Chameleon

I have to admit, I purchased this album with some trepidation. Having heard that the band was less enthused with the final product than they should have been, not to mention the poor response from the fans, I was expecting to be disillusioned. Once I got it I listed to the bonus cuts first that are included with the remastered version. I was not overly impressed. After I played the original album tracks though, I found that I was pleasantly surprised. Though the album is primarily 12 songs by three band members each making their own 4 contributions, it still has some great material. Kiss tried this in the 80's by having each member do a solo album. Motley Crue also had their version of this concept with their album Quaternary wherein each band member contributed one solo effort to the album along with one track that they all played on. I enjoyed that effort quite a bit. The Kiss albums? Not so much. But here, the guys in Helloween seem to have made an album that I now consider highly underrated. They were trying to make something akin to a Beatles album according to Michael Weikath. What I feel that they got was a number of songs that are reminiscent of other bands. The track When the Sinner seems to be channeling Scorpions. In The Night would have been home on a Shaw/Blades album. Step Out Of Hell has a Journey-like feel to it. I also liked Revolution quite a bit which refers to Scott Mackenzie's song San Francisco at one point. And yes, despite being a headbanger I can admit I liked Helloween's attempt at a power ballad in the guise of Windmill (even if the concept of singing to a windmill is lost on me). Am I missing something here? Overal I'd have to say that this album is far better than it gets credit for. Is it a full-blown Helloween album? No. Someone deciding that they want to get into the band would be surprised with their other material if this was the first Helloween album they purchased. That said I'd encourage fans to give it a second listen. Be a little more openminded about it and forget their other albums for a while. You might find you misjudged it.

Now, the only reason I gave this album a 4 star rating is because I like the new packaging, liner notes, and they added a bonus disc. I already owned the single disc version of this, but now this double disc version costs less than what I paid for the single disc...I should have waited. Now, I must get on with saying, what was Helloween thinking. After having a very lack luster album before (Pink Bubbles Go Ape) they released this. Of course it was during the early 90's, and I'm sure there were drugs and rock and roll involved, but this album could have been the death of this band. 1994's album Master of the Rings saved this band. Listenable tracks are I don't wanna cry No More, When the Sinner, and the best track on the album "Step Out Of Hell". This alubm is a mish mosh of ballads and Bad music. Windmill, what is this non-rock Michael Bolton type tune? Now, the bonus disc is cool, just full of odd stuff, giving you an Idea of how deep the turmoil was in Helloween. Cut in the Middle, good track, but Red Socks and the smell of trees, Oriental Journey, and Ain't got nothing better to do are just lost songs, placed on singles, cause heck, this band really had run out of ideas and needed filler. This album could be passed over for a slight fan of Helloween. If I were not a fan that believes helloween needed to just get this and "Bubbles" out of their systems, this could have easilly ranked a 2 or 3

Chameleon is, without a doubt, Helloween's most controversial and maligned album. While there were a large number of behind the scenes factors that led them to produce this stylistically experimental album (no small part of which was the need to pay off debt in the midst of their lawsuit with their former label), the end result was something that didn't sound very much like Helloween.I would recommend this album if you're a big fan of the band and are curious to hear them experimenting with different sounds and styles. Kiske's voice is uniformly phenomenal, giving an energy to every track on the album, and songs like Giants, First Time, I Believe, and Music are great IMO. It's extremely different from just about everything else in their discography, and if you go into it with an open mind I think there's a lot to be enjoyed. Just don't expect Walls of Jericho or Time of the Oath!

I'm never sure why albums like this always end up being hated by the people who claim to be fans of the bands that put them out. Sometimes, a band needs to stretch and try new things. It doesn't always work, but when it does work, it can be brilliant. Such is the case with "Chameleon," one of my favorite Helloween releases.I've been a fan of their music ever since I first heard "Keeper of the Seven Keys" all the way back in the mid-1980s. I'm a fan of thrash and power metal. But, I'm also a fan of other styles of music as well. This album is surely not a metal album...which is why it probably garners a lot of bad reviews. But, it is a damn fine rock album. So, a lot of the negative reviews are based solely on the fact that people are expecting metal (which is understandable), but that can be an unfair metric for a review of how good the album really is.What you get out of this album will depend on what kind of music you enjoy. If you only like hardcore metal, you won't like this. If you like rock along side your metal, you might find a lot to like here.

This is their experimental album if you will. I've read interviews from singer Mike kiske after he left helloween that he was into country music around the time this album was released. It really shows on some of the songs. A lot of hardcore helloween fans hate this album because there is hardly any power metal influence. I think bands that have had a long career always try to release something different than what their fans expect them too. Helloween is no different.

Totalmente necesario en tu colección

Uno de los discos menos reconocidos pero con unas musicas muy originales. El pedido llego super bien y sin daño alguno

Este é um daqueles trabalhos injustiçados. Chameleon é de uma primazia incrível. Vale degustar cada faixa deste álbum com atenção. Mesmo não sendo um estilo Power Metal peculiar da banda, se você curte trabalhos diferentes, vale a pena ter na sua coleção.Outro destaque é a entrega da Amazon! Muito rápida e o vinil chegou numa ótima embalagem em perfeito estado! Parabéns a Amazon!

CD originale consegnato in un giorno con Prime.Adoro gli Helloween e questo album l'ho preso solo per completare la loro discografia.Non rispecchia l'anima del Gruppo....

J'ai personnellement toujours aimer cet album d'helloween,,je ne recherche pas à le comparer sans cesse aux keepers,,je l'apprécie pour ce qu'il est , un bon album de rock , bien différent de la discographie général d'helloween. J'aime beaucoup le style bien différent de roland grapow, qui a apporter un autre regard sur le style du groupe. Certains aimeront, d'autres pas,,,chacun son opinion.

La historia a echo que este álbum sea aun cada vez mejor a pesar de las grandes críticas que a tenido pero que agrupación no las a tenido para mi es un disco fenomenal y haberlo obtenido fue grandioso en precio y calidad del material sabemos que las ediciones japonesas en vinyl son de 10 pero esta versión no desmerece en nada el material siempre en vinyl será lo mejor y el tiempo me ha dicho que es la mejor forma de invertir el gusto por mi música yo le daría 8.5 tirándole a 9 (A ESTA ESICION) por parte de Amazon son buenos y el costo EXCELENTE y la entrega y el perfecto estado del producto es imposible mejorarlo de echo e comprado estas ediciones de SANTUARY Y SON MUY BUENAS NO MÁS DE 9 heeee gracias Amazon y gracias por traer estas ediciones

In questo CD gli Helloween sono poco Heavy Metal