Gambling With The Devil (2007)
Gambling With The Devil, the thirteenth studio album, combines the heaviness from Better Than Raw with the songwriting efficiency and catchiness of Rabbit Don’t Come Easy. The production on the album by Charlie Bauerfeind really gives symphonic numbers like this one a real powerful sheen, as everything is crystal clear and glossy, the guitars from Michael Weikath & Sascha Gerstner literally jumping out at you.
Gambling With the Devil has plenty of other highlights, and manages to mix the heavy metal rockers and more ballady fare quite well. The blistering “Kill It”, a relentlessly heavy number that includes everything we all love from this band; crunchy riffs, wild guitar solos, breakneck drums, symphonic arrangements, and spirited vocals. Their 13th release doesn’t stop there, as the band then jumps into the melodic seven minute epic “The Saints”, complete with machine gun drum riffing from new guy Dani Löble and soaring vocals from Andi Deris. On the raging side, fans will love the manic “Paint A New World”, a real speedy number with venemous vocals from Deris, loads of crunch-o-rama, and an anthemic chorus that will have you pumping your fist in the air and singing to the heavens. There’s also “Final Fortune”, a real throwback to the Keeper of the Seven Keys days, the cranking progressive/power metal thumper “The Bells Of The 7 Hells” (another number totally owned by Deris’ menacing vocal attack), the slow & heavy anthem “I.M.E”, and the two excellent power metal epics that close the CD, “Dreambound”, an other speedy power metal song that has a decent chorus and some sweet old school Jericho/Keeper Helloween harmonies and “Heaven Tells No Lies”, which has one of the strongest chorusses on the album but lacking verses and a lengthy dull middle section, each one rich with double bass drum blasts, tasty & melodic guitar flights, keys, and powerful vocals. On the lighter side, you have a bit strange single “As Long As I Fall” which too many sections in this song that have those MTV-proof emo sing-a-long melodies, “Fallen To Pieces” which is simply very weak, and “Can Do It” is a very happy hardrockish Weikath tune and extremely enjoyable, each decent tracks in their own right, but greatly overshadowed by the more metallic numbers here, some of which are sure to be seen as Helloween classics in the near future. There are 4 other songs left out of the disc and ended up as b-side or bonus track. We Unite (written by Markus) as Japanese bonus track), Free My Freedom (written by Markus, as second single), See The Night (written by Markus) and Never Surrender (as USA bonus track) .
With a string of solid albums over the last few years, Helloween are once again laying claim to the title of power metal kings. Gambling With the Devil is a damn fine album, and contains enough evidence to support that claim and win the bet against the little red bugger. This is an album that every power metal fan should have, let alone every fan of Helloween, especially to those of you who have been a bit let down by some of the other releases that came out of 2007.
Tracklist:
1. “Crack the Riddle (Intro)” – 0:52
2. “Kill It” (Deris) – 4:13
3. “The Saints” (Weikath) – 7:06
4. “As Long As I Fall” (Deris) – 3:41
5. “Paint a New World” (Gerstner/Gerstner, Weikath) – 4:27
6. “Final Fortune” (Grosskopf) – 4:46
7. “The Bells of the Seven Hells” (Deris) – 5:22
8. “Fallen to Pieces” (Deris) – 5:52
9. “I.M.E.” (Deris) – 3:46
10. “Can Do It” (Weikath) – 4:30
11. “Dreambound” (Gerstner/Gerstner, Weikath) – 5:57
12. “Heaven Tells No Lies” (Grosskopf) – 6:56
Total Running Time: 57:33
Recorded at Mi Sueño Music, Tenerife and G-Tracks Studio 2007
Produced by Charlie Bauerfeind
Released by SPV Records
The spoken vocal on “Crack the Riddle” is contributed by Saxon vocalist Biff Byford.
Andi Deris – vocals
Michael Weikath – guitars
Markus Grosskopf – bass
Sascha Gerstner – guitars
Daniel ‘Dani’ Löble – drums
