Underrated even today!A great album with midiocre production

Coming out from a law-suit after their label change and a huge line-up change which leaves legendary guitarist-songwriter Kai Hansen out of the band, Helloween come back with "Pink Bubbles Go Ape". A record which was bashed by music critics due to the fact that the band changed their music to a small effect when compared to their highly praised Keeper Of The Seven Keys records.



"Pink Bubbles..." admitably has a really strange, even silly title but this is not the case with the song writing. The music departs a bit from the continuous double-bass drumming stile and is enriched with more progressive and at parts mainstream ideas. Some songs are softer than the usual tracks found on the Keeper records reminding more of heavy metal than power metal, but that's not a drawback for sure.



Without diving into each and every song, I'm going to name only the outstanding ones! "Mankind" is a great-epic and progressive song with wonderful vocal and musical variations. "The Chance" is a mid-paced heavy metal anthem, which contains some of the albums best vocals and is the most known track from this relish. "Someone's Crying" is the only song that could be categorized as pure power metal (fast double-base drumming), a truly great song, which reminds a lot of their previous albums. "Your Turn" is a wonderful rock ballad with great vocals and finally "Kids of the Century" is another fast song with smart lyrics and great solos.



The new guitarists R.Grapow proves to be a worthy replacement, as his guitar playing is outstanding and he also contributes some great tracks to the album. Vocalist Michael Kiske has improved even more (if that could be possible) in both technicality and emotion delivering his best vocal performance up to that point. While the other 3 band members, especially drummer Ingo, continue to show how talented musicians they are.



The only drawbacks of this album are the production, which is kind of weak, making the vocals and the drums stand out above the rest (If there is a remastered version available get it!). The other drawback tracks 1,5,9.



You should definitely give this album a chance, if you enjoyed Helloweens previous relishes, as you can see how the band progresses and doesn't continue repeating itself for the sake of record sales.

Way underated!!!Sure a couple song's suck!!!SOOO!!!

I think if you take out their two stupid song's Heavy metal hamster's,and Pink bubbles go ape,it could of been the next Keeper's album,if they would of had a better cover that is.But let's face it Helloween did some stupid song's even on those albums.I mean I think Future world,Dr.stein and Rise,and fall are really stupid song's,and way,way to happy.But let's face it.It's pretty rare to find a album that you like every song on.And when it comes to Michael Kiskes vocals who in my oppinion are second to none.You can alway's skip those song's...So if you don't care about the cover art,and can look past a couple of stupid song's then by this album.From the hugely influentual lord's of all Power Metal Helloween.Beside's I'd rather have Michael Kiske's worst album's than have Andie Deris's or Kai Hansen's best.Although I wouldn't mind Michael Kiske redoing the Wall's of Jericho album.He sound's really good on the song Gaurdians,and ext....

I hate the cover,but you should never judge a CD by that!!

Underated,pure and simple,this album's great,although a few of these song's are lame,mainly the Pink bubbles one,Heavy metal hamsters,and Number One.Now as far as I'm concerned two and a half song's out of eleven isn't bad,considering the fact that I think all of the new Helloween stuff suck's.And Queens Ryche to me alway's sucks...

Way underrated, even today! A truly great album!

Coming out from a law-suit after their label change and a huge line-up change which leaves legendary guitarist-songwriter Kai Hansen out of the band, Helloween come back with "Pink Bubbles Go Ape". A record which was bashed by music critics due to the fact that the band changed their music to a small effect when compared to their highly praised Keeper Of The Seven Keys records.



"Pink Bubbles..." admit ably has a really strange, even silly title but this is not the case with the song writing. The music departs a bit from the continuous double-bass drumming stile and is enriched with more progressive and at parts mainstream ideas. Some songs are softer than the usual tracks found on the Keeper records reminding more of heavy metal than power metal, but that's not a drawback for sure.



Without diving into each and every song, I'm going to name only the outstanding ones! "Mankind" is a great-epic and progressive song with wonderful vocal and musical variations. "The Chance" is a mid-paced heavy metal anthem, which contains some of the albums best vocals and is the most known track from this relish. "Someone's Crying" is the only song that could be categorized as pure power metal (fast double-base drumming), a truly great song, which reminds a lot of their previous albums. "Your Turn" is a wonderful hard rock ballad with great vocals and finally "Kids of the Century" is another fast song with smart lyrics and great solos.



The new guitarists R.Grapow proves to be a worthy replacement, as his guitar playing is outstanding and he also contributes some great tracks to the album. Vocalist Michael Kiske has improved even more (if that could be possible) in both technicality and emotion delivering his best vocal performance up to that point. While the other 3 band members, especially drummer Ingo, continue to show how talented musicians they are.



The one drawback of this album is the production, which is kind of weak, making the vocals and the drums stand out above the rest. The other one being songs like Heavy Metal Hamsters, Pink Bubbles... and I'm Doing Fine...



You should definitely give this album a chance, if you enjoyed Helloweens previous relishes, as you can see how the band progresses and doesn't continue repeating itself for the sake of record sales

What the long-standing fan thinks...

I've been a big Helloween fan for years, followed them from the ground up, and am yet to listen to one of their records that sucks. I'm in agreement with the others above...yeah, it wasn't Keepers 1 or 2, but it wasn't garbage either. It was well thought out, experimental, different. A lot of old-school metalheads are afraid of that kind of change (who can blame them...look at the previously "alternative" music takeover) but that doesn't mean that change is always a bad thing. It took two times through "Bubbles" to really get a feel for it. By the third time, it became a part of the bigger Helloween picture. For those critics out there who think it sucked, listen again. Bands are like people, if they refuse to mature and grow, they fail. Whether or not "Bubbles" was a growing pain or a step toward a better Helloween is not the issue. The issue is the development of the band.

Who says this record sucks??

OK, I'll be honest. This is not Helloween's best album, but before I had the chance to listen to it, everywhere I read a review about it, it was labeled as a horrible album. This is not the "Keepers", but "Bubbles" has some great songs you'll never find in any other of their albums. The intro is quite strange, but fun to listen to, then comes "Kids of the century", the song that actually turned my attention to this album 'cause it rocks!! Other classics include "Number one", "The chance", "Your turn", and last but definetly not least, "Mankind". If you know Helloween you understand that their music has been all about writing great intelligent lyrics, and powerful, melodic music. This album contains that, and while some songs on it are worth skipping (especially "I'm doin' fine crazy man") the rest are simply great; even the highly underrated "Heavy metal hamsters", this song has one of the best guitar solos of the whole disc. Bottom line: it deserves 4 stars because it's still a very good album that only this band can offer.