HELLOWEEN - Keeper Of The Seven Keys, Part II (1988)
When writing about one of the standards of the subgenre like a Keeper record, one would think that my niche as a relatively newer fan - discovered Helloween less than ten years ago, and really started picking apart the history of power metal less than two years ago - would be to divorce the album from its context and listen to it simply as a piece of music. It's impossible, though. The retroactive narrative that Helloween invented power metal as we know it with this record is too pervasive. So listening to Keeper II , I spent a lot of time wondering when it became obvious to listeners at the time that Helloween were, well, what they were. I envy the astuteness of those who talk about Helloween's early work - confidently called by Wikipedia "speed metal rather than power metal," although I know many would dispute that - as having immediately stood out to them for its sense of melody and/or its sense of humor. How and when would the average bear have realized...