BY JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

HELLOWEEN – KEEPER OF THE SEVEN KEYS: PART 1 (1987)

According to Loudwire, Helloween’s Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part 1 is “perhaps the first genuine power metal album.”

Now, I don’t know if that is true or not, but it sure would be hard to argue with their assessment of the album being one of the Top 25 Power Metal Albums of All Time.

The 2nd full-length studio album from the German metal band took a pretty big leap forward from their debut release Walls of Jericho. Not that the first album is bad, but with the addition of singer Michael Kiske (taking over the vocal duties from guitarist Kai Hansen, who had been the singer beforehand), the band really hit their stride here.

I don’t remember exactly how I discovered Helloween but it was likely through Headbanger’s Ball. It didn’t take me long to get the album in my hands after first hearing the band’s music and what an incredible ride I was in for when I first popped Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part 1 in my cassette player. (Side Note: The cassette I listened to for this article is the one I bought way back then.)

The album opens up with the instrumental overture track “Initiation” and it is a well-named song. Because it serves not only the purpose of setting the table for the rest of the album to come but it immediately ups the dramatic expectations you might’ve had going into that first listen.

There’s no real break in between that opening number and the song “I’m Alive” and Helloween wastes zero time in unleashing a full bore sonic attack. Between the striking and soaring vocal turn from Michael Kiske, the six string blitzkrieg and the insistent and ever relentless drumming from Ingo Schwichtenberg, the song will not only kick your butt from start to finish but even all these years later, remains a track that will resonate with you each and every time you hear it.

While still moving a pretty speedy tempo, the song “A Little Time” is a demonstrably slower track compared to “I’m Alive”. It gives you a chance to catch your breath. But only just. There’s a bit of a sense of the theatrical at the midpoint of the song and then Helloween seems to catch fire towards the end. Overall, a damn solid track.

Of course, then comes the song “Twilight of the Gods” which just explodes from the speakers musically. The song’s tempo feels like the band is playing like they are in a race for their lives or something. But that sense of urgency ends up transferring over to you and there you are figuratively by their side for another amped up killer track.

The first side of the album closes out with the song “A Tale That Wasn’t Right”, which again feels like a perfectly apt song title because the song does indeed feel like a story being told. The music starts out moody and contemplative with Michael Kiske’s vocals serving as a drama-filled yet calming presence to start. The band kicks in after the first lyrical verse but in a restrained manner. It’s only as the song moves towards its conclusion that things begin to take on a more grandiose feel as both the music and vocal performances take on the kind of presentation you’d tend to find more on a theater stage than a metal concert. I’ve always liked the song both because of the title and the way it is constructed.

The second side of Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part 1 features just three songs but two of them are still in the band’s setlist even now. This shouldn’t be much of a surprise because “Future World” was the album’s single and the more than thirteen minute epic “Halloween” continues to be a standard bearer track for Helloween.

I can still remember how I immediately took to “Future World” based off of simply how the song starts. That riff that opens the track is an immediate ear grabber and then you fly off on a soaring musical take as Hansen, guitarist Michael Weikath, bassist Markus Grosskopf and Schwichtenberg give life to that proposed future world that Kiske sings to you about.

And then you get to “Halloween”. And all I can remember when I first heard the full-length track was my reaction to the song being “Wow!”. From the song overture leading into an explosively paced first “act”, you can’t help but be glued to the speakers. You didn’t know where they were going to take you next but you knew you didn’t want to miss a second of the audio version of a cinematic experience.

The song “Follow The Sign” closes out the album but I’m not sure “song” is the right description for the track. It plays more of a performance piece set to a bit of a musical soundtrack. I’ve always felt the track served to put a fine point to the “Halloween” track. I’m not sure if that is an accurate assessment on my part but it is the impression I had the first time I heard the track and it has always stuck with me that way.

It’s been almost exactly 40 years since Helloween released Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part 1 and in the ensuing four decades the power of this album has never diminished for me. It launched the band’s fortunes higher than ever and they’ve kept right on through to this very day providing metal fans with any number of incredible albums and songs with each successive release. If you are a power metal fan, Helloween is a band that should occupy a big spot in your collection and Keeper of the Seven Keys is a must-have release, period.

NOTES OF INTEREST: While he stepped back from singing the lead vocals for the album, Kai Hansen still wrote the majority of the songs. He wrote six of the eight tracks on his own and co-wrote another with guitarist Michael Weikath (who wrote another track on his own). Michael Kiske wrote the song “A Little Time”.

Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part 1 has been reissued at least twice over the years. The first reissue was an expanded edition that added 5 bonus tracks. In 1993, the album was combined with Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part 2 which kept those 5 bonus tracks and added two additional tracks as well.

The song “Future World” was released as a single and had an accompanying video. Helloween also had a video made for the song “Halloween” but it cut somewhere around eight minutes from the song’s running time.

I’ve seen Helloween in concert twice over the years. The first time was when they were the middle act on the Headbanger’s Ball tour with headliners Anthrax. Exodus was the opening act on that bill. And then about 4 1/2 years ago, they played Worcester, MA without an opening act on the Pumpkins United tour. The band returns to Worcester on Sunday May 21st, 2023 with Hammerfall as the opening act and I hope to be in attendance once more!

BY JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

TESLA – MECHANICAL RESONANCE (1986)

When I wrote about the Tesla album The Great Radio Controversy for The Cassette Chronicles series back in September 2021 I mentioned that it was the album that had kickstarted my fandom for Tesla. I had heard the songs they played on the radio from Mechanical Resonance, which is the band’s debut album, but I had never gotten around to buying the album even though I really liked the music.

Of course, once I became a full-fledged fan of the band, I made sure to go back and get their debut release. And now seems like the perfect time to write about it.

As I said, I heard songs on the radio so I certainly knew of the band’s music. Officially, there were three singles released from the album. While none of them really made an impact on the Billboard singles chart, they certainly hit home on rock radio and the associated lists for the rock genre.

With twelve songs on the album, there’s a wealth of material to dig into so let’s get started, shall we?

Side One of the album opens with “EZ Come EZ Go”, which the band brings forth on kind of a slow boil. The song opens relatively calmly with brief instrumentation, then the vocals from Jeff Keith break in but the tempo still remains relatively sedate. But man, after Tesla hits that first break after the opening lyrical stanza, they are just cooking with fire on this song. You get this explosion of energetic rock that leaves no doubt that the band can bring down some heavy and thunderous rock and roll.

For the song “Cumin’ Atcha Live”, I have a vague recollection of hearing the song on the radio, even though it wasn’t released as a single. There’s an excellent guitar-driven intro to the song that definitely piques your interest before the band comes on in full. It’s a fiery display and the song pretty much soars along as the more rocking pace takes over.

“2 Late 4 Love” is a solid track but I really enjoyed the song “Gettin’ Better” a whole lot as well. The track was the third of the three singles released from Mechanical Resonance and it always gets me the way this song turned out. It starts off as more of a ballad, the softer music and the more restrained, almost brittle-sounding vocal turn from Jeff Keith. But then you get a more vibrantly aggressive turn in the music and suddenly the song becomes powered by Frank Hannon’s and Tommy Skeoch’s guitar lines and raises the stakes for the song.

Of course, if you are looking for more of that fleet-fingered fretwork, you just have to wait until the next song in the track listing because “Rock Me To The Top” is a full bore rocker right from the start. It shines the spotlight on Hannon and Skeoch but powering out that underlying rhythmic foundation is Troy Luccketa behind the kit and Brian Wheat on bass. If you can’t feel yourself getting amped up by this song, you might just be dead.

The first side of the album ends with the song “We’re No Good Together”. This song is definitely more of a ballad throughout most of the song. But towards the end, the power driven side of Tesla’s music rears its head and makes it more of a rocker. Thus, you could probably get away with calling this a “power ballad”. Oh, and I should mention that I really liked how the guitars came out on the end of the track. There was a great sound there and it helped me get into the song that much more by the end of the song.

As for Side Two,  Tesla really hit the nail on the head with the song “Modern Day Cowboy”. It’s not only a monster track in and of itself, but it stands as one of their classic tracks as well. Not bad for a song from your first album. The opening still gives me a jolt when I hear it and though I did hear them perform the song when I saw them in concert, I’m hoping to get to see them live once again in the near future because I definitely want to hear them do it again!

The song “Changes” has a bit of back and forth to it. Starting off kind of slow, the tempo rises up into more of a full on rocker during the song’s chorus before settling back into a more measured delivery for the next main lyrical passage. But man, when Tesla wants to rock out, they do it quite well on this track.

Tesla next ramps up the volume with a double shot of killer rock songs with “Love Me” and “Little Suzi”. With “Love Me”, it’s just a bouncy burst of rock-n-roll that keeps you feet tapping and your fist in the air. But on “Little Suzi”, things are a bit more interesting. The main reason for that interest is that it is actually a cover song. It was originally done by a group called Ph.D. Now, that information is readily available online but for whatever reason, I’m always forgetting that. The reason for that is because the band does such a great job of making this track their own. Rocked up and in-your-face, “Little Suzi” was released as a single as well. It may not have made a mark on the charts but I’ll be damned if this isn’t another of the band’s standout tracks…even if said track isn’t their own original work.

By the way, when I said it was a double shot of killer rock, I was forgetting about the song “Cover Queen”. It’s another uptempo and lively rocker. Oddly enough, it is a song that I rather enjoy. But I’m not sure just how appreciated this particular song is by the fanbase overall. It isn’t like I took a survey or anything. But every time I do listen to the album, I get reminded how much I like the song. And yet despite that, I never really seem to notice anyone mentioning the song if there is a Tesla conversation going on. I’d love to find out more about that just for my own personal knowledge.

The album closes out on the song “Before My Eyes” and this is the one song that really seems to set itself up as a bit of a challenge. Was Tesla going for the idea of creating something just a bit different than the rest of the music they were offering up on Mechanical Resonance? There seems to be more of a concerted effort to make the song sound like it is being done as more of a dramatic presentation. And is it me or is there some kind of extra effect mixed in on Jeff Keith’s vocal track? It sounds a bit off. Okay, the song overall isn’t bad, just a bit different. It may not be the first song I think about when I want to hear some Tesla music but I like that even on their debut album, Tesla wasn’t afraid to mix things up a bit.

Clearly as you’ve been reading this piece, you can tell that I like the album. Once I went back and got my hands on it back in the day, I was indeed quite taken with it. But what really interests me the most is how the music still holds up so strongly today. And not just the songs that everyone will recognize (though that is always good too) but the more album oriented numbers stand out fine on their own as well.

NOTES OF INTEREST – The Mechanical Resonance album has been certified platinum. My copy of the cassette includes in the liner notes, the story of how Tesla and then the Mechanical Resonance album came into existence.

With the exception of the cover of “Little Suzi”, the remaining eleven songs on the album feature co-writing credits (in varying combinations) from all five members of the band.

Drummer Troy Luccketta is currently absent from the Tesla lineup. Given what I’ve read in online interviews with bassist Brian Wheat, it doesn’t appear he’s going to rejoin the band any time soon, if at all.