Hey folks!

A couple things today. First, Best Album Bracketeer @lanna.bsky.social has an idea she’d like to try.

Love DCs, but wish you could influence people sooner? What about a power point party near the end of the nomination period where you can discuss 1-3 of your favorite 1988 albums? Fill out the interest form to let us know what you think!

Would you like to hear me make the case for Stump, A FIERCE PANCAKE, which by my reckoning is my favorite 1988 album that is least likely to make the initial cut? Please click the link above and fill out the interest form, regardless of your answer! (Your answer is “yes, I do.”)

Second, yesterday I republished One True Poster’s cheerleading for Manowar’s KINGS OF METAL. But I want to take a moment to highlight his cheerleading for another metal album he loves, primarily because a lot of this audience might find this one more palatable than Manowar’s offering. So, without further ado, and just in time for the holiday, here is One True Poster’s cheerleading for Helloween, KEEPER OF THE SEVEN KEYS PART II. Please give it a listen and maybe nominate it!

"Power metal" has undergone an etymological journey over its four-decade lifetime. Many of metal's core genre designations—thrash, death, black, speed, and power-emerged around the same time, between 1982 and 1984, and all essentially meant the same thing: "we are heavier than that wussy stuff they play on MTV, but we ain't your dad's true metal". Which bands each term was applied to varied by nation, region, and venue, and the only one with a specific meaning was "black metal", which denoted Satanic lyrics. One band frequently advertised as "power metal" in its early days was Metallica. "Thrash" crystallized into its current meaning fairly quickly, as the most popular and critically-lauded underground metal bands had roughly the same abrasive, rapid-fire, punk-inflected sound, and the other terms were repurposed to their own specific meanings afterwards. "Power metal" became the go-to for bands that carried the torch for traditionalist, meat-and-potatoes heavy metal. To get an idea of what sort of bands "power metal" initially described, I recommend the songs "Kill with Power" by Manowar and "Licensed to Kill" by Jag Panzer.

Today, "power metal" has very different associations, often pejorative ones, used to describe hypermelodic, neoclassically-inflected bands who utilize operatic singing and dense keyboard-strewn arrangements, including some of the silliest, poppiest metal bands around—DragonForce, Sabaton, Beast in Black, etc. "Black Diamond" by Stratovarius, "Ghost Opera" by Kamelot, and
"The Last Stand" by Sabaton are good gauges for the modern usage of the term. To understand why Helloween's KEEPER OF THE SEVEN KEYS PT. Il is not just on my Bare Minimum, but is one of the most essential albums on that Bare Minimum, it would be instructive, after sampling the aforementioned tracks, to listen to "I'm Alive", from KEEPER OF THE SEVEN KEYS PTI, because it succinctly represents the sonic innovation that created power metal as we currently understand it. And to be clear, reinventing power metal is no small thing; it is an enormously successful genre, and many of the most popular metal bands in the world are power metal behemoths stomping all over continental Europe and South America and Japan and, other places, I'm sure, but mostly those.

Helloween began by making what is now called "speed metal", referring to metal that is much faster and more abrasive than standard NWOBHM style metal, but doesn't fit into thrash or power. Good gauges for this sound are "Heavy Metal Maniac" by Exciter and "Judas" by Helloween. But, evolving as musicians, Helloween wanted to make their swing for eternity, and conceived a fantasy themed double album that combined their breakneck speed with the high drama of Iron Maiden and the neoclassical fiddlings of Yngwie Malmsteen to forge a wholly new sound. The label
nixed the double album, so they recorded it in two parts, though I have to stress that they are not really a concept album and function as standalone works - more Physical Graffiti than The Wall - the first slightly more lo-fi, the second more polished and commercial, and it was that second that put Helloween over as a major force to be reckoned with commercially and critically, and it is still often considered the greatest power metal album of all time, the duology looming over the rest of their career and indeed the entire genre as an impassable peak.

The appeal of Helloween can, I think, be summed up in their name: they are a bit wacky, a bit gonzo, but despite this are absolute master craftsmen. Power metal is often dinged, accurately, for being an extremely repetitious and formulaic genre, and if you listen to a lot of this stuff Helloween's songfulness stands out very sharply in contrast. They simply know how to put melodies and guitar parts and hooks together into a dynamic package, helped by having multiple essential creative personnel who can do heavy lifting when required; each of the Seven Keys album was largely written by a different guitarist, though each played on both albums. This results in two slightly different flavors, the first harder-edged and more straightforward, the second more fussy and ornate. Most importantly, this is probably the most fun album in my Bare Minimum, and "I Want Out" is a serious contender for best song of the entire year. It would be deeply ludicrous for the tournament to lack this album, and I would sacrifice Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Slayer's likely placings without hesitation to ensure it a spot. 10/10

Thank you, One True Poster!

Another newsletter about 1988 albums tomorrow!

Best,

Kent