Helloween - Pink Bubbles Go Ape (1991)

What in the ever loving hell is going on here? Seriously, what is this album cover? What is this madness? We are in what looks like a hotel hallway, with a pin-up woman in the foreground, seducing a fish (who looks horrified btw)? Add an awful placement to both band name and album title, and you got "Pink Bubbles Go Ape"... EVEN THE TITLE IS BONKERS!!! Damn these speedy Germans and their peculiar ways.

I wished the strange things ended with the cover, but I am afraid to tell you all that there is more. First up we have a line up change, and it is a major one, none other than Kai Hansen himself left the band stating that the band was now too big for him to have full control over. This led to a shift in the band's sound, going away from the fantasy themes and the extremely epic arrangements, to a more grounded style, both musically and lyrically. Kai was obviously a huge part of the band, so it did not surprise anyone that the band changed a lot after he left (and that his new band Gamma Ray would become an old school Helloween clone). His replacement Roland Grapow (who would later form Masterplan) is not bad at all, but it is just not the same without Kai.

So since Helloween stopped singing about fantasy, wizards, and dragons, what are their lyrical themes now? Well, they are now both more serious, and more humorous in their approach. In one track, they could be speaking up about what kind of future we leave for future generations, or about loneliness and depression. Then there are tracks like "Heavy Metal Hamsters", which is a comedic take on the band's experience with a previous record company. It is so god damn strange that I love it, do not really care that it is far from the fastest or most epic song on the album, hamsters are awesome, and so is this band.

Even if "Pink Bubbles Go Ape" is a clear departure from the "Keeper of The Seven Keys" albums, we still have some of that epic power metal that made us fall in love with the band in the first place. In the middle of the record we find the dynamic duo "Someone's Crying" and "Mankind", two songs that are equally epic, with one being quick and the other being more melodic. Both "Kids of The Century" and "The Chance" has some nice power too, but other than that, "Pink Bubbles Go Ape" is kind of a mess in its sound, opening up with a strange acoustic intro, and having several songs that is more of fast classic rock than power metal ("Back On The Streets", "Goin' Home", "I'm Doing Fine, Crazy Man"). The band is all over the place in this one.

From start to finish, "Pink Bubbles Go Ape" is a strange album that is a huge departure from what Helloween had built up towards this point in their career. It is definitely not a bad record, but it is one that leaves you mostly confused, wondering what happened to the band that wrote such majestic tunes just a couple of years ago. Kai's departure is a big factor of this change, but there is still enough quality in here to make every subsequent listen joyful. Say what you want, but these German hamsters has a knack to make people smile, and it works well, even on such an uneven record.

Songs worthy of recognition: Someone's Crying, Heavy Metal Hamsters, Mankind

Rating: 6,5/10 Crazy Men

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Metallica - S/T (1991)

It seemed like every legendary metal band fell flat on their asses as soon as the 90's began, with one after another churning out mediocre records and losing popularity. Well, somehow Metallica only became more popular, at least amongst the more mainstream crowd, and most of that is thanks to their self titled fifth studio album (or as it is more commonly called, "The Black Album"). It saw a complete shift in the band's sound, from the progressive thrash that they have refined over the last three records, to a more direct, catchier, and slower heavy metal sound, a change that made this cheap rip off of Spinal Tap's "Smell The Glove" one of the most successful metal records of all time.

One reason to why "The Black Album" became so successful was that it had no less than five major hits in "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven", "Nothing Else Matters", "Wherever I May Roam", and "Sad But True", all of them becoming some of the band's most famous songs. Talking about them in an extensive way is pretty useless, so let me just put out my quick thoughts about them. "Wherever I May Roam" is hands down my favourite track of the entire record, with "Enter Sandman" right behind it. I can deal with the dark nature of "The Unforgiven", but for a band that has not written any ballads before, adding two is at least one too many. Also, "Sad But True", a sluggish boredom of a song, is one of the most overrated songs by Metallica ever.

Once you look past those spotlight stealers, you will realize that "The Black Album" does have some meat on its bones. Sure, it is not something you would want to brag to your thrash buddies, but there is certainly some serviceable metal in there. The heaviest of the bunch is "Holier Than Thou", one of few opportunities Hetfield and Hammett can go wild with their riffing, and also spark a fire under Lars' drums. A fun song that gets the blood pumping, for sure. I also like "Of Wolf And Man", it showed just how good this newer side of Metallica could be with a catchy beat, bone hard riffs, and a nice attitude. I do love the build up in the chorus as well, and I often replace the "shape shift" with "oh shit", it just sounds so much better.

The rest of the "forgotten" group are a mixed bag of sweet and sour. "Through The Never" is a fun little quick tune, and "My Friend of Misery" has some good moments too, but then we have "Don't Tread On Me", "The God That Failed", and "The Struggle Within", none of which really connected with me, being pretty forgettable. It is a trio of songs that I could live without, giving this album some mediocre moments that it does not need at all with its run time of just over an hour.

And that is probably my main problem with this record, there are simply too many songs in here. Metallica should have definitely dropped some songs to make "The Black Album" tighter, killing off the dead weight. So instead of going with several long songs that together made the run time too long, they went with a bigger quantity that also padded the run time a little too much. So in a strange way, that problem from "...And Justice For All" stuck around for "The Black Album", just in a different shape.

Now, it is easy to see why this album is so successful. The surprising amount of hits did give it a ton of buzz for a long time, and there are a bunch of nice songs to discover beyond them. Still, I feel like there is a little too much useless padding in this record, dragging it out a little more than it should.  Do I consider this as an all time classic? Absolutely not, but it is still an enjoyable record with some fantastic highs, but also some annoying lows. It is a reboot of the band that gave them millions of fans, but did not necessarily make them better, enough to get through the 90's.

Songs worthy of recognition: Wherever I May Roam, Enter Sandman, Holier Than Thou, The Unforgiven, Of Wolf And Man

Rating: 7,5/10 Gods That Failed

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Motörhead - 1916 (1991)

Besides being a competent singer and bassist for Motörhead, Lemmy Kilmister is also a vivid collector of war memorabilia, especially stuff from the two world wars, so there is no surprise that he would eventually take his hobby into his occupation. Do not really know why he chose "1916" as the title though, because while World War I was on full go in that year, it is not a year that has any real significance. Maybe it has to do with something about the title track, but I will return to that later.

Another reason for the title might be that "1916" has a lot of retro feel to it. Motörhead has really put on their thinking caps for this one, offering us a wide spectre of different songs. We of course get some classic Motörhead heavy metal, especially in the beginning "1-2 punch" "The One To Sing The Blues" and "I'm So Bad (Baby I Don't Care)", but there is a lot of new stuff in here that we have not heard from the band before, making "1916" their most experimental album ever. I do not know about you, but the words Motörhead and experimental does not make a very good pairing to me.

Most of these newer songs are simply evidence of Lemmy's early influences of early rock and roll, being fast in tempo, but not really that heavy in sound. It can easily be considered as Motörhead light, but when a song is as groovy and fun as "Going To Brazil", then the light version ain't so bad, especially with lines like "Watching all the roadcrew attacking little girls/Joined the mile high club, goin' round the world/All the booze is free, airline going broke/Here come the lady with another Jack and coke". We also get a tribute to the legendary punk band The Ramones in the song "R.A.M.O.N.E.S", a more punk like song in the right spirit.

It is when the band drags down the tempo where we are going to stranger terretories, starting with the oddly named "Nightmare/The Dreamtime", a very slow and dark song that tries to do what "Orgasmatron" did, but it just does not have the same effect without the riffs. "Love Me Forever" is slightly less original in its approach, both in lyrics and in sound, but that song do at least have some neat guitar playing. Both of those songs comes right after each other, so it creates a middle part that is really tough for the average Motörhead fan to handle.

The title track is also something new from the band, a song without guitars and bass, but with added church organs. The song tells the story of a young 16 year old boy joining the army for World War I, thinking he will end up as a hero for his country. I see what Lemmy is trying to express with this song, and he does so very well, but I just cannot help but feeling extremely bored by this song. It has emotions for sure, but it is so slow and boring, it just does not work for me, giving the album a really sad ending in more ways than one.

So the biggest problem with "1916" is without a doubt the inconsistency in both sounds and quality. There are several interesting ideas from the band, but most of them do not work because of one simple fact, Motörhead was built for heavy metal. Yes, Lemmy and his crew can do other styles, but it is when they let loose and just do their thing that they are in the zone, schooling everyone in the art of metal. "1916" is at the very least an interesting album that definitely stands out, but as far as quality goes, it has a couple of really nice songs, and a bunch of strange ones. As said, an inconsistent effort.

Songs worthy of recognition: Going To Brazil, The One To Sing The Blues, Make My Day

Rating: 6,5/10 Angel Cities

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