Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part I is the second studio album by German power metal band Helloween, released in 1987. It marks the first appearance of vocalist Michael Kiske, and is considered the album that created the genre of European-style power metal. Now as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations for Noise, this classic album gets a limited edition reissue on splatter vinyl with album cover poster.
Loudwire named the album at third in their list “Top 25 Power Metal Albums of All Time” and commented the album is “a tireless LP and perhaps the first genuine power metal album.” ThoughtCo also named the album in their list “Essential Power Metal Albums.”
Tracklisting:
Side A Initiation I’m Alive A Little Time Twilight Of The Gods A Tale That Wasn’t Right
Italian power-metal band with their 3rd album. Some fine heavy riffs, lots of fast metal numbers, good production. Tracks range from the roaring speedy opener “Exile To Anse”, to powerful metal rockers like “Amber Of Illusion”, the first single “Wailing In Red”, and closing favorite “The Strangers”. For fans of such bands as Helloween and Gamma Ray.
*For more info, check out the press release below, plus links:
Rockshots Records will be releasing LionSoul’s third album “A Pledge To Darkness” this coming April 2022. The full length follows the band’s albums “Welcome Storm” (2017) (Limb Music), their self-released Omega” (2013) and EP “The Throne” (2015). Since the band’s formation in 2012, they have shared the stage and toured with artists such as Domine, Iron Savior, GammaRay, Kissin’ Dynamite, Geoff Tate, Tygers Of Pan Tang in Italy and across Europe along with festival appearances on Metal For Emergency (IT), Biker Fest (IT), and Loud and Proud Festival (IT). The new album “A Pledge To Darkness” is a huge step forward in LionSoul’s career as it is more heterogeneous, in some ways darker than the previous ones. Featuring 11 roaring cosmic tracks, it brings with it nuances ranging from thrash to melodic death metal, including some death metal vocals in order to give more emphasis to certain passages. The album is a composition of different stylistic approaches that converge into the power/heavy roots that still remain at the basis of their sound. The songs range from a classic power metal opener with spatial atmospheres up to a futuristic western ballad, from speed metal tracks – that wink at thrash and melodic death metal – to 80’s synth-wave tunes, from mid-tempo hymns in Teutonic/industrial style to the almost omnipresent Cyberpunk themes. “A Pledge to Darkness” remains in all respects a power metal album, but with some dosed contaminations. Overall, its goal is to take you on a hyperspace voyage from Tatooine to 2049 Los Angeles, while passing through Tranctor. The band explains further: “Imagine your planet at the end of its life and you have the burden to preserve the knowledge so you take a spaceship for a trip to L A in 2049 meanwhile you pass through a portal between 1953 to 1986 and also you change your skin to save the human race from a virus.”
Today, the band shares their first single entitled “Wailing In Red”. The track is a Blade Runner-inspired story, the wailing of an android who cries red tears. “It’s a classic heavy metal riff that continues for all the verses before turning in a fast chorus, all that arranged in a modern key, with some industrial synths to act as a frame for this cyberpunk drama-inspired song. It’s our first single, a meeting point between classic heavy metal and modern sounds, fast, the notes reflect the obscure and the emblematic nature of the theme addressed in the lyrics with Claudio’s powerful growl vocals inserts.” adds the band.
Continuum Exile to Arise Amber of Illusion Wailing in Red No Beginning (Nor An End) Soldier through time Skin 2 A Pledge to Darkness Red Flame Man, Machine, Almost Rhyme The Strangers
Outsider Rock 