A COURAGEOUS ALBUM

Torn apart among management and band members fights, Helloween managed to record one of the most daring, innovative, creative and courageous albums ever, I mean EVER, recorded by a metal band.

This album has it all. It has metal, sax, keyboards, acustic guitars, a lot of different stuff. Of course it would backfire. The band was famous for the Keeper albums, not for sutff like that! But listen to it like if it was recorded by an artist that you have never heard about, and you will be astonished by how talented this guys were.
This was the last album with singer Michael Kiske (who left the band) and drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg (who commited suicide). In Kiske?s place came controversial replacement Andi Deris. Well, although I don not think of Kiske as a fantastic metal singer (his voice can be really annoying and screeching and tiny sometimes), Deris was not capable to fill his shoes at all.

chameleon

Some people said that this is the worst album of the band, but is not too bad at all, is true that there is no metal in it, (except Giants), but this album have a couple of very good ballads like Windmill and I don't wanna cry no more.

This album is very rare and strange and is only for people that like ALL kind of music, so pure metal fans stay away from this album or you are going to be disappointed, but if you are an open mind music fan maybe you will like this album. Because there are so many different kinds of music styles here is impossible to know if you are going to like it or not, so there is no more to say.

Chamelleon

This is my least favorite Helloween album by far (although I have not yet gotten their latest). I have been listening to them for 10 years and I have liked their earlier works (Keeper of the seven keys 1 And 2, Walls of Jerricho) much better. If you want to try them, start with those three. If you like this band/music, also try Manowar. While the musical style is slightly different, they still have stories in their songs which I enjoy.

Experiments can be good...

But here, they're just so extreme that the album is a disaster of epic proportions. Helloween's 5th album, 1993's 'Chameleon,' is experimental to such an extreme that it falls apart after the first few tracks. Admittedly, there are a few decent tracks. Those tracks are: "First Time" (one of two songs on this album that could be classified as "metal,") "When The Sinner" (an upbeat, somewhat perky jazz-influenced rock song with a bit of horns in the background,) "Giants" (another song that could be classified as "metal,") and "Step Out Of Hell" (which is a good hard rocker, but not metal, but WHO CARES!) Overall, the rest of the album is just plain bad, especially "Windmill" (it just makes me cringe when I realize the great Michael Weikath wrote that 5-minute pile.) Overall, not recommended for the true Helloween fan, but if you like extreme amounts of experimentation, then this is for you. Otherwise, TRUE metalheads should AVOID!

FANTASTIC ALBUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't believe in the bad reviews on the page. It's one of the best Helloween Albums. But: If your searching for a real Metal Album, then try Master of the Rings from Helloween. Chameleon is great.

Forget about the 'Keepers' - A great progressive rock album!

In order to understand and appreciate this album you have to forget what Helloween did in the past, especially in the 'Keeper of the Seven Keys' albums.



Musically the album departs from power/speed metal and concentrates on progressive hard-rock with metal, blues and pop influences. By changing musical direction, Helloween break some more boundaries but in other fields of music...



Chameleon is a long album and surely there are a few weak songs. But due to the fact that the music style is progressive nothing really bad can be said (everything depends on musical preferences).



In my opinion the strongest and really 'great' tracks on this album are: 'I Believe', 'Giants', 'Music' and 'Longing'. "Giants" is the only true metal song here, a mid-tempo song with great guitar work and fabulous high-pitched vocals. "Music" is a strong blues-rock ballad with smart lyrics and great guitar solos. "I Believe" excides 9 minutes of playing time, truly emotional, deep lyrics and a great arrangement. "Longing" was the perfect song to close the album. An acoustic ballad nicely mixed with orchestration were the highlight are the vocals, this is Michael Kiske's best vocal performance ever, some of the most deep and emotional vocals I ever heard!



The band is in great shape, wonderful and emotional solos, great vocals by Michael Kiske (as always), good bass and strong drumming throughout. Concerning the vocals, don't except the very high pitched Kiske trademark (Keeper's era). He has improved greatly as a vocalist and sings in a smoother, more emotional way with a few high notes in the wright places.



Being a metal (mostly heavy & power) fan, I hated this album on the first listen, having in mind their previous masterpieces! (this is the reason why this album didn't sell much, it was aimed at the wrong crowd) But when I took metal out of my mind and listened to this album again, I was definitely amazed by some of the songs!!



Which songs are best for each person varies as some songs are more progressive, some more pop, some more metal and some all of the above.



Don't listen to the rumors, check out this album for your self in order to have an opinion.

Great Album

I know that this is not classic Helloween material, but I think it is excellent, and it really proved that they can be creative and versatile as well as rock hard. I was a little shocked when I fisrt heard this album, but then it stuck on me like a leech. "First Time", "When The Sinner", "Giants", "Windmill", "Step Out Of Hell", and "I Believe" are my absolute favorite tracks on the album, and the other songs are still very good. The sad thing is that nobody has ever heard of this album, and most of the few people that heard it don't like it at all. But I think Chameleon should be given a chance and listened to with an open mind.

Superb!!!

I don't understand some of you, guys. This album is perfect, but it is not as heavy as the previous ones. Some of the best Helloween ballads (except for "In The Middle of a Heartbeat, which is on "Master of the Rings) are here. The epic "I Believe" is a great achievement. The retro style of Crazy Cat and First Time does not make the bad songs. It is definitely the weirdest Helloween albums but it is one of my favorites. Michael Kiske's vocals are excellent. If you like melodic metal, you've got to own this album. 5 stars and 2 thumbs up.