As far as live albums go, and as far as Helloween is concerned, I think this is as good as it gets!!! It's unfortunate that the album is so short, but they pack a ton of music onto this piece of plastic!!! You have a handful of great tunes and you get to hear Michael Kiske belt out his own rendition of "How Many Tears" which makes it fully worth the price of admission!!!!

If you grab this version and not the American copy, you get the extra track "Rise And Fall" which has always been a favorite of mine for its pure sillines!!! To cut it short...track this one down and hear the way the band was meant to sound...NOT the way Andi Deris gargles all over the classics on later live albums!!!

DISCLAIMER: I love Andi Deris and what he has done for Helloween...I just don't think he sounds very good doing the old Kiske material!! ;)

I can't believe this album doesn't have a full five star average!!!! This is Helloween AND power metal at its very best!! From the opening strains of "Invitation" you know that something big is on the way...and Helloween do not let you down. "Eagle Fly Free" could easily be a blueprint for what power metal has become over the years. Quick double-bass verses, twin guitar attack, huge epic chorus...even a little bass / drum solo in the middle from Markus and Ingo to keep your ass up!!! Doesn't get much better than this folks!!!

This album flows perfectly all the way through to the album centerpiece...the 13 minute title track...one of the greatest metal songs ever written. The album ends on "Save Us" which I never considered a part of the album...I believe the version I originally had listed this as a bonus track...we're talking 1988 so it gets a bit fuzzy.

If I had to tell anyone what album to buy to get into power metal, this would be the one!!! There are only one or two other albums in the genre that get such high regards (Gamma Ray's Land Of The Free for one), but without this disc, they would have never been!!!!

5 / 5 every day of the week!!!!!!

Well, I gave my 5-star review for Helloween for the masterpiece "Keepers II" so I thought it would now be appropriate to write my review for my lowest ranked Helloween disc.

Back in 90's I had a special record stand that I went to in the local mall that could get import discs. I hadn't heard anything from Helloween since 1988 and was wondering if they had split up...I had somehow missed "Pink Bubbles" and this album and so I paid an extortionate sum to import both of them. (I didn't know that Helloween had lost their American distributor and that these albums weren't originally released stateside.) "Bubbles" was not so terrible...this album had me scratching my head, thinking I had accidentally gotten the wrong the band.

I'm not going into this album song-by-song because I don't feel the need...let's just say that this album is in no way power metal and in no way what was expected from such a great band. There were horns...HORNS!!!!! Not devil horns...but the kind of horns that someone puts their mouth on and blow, creating a sound that does not necessarily go with proper metal!!!!!

I tried hard to dig this album because I paid a ton for it...and because it was my favorite metal band...but in the end I only found a few redeeming qualities! Those qualities are in the final 15 minutes of the album...the final 2 songs!!! Great tunes that really showcase Michael Kiske's style and range...a voice that in my opinion is untouched in the metal world!!!!

So, if you see this album in the cut-out bin, pick it up and give it a listen...if you expect another "Keepers" forget it!!!