Chameleon

There's a lot to take in on this album. It's quite the departure from Keepers-era and even Pink Bubbles Go Ape. It starts out solidly rocking and expands the range of the band with songs like "Crazy Cat" and "Windmills". There isn't a dud among them, and the subject matter seems less humorous than Pink Bubbles Go Ape. I liked this album more with subsequent listens, because it is a slight departure from the Keepers-Era Helloween (not that it's a bad thing.) It's not TOO experimental, but there are some geniune fist-pumping moments in a surprisingly less overall "heavy" album. It's not the quintessential Helloween, but it is a great addition to your collection. If you're a longtime fan, you've probably already got the remaster from the early 00's, so this won't add too much to the colleciton, but the mix seems slightly different in this one.... brighter, is how I'd describe it. The last song, "Longing" is even more powerful today than the original release. It's a fine closer from the mighty pumpkins. A great album from an awesome band. ...and so?

I'm never sure why albums like this always end up being hated by the people who claim to be fans of the bands that put them out. Sometimes, a band needs to stretch and try new things. It doesn't always work, but when it does work, it can be brilliant. Such is the case with "Chameleon," one of my favorite Helloween releases. I've been a fan of their music ever since I first heard "Keeper of the Seven Keys" all the way back in the mid-1980s. I'm a fan of thrash and power metal. But, I'm also a fan of other styles of music as well. This album is surely not a metal album...which is why it probably garners a lot of bad reviews. But, it is a damn fine rock album. So, a lot of the negative reviews are based solely on the fact that people are expecting metal (which is understandable), but that can be an unfair metric for a review of how good the album really is. What you get out of this album will depend on what kind of music you enjoy. If you only like hardcore metal, you won't like this. If you like rock along side your metal, you might find a lot to like here.

Chameleon is, without a doubt, Helloween's most controversial and maligned album. While there were a large number of behind the scenes factors that led them to produce this stylistically experimental album (no small part of which was the need to pay off debt in the midst of their lawsuit with their former label), the end result was something that didn't sound very much like Helloween. I would recommend this album if you're a big fan of the band and are curious to hear them experimenting with different sounds and styles. Kiske's voice is uniformly phenomenal, giving an energy to every track on the album, and songs like Giants, First Time, I Believe, and Music are great IMO. It's extremely different from just about everything else in their discography, and if you go into it with an open mind I think there's a lot to be enjoyed. Just don't expect Walls of Jericho or Time of the Oath!

I have to admit, I purchased this album with some trepidation. Having heard that the band was less enthused with the final product than they should have been, not to mention the poor response from the fans, I was expecting to be disillusioned. Once I got it I listed to the bonus cuts first that are included with the remastered version. I was not overly impressed. After I played the original album tracks though, I found that I was pleasantly surprised. Though the album is primarily 12 songs by three band members each making their own 4 contributions, it still has some great material. Kiss tried this in the 80's by having each member do a solo album. Motley Crue also had their version of this concept with their album Quaternary wherein each band member contributed one solo effort to the album along with one track that they all played on. I enjoyed that effort quite a bit. The Kiss albums? Not so much. But here, the guys in Helloween seem to have made an album that I now consider highly underrated. They were trying to make something akin to a Beatles album according to Michael Weikath. What I feel that they got was a number of songs that are reminiscent of other bands. The track When the Sinner seems to be channeling Scorpions. In The Night would have been home on a Shaw/Blades album. Step Out Of Hell has a Journey-like feel to it. I also liked Revolution quite a bit which refers to Scott Mackenzie's song San Francisco at one point. And yes, despite being a headbanger I can admit I liked Helloween's attempt at a power ballad in the guise of Windmill (even if the concept of singing to a windmill is lost on me). Am I missing something here? Overal I'd have to say that this album is far better than it gets credit for. Is it a full-blown Helloween album? No. Someone deciding that they want to get into the band would be surprised with their other material if this was the first Helloween album they purchased. That said I'd encourage fans to give it a second listen. Be a little more openminded about it and forget their other albums for a while. You might find you misjudged it.

Another masterpiece from the speed metal gods.

This is their experimental album if you will. I've read interviews from singer Mike kiske after he left helloween that he was into country music around the time this album was released. It really shows on some of the songs. A lot of hardcore helloween fans hate this album because there is hardly any power metal influence. I think bands that have had a long career always try to release something different than what their fans expect them too. Helloween is no different.

Uno de los discos menos reconocidos pero con unas musicas muy originales. El pedido llego super bien y sin daño alguno

utilisation personnelle car j'adore la musique

Este é um daqueles trabalhos injustiçados. Chameleon é de uma primazia incrível. Vale degustar cada faixa deste álbum com atenção. Mesmo não sendo um estilo Power Metal peculiar da banda, se você curte trabalhos diferentes, vale a pena ter na sua coleção. Outro destaque é a entrega da Amazon! Muito rápida e o vinil chegou numa ótima embalagem em perfeito estado! Parabéns a Amazon!

Wunderbare CD, tolle Lieder. Und die Ballade Windmill ist ausgezeichnet. Ich würde sie jedem weiter empfehlen.

Although is not the classic band's style stills an awesome album.

El disco es buenísimo. De tantas veces dicho que es una mierda, que es un disco de pop o de Kiske en solitario, los fans se lo han terminado creyendo. Rico en arreglos y con una grandísima producción. Mucha influencia de los 60/70. Una especie de White Album. No hay "Ia Wants Outs" ni "Future Worlds" y ni falta que hacen. Eso ya se hizo. Helloween se la jugó y aunque mucho "jevy" de jota no pille el disco, es muy bueno. ¿Hay que tener la mente abierta? hombre, para aquellas personas que quieran lo mismo continuamente. si. Para los que aprecian el rock y que un grupo se salga un poco de los cánones si. Sin ir más lejos, encontramos LA MEJOR CANCIÓN de Helloween y la gran olvidada: I Belive. Once minutos compuestos por "el traidor" de Kiske. Disco aun a descubrir tanto por heavys cerrados como para gente que al leer Helloween pasan del grupo. El disco trae una entrevista a Weikath en su libreto, bastante interesante, las letras y fotos. Encima, doble con las caras B de los singles que sin llegar al nivel de lo que aparece en el disco, se dejan escuchar a la perfección. La portada "sospechosamente" es exactamente igual a un detalle que aparece en el disco What Does Anything Mean? Basically de........The Chameleons. ¿Coincidencia? seguro que si. No hay que ser mal pensado...o si.