Helloween Live At The Forum
When it comes to heavy metal I think Helloween are as influential as anybody. Their style of music laid the foundations for a genre that remains popular today. Iron Maiden and Judas Priest did contribute - it's Helloween though that created what is now referred to as power metal.
To say anticipation was high for this gig would be an understatement. I believed this would be the highlight of the metal year. For starters 2 of Australia's finest bands in Black Majesty and Vanishing Point were supporting, which is a great bill in its own right. This along with the fact that the regular crew I go to metal shows with all love Helloween meant a memorable evening was ahead.
I rocked up to the forum thinking I had plenty of time. I quickly realised I was way off. As I entered the main area Black Majesty began their set. Without thinking I charged down the front, which turned out to be a big mistake. When I got there I felt the sound come pummelling through my head. I initially thought I'd get used to it - wasn't to long before I knew that wouldn't happen and so I moved to lessen the pain.
To make matters worse I wasn't the only struggling with the sound. Black Majesty was cruelly given a poor mix. They did perform well despite this and as a bonus Danny of Eyefear sung a song with them. Regrettably their set wasn't very long - they deserved a few more songs given the sound problems. Even though this was an unfair indication of what they are capable of, Black Majesty continue to grow on me - I'm looking forward to seeing them again soon.
Next up was Vanishing Point - a band who can practically do no wrong in my eyes. This is because they never let me down. I consider myself fortunate to see them as often as I do. There were not many surprises in their set, which was a reasonable length - much better than the time they were given supporting Maiden. The highlight for me came when they closed with Hollow. This has always been a favourite of mine and they haven't played it in a while so I was thrilled to see it back in the set.
It's about this time I get restless. The wait for the main band is usually excruciating. On this occasion it wasn't because rather than the usual one CD played repeatedly I actually got to hear a wide selection of metal anthems, which bizarrely included Helloween's Pleasure Drone. The real treat came when ACDC's For Those About To Rock kicked in. This got the crowd going and was the ideal way to lead in to what was to come.
Then the German metal legends hit the stage. Appropriately they opened with Halloween. A terrific way to start although a shorter song would have been appreciated as I was having difficulty keeping the headbanging going one song in. From there Helloween delivered a set that showed why they are the definition of power metal. There were songs I wasn't that familiar with like March Of Time, classics such as Dr. Stein and personal favourites like The King For A 1000 Years, which all sounded perfect. The drawbacks were only getting a couple of tracks from their most recent album Gambling With The Devil and a pointless medley. In this they played a brief section of Keeper Of The Seven Keys, which was torture. I've long thought medleys should be banned and this only strengthened my opinion.
For me the pinnacle of the evening was A Tale That Wasn't Right and I'll never forget being alongside my mate for Future World. He got me into Helloween and we've often talked about what it would be like to see them live. This of course would lead him to remind me he'd seen them already, something that never went down well.
Helloween were brilliant - beyond what I could imagine. Many diehards will still cry out for the old days saying they want the classic lineup back. I totally disagree with these people. This lineup put on a display of power metal that could not be topped - hopefully it won't be long before they're back here.
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