This must've been a tough one for the band. Three classics in a row before this, their fourth studio album. And Kai Hansen, skillful songs-smith, was gone. At first, this felt like a failure, but intensive listening showed this has some great material together with worst the band had ever released. Now, after 10 years of existence, I think this isn't a too bad album at all.

Helloween have never been a dark band, but more like happy and while I'm feeling down, they've always been a good "pick-me-up". A bit silly intro (the title song) starts the album and soon listener is greeted with power/heavy metal with a nice drive. This stuff goes on 'til the song number 5. 'Heavy Metal Hamsters' is just too bloody funny, without being funny at all. Theme is kinda children's nursery rhyme or something... Well, this kind of melodies also appear on 'Back on the Streets' and 'Goin' Home'. 'I'm Doing Fine...' is rock song, actually. Helloween should've stayed with the stuff they know best.

However, more heavy 'n' speed metal material is sometimes very good. One such gem is new guitarist Roland Grapow penned 'The Chance'. Just listen to Michael Kiske's vocal melodies! Wow! A classic, one of the band's best songs ever! Another great one is fast kick-ass song 'Someone's Crying'. Those bad songs aren't totally awful, since they usually have at least one better part, solos etc. The music's tempo is quite fast throughout the record. 'Number One' and 'Mankind' are more epic songs, not as big as 'Keeper of the Seven Keys' or 'Halloween', but they work well. The closer 'Your Turn' is a slower, balladesque song including piano and all. Not my stuff at all, thanks to too sugary coating and clichéd composition. It was a sign of things to come on the band's next one, 'Chameleon' (1993). However, on this album Helloween mainly couldn't make more than second-rate songs of their own older classics. Like 'Heavy Metal Hamsters' tried too hard to be 'Dr. Stein' part 2.

Some material sounds American. Van Halen comes to my mind because of some guitars, riffs and synths. Yes, there's some synths, mainly on the background. Production isn't rough or heavy enough. More power would have injected some more kick into this, especially guitars are not loud enough and they just get buried in the mix, losing fine details. Just turn that bass up. Playing is great. I like Markus Grosskopf's bass, which wanders a lot. Guitars scream, which is always great! Long-departed Mr. Kiske was one with rare talent. Great vocalist. Now doing some jazz, right?!

Germans' sense of humour is a weird thing. It's just too hard to get it (just check out the booklet, huh?!). I like quite a lot or lot of 6 out of 11 songs, so this is quite an average record from that point of view. But, I want to underline those few excellent songs. And this ain't as patchy or as commercial 'Chameleon' from 1993, their second and last EMI album. Anyway, 'Pink Bubbles...' is one of the less good Helloween platters, but still it ain't bad as a heavy metal record.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/04/2002 21:32