For some reason, the cover is taking forever to be saved as the main image for the blog, so here it is!

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Welcome to My Tribute to Helloween!
Happy (Early) Helloween!
2023
Recorded 9-7-2023 at 5:35 PM EDT
Comments: Just a little welcome I did. Enjoy the blog of 18 power metal songs by some German dudes!

Occasion Avenue
Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy
2005
Recorded 9-7-2023 between 5:42 and 5:48 PM EDT
Comments: I always love singing this song. The way the lyrics sound, it's just so fun to sing.
Song Meaning: This incredibly-interesting song is, to put it simply, about reincarnation. There's no doubt about it (Andi Deris literally confirmed it himself). As I've looked at the lyrics more and more (and sung the song more and more), I've noticed that it's about a man going through various reincarnations, each time wondering if everything from the world he knew before he died would be there when he was reborn. During the bridge (the whole "Precious is your taking" section), there's an interjection of a news broadcast after each of 3 parts of it. Each broadcast describes one of the man's deaths - a 16-year prison sentence (during which he presumably killed himself to avoid serving it), a shooting by a drug cartel near Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, and a suicide in his New York penthouse - followed by a longer version of the second post-chorus ("Will there be tomorrow?"). Then, the man is reborn once again, and tells his mother that he had a dream of his last life. Then, he kills his mom with a knife, before presumably killing himself again to be reincarnated once again. (Oh, and if it wasn't clear, Occasion Avenue is the hypothetical place people would go through before being reincarnated, if reincarnation exists.)

My Life for One More Day
Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy
2005
Recorded 9-7-2023 between 6:02 and 6:06 PM EDT
Comments: I hope you enjoyed hearing me go in and out of my Andi Deris impression, be it at the hands of a yawn (there was two) or the lyrics, and hearing me do a fake echo to replicate the song!
Song Meaning: Helloween has this thing called the Keepers Trilogy, formed through 3 albums and 3 songs on them. The first album, Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part I, doesn't have any songs for on it, as it was meant to be a double album with Part II, which was released a year after it. On Part II, there's a 13-minute song called "Keeper of the Seven Keys," which tells the story of the Keeper's mission to imprison Satan and free the souls of humanity by tossing the Seven Keys into the Seven Seas. I have a cover of it on my Helloween "EP" blog. The story continues with the opening track of The Legacy, the third part of the Keepers Trilogy, released 17 years after Part II. That song is called "The King for 1000 Years." In that song, Satan has escaped and is trying to find the Seventh Key, which was hidden by the Keeper instead of being thrown into the Seventh Sea. He creates a puppet out of the gullible souls of humanity, turning them int the King for 1000 Years. (Basically, the King is mankind itself, having given in to their own dark desires.) The story ends with Legacy's closing track, which is the song I'm writing about, "My Life for One More Day." In that song, Satan has found and hidden the Seventh Key, and a dying Keeper's last wish is that someone find it and save mankind like he did all those years ago.

The Invisible Man
Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy
2005
Recorded 9-7-2023 between 6:14 and 6:17 PM EDT
Comments: Another song I love singing! Especially the intro!
Song Meaning: The song is about Lucifer doing good. Yes, that's what it's about. It's about Lucifer doing good so he can get into heaven.

Best Time
Helloween
2021
Recorded 9-8-2023 between 5:34 and 5:36 PM EDT
Comments: Not gonna lie, my recording of this doesn't do this amazing song enough justice. Don't get me wrong, I think it's good, but I think I could've done better. Especially since, seeing as I was trying to do my impressions of Michael Kiske, Andi Deris, and Kai Hansen while I sang, I think I didn't do the Michael parts (ex: the first verse) as good as Andi and Kai's. Also, I know it sounds like I'm saying "Si will have the best time of my life" towards the end of the song, but I'm saying "Yes, I," not "Si" (LegendarySi).
Song Meaning: According to Sascha Gerstner, one of the two writers of the song, it's about carpe diem - seizing the day. The lyrics kinda give it away (as does the name), and so does the overall tune of the song.

Mass Pollution
Helloween
2021
Recorded 9-8-2023 between 5:41 and 5:44 PM EDT
Comments: Sorry if I was little loud on this one, but I got really into the song while singing it and sang it how I probably would at a Helloween concert.
Song Meaning: Andi Deris wrote this with a live performance in mind, saying it was basically a perfect song to play live. It's about metalheads - they're not mass pollution, they just like a different genre of music.
Single Version

My God-Given Right
My God-Given Right
2015
Recorded 9-8-2023 between 5:48 and 5:50 PM EDT
Comments: That chorus is awesome as hell! (Also, for those who do know this song, you may notice that I said "wait" during the pre-chorus instead of the b-word, since my rule for my songs on this group is to only "damn," since BlueBoyBuilds said to try and keep things family-friendly, but also said I could say that word.)
Song Meaning: My analysis of the lyrics is that it's about fighting for what you believe in instead of sitting on the sidelines. I think it's about someone who wants to fight in a war for their country instead of sitting on the sidelines, justifying his wishes by saying that it's his "God-given right."

Heaven Tells No Lies
Gambling with the Devil
2007
Recorded 9-9-2023 between 4:32 and 4:34 PM EDT
Comments: Sorry for the yawning in the beginning (and my voice just randomly getting deep when I sang the words "that old spell").
Song Meaning: Personally, I think it's about a gambling addiction and the person's fight against it (the addiction being the "rotten side" he wants to shoot in his dreams).

Dreambound
Gambling with the Devil
2007
Recorded 9-12-2023 between 4:47 and 4:49 PM EDT
Comments: My voice may hurt after doing my Andi Deris for 2 and half minutes straight, but it was worth it.
Song Meaning: If you'll look at the lyrics, you'll notice that this song appears to be about someone trying to escape a demon in their dreams, before being rescued by a being of light (You are the light/You turn black into white), possibly a guardian angel.

Walls of Jericho Medley ("Ride the Sky," "Gorgar," "How Many Tears," "Judas," "Victim of Fate")
Walls of Jericho (1987 CD Edition)
1987 (Note: the original Walls of Jericho album was released in 1985)
Recorded 10-4-2023 between 5:18 and 5:22 PM EDT
Comments: The hardest part of this to sing was the bridge of "Victim of Fate" (the slow ending of the medley), and the whole time I was thinking "This sounds so much better with the music playing over it."
Song Meaning: Firstly, just a note: in the original outline for this medley, I was going to sing "Victim of Fate" first, since it's the highest on the tracklist out of all the songs. Then, while listening to it (which I'm doing as I write this), I realized the bridge of the song would actually be a perfect way to end the medley, seeing as it's slow and ominous (and very morbid). Now, "Ride the Sky" seems to be about someone wanting to be free and fly away from their prison, while "Gorgar" is named for and references an old pinball machine made in 1979 called Gorgar, and the song follows a person as they find themselves addicted to the game. "How Many Tears" is about uniting and "standing up for our human rights" (as the pre-chorus says). "Judas" may seem at first to be about the man in the Bible who betrayed Jesus Christ, but it's actually calling out politicians who claim they'll do good for their country and then don't keep that promise. (So, in other words, this could very easily be about Donald Trump if it was made in the modern day.) Lastly, "Victim of Fate" tells the story of a man on the run, who eventually winds up lonely and cold, before Lucifer and Death come to claim his life.

Halloween
Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part I
1987
Recorded 10-4-2023 between 5:07 and 5:13 PM
Comments: Guess what? This is the first time I've done a long song (and by long, I mean the original version is 13 minutes long) in a single recording. I've done long songs before, like "Keeper of the Seven Keys" and "The King for 1000 Years," but those were divided into parts, the reason being that certain parts sound different than others instead of the more unified tune most (shorter) songs have. I was also worried about running out of breath, but I took a break between each part and everything was fine. I kinda put my own little spin on the outro, since I decided I wasn't saying "Ah, it's Halloween" 8 times.
Song Meaning: The general gist of the song is that it's about a spiritual abduction on Halloween night.

Step Out of Hell
Chameleon
1993
Recorded 9-22-2023 between 12:19 and 12:22 PM EDT
Comments: It sounds so joyful and yet it's about drug addiction...
Song Meaning: This song was written by guitarist Roland Grapow about fellow band member Ingo Schwichtenberg's drug addiction.

Hey Lord!
Better Than Raw
1998
Recorded 10-3-2023 between 4:50 and 4:52 PM EDT
Comments: Like many others, always fun to sing.
Song Meaning: I don't know exactly what the song is about, but whenever I hear the chorus, I envision a man looking up at the sky and shouting it at God, asking why he's abandoned him and/or humanity.
Single Version

Why?
Master of the Rings
1994
Recorded 10-3-2023 between 4:54 and 4:57 PM EDT
Comments: Yeah... sorry my voice moved around so much.
Song Meaning: I'm guessing it's about someone asking why God has abandoned them, and saying that they need him in these dark times, as evidenced by the chorus and pre-chorus.
Single Version

The Dark Ride (Everything Up to the Second Chorus)
The Dark Ride
2000
Recorded 9-23-2023 between 12:23 and 12:25 PM EDT
Comments: I like singing this song, but only the verses and chorus, not the bridge and stuff. I don't know, I just don't like it.
Song Meaning: It's about a rollercoaster ride... to Hell.

Where the Rain Grows
Master of the Rings
1994
Recorded 10-3-2023 between 4:59 and 5:01 PM EDT
Comments: I keep thinking I'm singing it too fast, and I might be a little bit, but I always remember that I'm basing my memory of the speed of this song on the slower Unarmed acoustic version released in 2009. (Also, I messed up in the second pre-chorus - I was supposed to say "sad to the core," not "dumb to the core" like the first pre-chorus.)
Song Meaning: It's about someone being betrayed.
Single Version

Power
The Time of the Oath (modeled on the performance recorded for High Live)
1996 (both TTOTO and High Live)
Recorded 10-5-2023 between 5:02 and 5:06 PM EDT
Comments: Probably my favorite Helloween song, and the reason I like the High Live version more is because of the whole "Woah-oh-oh-woah-oh-oh-oh" thing that goes on for a few minutes. (I especially like the last time the band and crowd do it, where it's broken up into parts.)
Song Meaning: The Time of the Oath is supposed to be a concept album based on the prophecies of Nostradamus, and the only other songs from it I know the meanings of are "Forever and One (Neverland)," which is about someone you care about leaving you, and the title track, which seems to be about a ritual or something like that. The lyrics of this song, meanwhile, appear to tell a story about being free and travelling around and having the power to lead.

Perfect Gentleman
Master of the Rings
1994
Recorded 10-5-2023 between 5:14 and 5:17 PM EDT
Comments: Another song with a fun bridge to sing. Also, after staring at the word several times while singing, you start to notice that the word "perfect" looks kinda weird. Maybe it's just me, considering I was staring at it for 2 minutes and 44 seconds.
Song Meaning: This "perfect gentleman" is essentially trying to convince a woman to date him because he's (in his eyes) the best. What a narcissist.

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Hope you enjoyed my latest blog of metal singing! Comment below what your favorite song was!

And listen to the original versions, they're so much better.