In short, this disc is an absolute gem.