Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 2 (1988)

My friend Philips Vermonte helped me a bit by writing his piece about this album at Jakartabeat, a website which he co-founded.

I remember buying this album in 1988 or 1999. It was not available at local stores yet. But a music store in Blok M, Duta Audio (a branch of the famous Duta Suara at Jalan Sabang) has two copies of it. They are imported, released by a Malaysian label company. An imported cassette, it costed Rp10,000 (around US$5 at that time), twice as much as the local ones.

Alas, I didn't have enough money at that time. And there was no guarantee that the album will still be available - another metalhead may have bought this. But I got a brilliant trick (well, for me it was brilliant). I hid a copy of the album behind an album in a different category. I forgot what it was. I believed it was a not-so-popular R&B artist.

And yes, about three weeks later when I got enough money, the record was still there. So I bought this album. A few months later I got the "Keeper" part 2 from the same music store. Helloween immediately became my new favorite. Michaek Kiske's vocal range was only second to my older favorite, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. The funny thing is, later Kiske thought that metal is not his music.

So enjoy Philips' article, and the album.