Helloween – Chameleon (1993)

We're now entering the world of bands that I adored as a pre-teen, but that I haven't listened to since. When I was 10 years old and learning to play the guitar, I mainly listened to Metallica, Guns n' Roses, Megadeath, Iron Maiden and Helloween. Of course, even the name of this German band seems to reveal that the music is meant for pre-teen boys. They've made a bad pun with halloween and hell. In the 90's, most of the boys in my age group were really interested in these kinds of bands and their interplay with monsters and satanic aesthetics. Helloween wasn't really as heavy as many other metal bands, but it was more melodic, which has always appealed to me. Therefore, Helloween became one of my favourite bands. I even made a clock in shop class in school that was in the shape of the pumpkin Helloween used in their album covers.



Chameleon is slightly different from other Helloween albums. The title of the album refers to the fact that all of the songs represent different styles of music. There are various different genres found on this album that are quite far from the usual power metal helloween was playing. This kind of experimentalism didn't really work for the audience and the album was a disappointment in sales and the reviews were also quite poor. I've always thought that metalheads have a very narrow taste in music compared to people who generally listen to something else. No wonder that getting out of the usual genre didn't work. As a result, the band fired the lead vocalist Michael Kiske and Ingo Schwichtenberg and moved back to their roots in power metal in the following albums. I, myself, find these different musical styles quite fresh today, although, I have to say, most of the songs are a bit cheesy and even though the production is carefully made, it's not the kind of production I enjoy.

The album starts with a song called First Time, which is still quite close to the band's power metal past, but there are some Billy Idol -style hard rock sounds in the songs as well. The next song When the Sinner is a great example of 80's style hard rock. Back in 1993 it must've sounded quite old, resembling Bon Jovi's old albums more than modern 90's metal band should be allowed to. I Don't Wanna Cry No More is even a further step from Helloween's normal sound. It's basically a commercial country ballad sung in power metal vocals. Doesn't sound like a good idea, right? Crazy Cat is like a show tune rock n' roll song with hard rock sounds. It's quite ludicrous. Giants was the song that resembled Helloween's original power metal sound the most. It has that heavy beat on the background and high weeping guitars on top of it. Even if I don't like the genre that much, I have to say that in this song the band is most at home. Windmill is a ballad that almost resembles songs found in Disney films. The composition is alright, but the sounds are incredibly cheesy. Revolution Now actually sounds like a grunge song. If I just heard this on the radio, I could almost mistake it for Jane's Addiction song. In the Night on the other hand is a groovy pop rock album that seems to channel Madchester sounds into hard rock. Music is a ballad that uses similar types of echoey guitar sounds as many hard rock bands of the 80's. Step Out of Hell has some really fast electric guitars in the style of Iron Maiden and the chorus is like straight out of a Alice Cooper song. I Believe is one of the heaviest songs on the album. The heavy riffs are actually closer to a sound that was probably expected from a metal band in the early 90's. The album ends with a ballad called Longing, which I kind of liked back in the day. It has some Spanish-style guitars and melancholic melodies.

I should've known that since we're talking about an early 90's album, there must be some music videos from this album. I found a music video for When the Sinner. And what a crazy music video it is. There are some cabaret-style people hanging out in a saloon and the band playing live. The hairdos on the band members are just amazingly ridiculous. There also seems to be some kind of fight between the band and the record company executives in the video.

It was very nostalgic listening to this album that I probably haven't heard in more than 20 years. At the same time, I have to say that if it wasn't for this blog I really wouldn't listen to these albums, which kind of suggests that it doesn't make much sense for me to own these.

Listen to the album on Youtube.