HELLOWEEN — Better Than Raw (review)

Album · 1998 · Power Metal

5/5 · 2015-06-22
adg211288

Better Than Raw (1998), also known as That Helloween Album with the Saucy Cover (Okay I might have made that up, but if it isn't then why the hell not?) is the eighth full-length album by German power metal act Helloween. It is the band's third album with the Andi Deris (vocals), Michael Weikath (guitars), Roland Grapow (guitars), Markus Grosskopf (bass) and Uli Kusch (drums) line-up. I know a lot of fans still pine for previous singer Michael Kiske but I have to say that this line-up of Helloween was probably the most consistently strong.

I'm not entirely sure what the album title is supposed to refer to, but in musical terms it's not exactly apt, as Better Than Raw actually has more of a raw sound than most power metal acts, especially melodic power metal acts opposed to USPM acts, are typically associated with. The music is not exactly under produced but sound of the guitars is heavier, grittier and overall less polished, especially on a track like Push, the first full song after the symphonic intro piece with a mouthful of a title, Deliberately Limited Preliminary Prelude Period in Z. A very guitar driven and extra aggressive track for Helloween is Push. Deris also delivers some really high register vocals on this one. I'd argue it's almost USPM. The album starts to deliver more of what you'd expect from Helloween after that, but overall Better Than Raw is still one of their heaviest releases. And that's certainly a good thing.

I'd also say it's right up there with their better known albums to be one of their best works. With great tracks such as Push, Falling Higher, Hey Lord!, Midnight Sun and the 8:24 minute Revelation it serves up a lot of highlights. It's a shame that Better Than Raw often seems to get overlooked even when the Andi Deris era of Helloween is being exclusively discussed. It's easily my second favourite with him as the band's vocalist, second only to Gambling with the Devil (2007), which coincidently is another of Helloween's heavier albums. I'd also say it was a massive step up after Master of the Rings (1994) and The Time of the Oath (1996). The more aggressive sound suits them better when Deris is up front in my opinion. They were of course absolutely awesome with Kiske on the two Keeper of the Seven Keys albums (1987/1988), but there's much more to Helloween than those two albums. The Deris era has some real gold too. 5 Stars.

more than 2 years ago
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Kingcrimsonprog wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Great band, great album.
If I recall correctly the title reffers very specifically to one soup the band had during the making of and it was a silly in joke.

666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

One of my favourites with Deris as well.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Yeah, Hansen is probably my favorite out of all of them.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Kiske is great but I do prefer Deris. Though I never thought that Kai Hansen did a bad job on the really early stuff either (prefer him in Gamma Ray though).

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Good review, I actually think I prefer Deris to Kiske. I haven't heard this one yet, I'll need to fix that.