lukretion In 1997, German power metal band Heavens Gate released the EP In the Mood, an extemporaneous project where the band recorded stripped down acoustic versions of some of the tracks from their most recent LP, Planet E. The idea for the EP originated from a series of acoustic live shows Heavens Gate had done in 1996/97 to promote the LP. Hence the decision to release some of the re-arranged tracks in an EP. The record also includes a new song, specifically written for the acoustic EP, as well as a medley of songs from their first three albums.

With a duration just below 30 minutes and nearly all material taken from previous records, this EP is inevitably an affair for die-hard fans of the band only. The most remarkable aspect of the album is the great effort the band made to re-arrange the tracks acoustically while also incorporating a wide array of influences and styles that are normally extraneous to a power metal band. The guitars in particular experiment with many diverse styles, including flamenco, jazz, blues, folk and even reggae. The drums are replaced by groovy percussions that also add a nice touch to the songs. Instrumentally, this is a fun album to listen to, especially if you already know the original songs as it can be quite amusing to see how far the band managed to push the original tunes.

The main weakness of the EP, however, is the performance of the band’s singer Thomas Rettke. He is actually a pretty decent vocalist and his work with Heavens Gate is generally good. However, he does not have that versatility that would have been necessary to accompany the re-arranged songs. He sings like a power metal singer, no matter what the other instruments are actually playing. This simply does not work and the contrast between Rettke’s voice and the rest of the instruments is often jarring. The songs on this EP would have sounded much better if they had been sung by a more versatile vocalist. I am thinking here about the fabulous performance by Damian Wilson on the Maiden United albums, where he sung acoustically re-arranged versions of Iron Maiden’s songs, giving them a whole new life and dimension.

Alas, this does not happen here. Without a more refined vocal performance, the 5 songs of the EP do not really work as well as they could have. The track that works best is probably the medley of songs from the band first three records, mainly because here the acoustic arrangements are kept simple and devoid of too many extravagant influences, which helps reducing the contrast between the vocals and the instrumental background.

Overall, In the Mood is really just nothing more than a curio for die-hard fans of the band. If you are new to Heavens Gate, this is no point of entry and you should re-route yourself to one of their full-length albums, which are a much better reflection of the qualities of this band.

adg211288 If it were just that little bit better known I might say that the cover art of Livin' in Hysteria (1991), the second album by German power metal act Heavens Gate, was an iconic one from the nineties metal scene. A blue dragon lounges back on his rock smoking a pipe while his human slave sweeps up what appears to be the (also human) remains of his last meal. For some reason though Heavens Gate isn't a band I see mentioned half as much in relation to the early German power metal scene that they were most certainly a part of, unlike their temporaries including Helloween, Gamma Ray, Blind Guardian and Rage. It was this cover that first drew me to this album. It's definitely a strking one. The CD was a chance find in a used music shop and I had no idea who the band were. The owner of the store (now sadly closed down for some years) allowed me to sample the album. I listened to the first track and then bought the album instantly. As an aside I also got my first albums from Virgin Steele and Chastain in that shop at the same time.

Heavens Gate in 1991 seemed to exist to fill the void that Helloween created by drifting away from the power metal style that they had created with their classic Keeper of the Seven Keys albums. Sure, Kai Hansen had already debuted with Gamma Ray a year earlier than this, but I've always found the sound that Heavens Gate had on Livin' in Hysteria to be a closer representation of the early power metal style that Helloween played on their classic duo, right down to the real old school metal production sound that hasn't yet been able to let go of the eighties.

This album does in fact have quite a lot in common with classic eighties heavy metal, including the vocals from Thomas Rettke, which are old school metal to the bone rather than the very melodic styles that power metal would become known for over the next decade and had in fact already been used by Michael Kiske in Helloween. Likewise their music is not drenched in keyboards or symphonic elements. In fact the biggest reason that Livin' in Hysteria is power metal is the speedy guitar riff style employed by Sascha Paeth and Bonny Bilski, which shows them to be something more than heavy metal or speed metal. It's only 1991 so it would be fair to say the sound is still on stepping stones in becoming what we now think of as power metal.

Within this old school heavy metal meets early power metal sound the best thing about the record is its actual songs, which are quickly infectiously catchy and excellent across the board. The album opens with it's title track and from there they deliver memorable numbers one after the other. There are times where it feels that Heavens Gate were specifically writing with the live environment in mind, due to the sing-along nature of the lyrical hooks in tracks such as Can't Stop Rockin'. Best Days of My Life represents the near obligatory ballad of the album, but it's one of the better ones served up by power metal albums, while the unusually titled Fredless is a short instrumental. The rest is excellent old school heavy/power metal with excellent vocals, which makes Livin' in Hysteria one of the essential early albums of its style. You can't profess to have a decent knowledge of the German power metal scene if you haven't heard this.