Helloween on a Roll

Well after the triumphant return to form, Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy can only be described as a powerhouse album.



It is a brilliant double album filled with classic Helloween music. So hot on the tails (well, almost 2 years later) comes another rocking release, the double live album;



Giving us barely enough time to break the pumpkins then released their next effort;



Gambling with the Devil. Now there is no rule or law which says how quickly or how slowly any band should release music, as long is its of the highest quality the band has to offer. I mean no one wants a double album full of fillers. Guns N Roses did it with their Use Your Illusion I & II albums. What you essentially had were about 8 good classic songs, filled out to a double album by including the kind of tripe that would be reserved for B-sides or perhaps a "Curio" release.

See the difference with Helloween is that they have a reputation that they have been living off of for many years, and their music can be very worrying, as you never know if their next release is going to be a hit or a miss. So with a sudden output of 3 albums in 2 years (albiet one is a live album) does have me concerned. Id rather they release an album every 3 or 4 years and know it stands the chance of being good.

A Fascinating Article on Music Piracy...

I wont be cutting and pasting the entire interview, but below are some very choice cuts.

"For the major labels, it's over. It's fucking over. You're going to burn to the fucking ground, and we're all going to dance around the fire. And it's your own fault. Surely, somewhere deep inside, you had to know this day was coming, right? Your very industry is founded on an unfair business model of owning art you didn't create in exchange for the services you provide. It's rigged so that you win every time - even if the artist does well, you do ten times better. It was able to exist because you controlled the distribution, but now that's back in the hands of the people, and you let the ball drop when you could have evolved."

and

"and if I filled my shiny new 160gb iPod up legally, buying each track online at the 99 cents price that the industry has determined, it would cost me about $32,226. How does that make sense? It's the ugly truth the record industry wants to ignore as they struggle to find ways to get people to pay for music in a culture that has already embraced the idea of music being something you collect in large volumes, and trade freely with your friends."

You might not agree with everything thats said, but you can't deny that the industry hasn't responded to the changes and potential the new medium has to offer. But I do recommend you read some of the comments on the bottom, they are as insightful as the main article as well.

Edit 2014 - it would have helped if I had put a link to the article as I referenced it in a subsequent post.

Monsters of Rock Tshirt Sacrifice

Not a lot really to say today. Im in mourning as my wife turned one of my monster of rock tshirts into a rag to mop up a spillage one breakfast morning, them promptly cut it into smaller rags for cleaning.

Consequently we are not talking.

1992 Monsters of Rock, Donnington, Iron Maiden headlined with Skid Row, Slayer, W.A.S.P. amongst others were there.

RIP.