Michael Kiske has been a bit of a controversial figure in the past few years. As the singer with Helloween he helped shape the sound of what's now known as Power Metal with some stunning vocal performances. But since leaving them in 1993 he has gone on to denounce metal in general as lacking integrity and freedom while partaking in entirely metal projects such as Tobias Sammet's Avantasia along side a commercially unsuccessful rock orientated solo career.
Since 2006 there has been speculation about Kiske re-arranging and re-recording a bunch of Helloween classics for a future release. The fans were up in arms but then we were hit by the twist .The album was going to be filled with acoustic versions of the tracks that Michael wrote for the German metal kings plus of course, the obligatory new bonus track.
Now this is acceptable enough as they are his songs and to a certain extent they are his property, if there were versions of Eagle Fly Free or I'm Alive on this release then people would be right to denounce him as a money grabbing hack. But all the same it still feels like the once great man is living off past glories. After all the voice is still there, just listen to the outro of Farewell on Avantasia's Metal Opera Part 1 for proof of that. But he seems unwilling to get involved in any worthwhile long term projects.
So then, is Past In Different Ways (or as I've been calling it Kiske Unplugged) actually any good?
The short answer?...Kinda.
But I reckon I would get shot if it turned in a review that short so I might as well go slightly more in-depth into the latest Kiske project.
The album starts off with two heavy hitters from Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 2 You Always Walk Alone and We Got The Right. Both make the transition to acoustic pretty well. But mind you Michael always did write the more straight ahead numbers, can you imagine an acoustic version of Twilight of the Gods? Actually there's a thought!
Walk Alone is the stronger of the two with a nice little violin intro into the song. To be honest it's not really a major departure from the original structure with some surprisingly forceful drumming (well for an acoustic album anyway) from Karsten Nagel. Kiske's vocal performance is certainly more restrained than usual but it's still obvious that the man knows how to use his voice to great effect.
We Got The Right, introduces the first real departure from the original recording with some brass instrumentation playing the melody in the back ground and a well arranged solo section.
Another of the stronger songs on the album is a version of A Little Time from Keeper Part 1. Which perhaps is no surprise as it's an old favourite of mine. Again for all the press releases talk of "unconventional arrangements" it stays pretty close to the original. When you think about it, apart from changing the rhythm and timing of the guitar parts and adding in a few different instruments here and there acoustic albums basically boil down to doing the fast songs slower and the slow songs even slower than that.
The remaining tracks are taken from the two lesser Kiske fronted Helloween albums Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Chameleon and it's the Pink Bubbles tracks that hold up better.
Kids of the Century is one of the faster Helloween songs redone for this album so naturally it's the most intriguing. Its speedy structure has been reduced in tempo and the "Ahh-ahhh" backing vocals removed but the chorus still stands on its own as an excellent sing along. Your Turn from the same album is a bit of a cheat as the original was an acoustic ballad anyway, only difference is it's minus the crashing power chords that overlaid the original.
As for the songs of Chameleon, I Believe starts off well enough with an impassioned reading of the chorus but at a little over seven minutes long it begins to grate. Longing suffers a little from following I Believe as the pacing of the songs is fairly similar. But it's more suited to a stripped down acoustic version with the "Deep inside of me" section being quite moving when backed by the stirring keyboards. The less said about In The Night the better, when someone overheard me listening to it they enquired if it was Enrique Inglesias.
After listening to The Past In Different ways 5 or 6 times before writing this review I can safely say that it makes an interesting listen the first few times around. After that there are really only couple of the versions that merit repeated spins. In saying that, this kind of thing is always like manna from heaven for the hardcore fans. But everyone else should think twice before looking into purchasing as it simply doesn't offer anything radical that will hold the casual fans attention for long enough.Written by
Stuart Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Show all reviews by StuartRatingsStuart: 4.5/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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