Helloween – Rabbit Don’t Come Easy – Nuclear Blast (2003) 

Rabbit Don’t Come Easy is billed as Helloween’s triumphant return to their old style, but I must say that I’m a wee bit puzzled by that statement. They might have returned to touring North America for the first time since 1989, but let me assure you my friends, Helloween never left.

Though the band has been through various line-up changes throughout the years, core members Markus Großkopf and Michael Weikath remain firmly ensconced in the band they formed almost 20 years ago with Gamma Ray’s Kai Hanson and the late Ingo Schwichtenberg. 

Rabbit Don’t Come Easy is Helloween’s 15^th (depending how you count, I usually omit Best Of’s) album since the band first appeared on the radar in 1985 with their eponymous EP and tore into the metal scene with a vengeance with albums Walls Of Jericho and Keeper Of The Seven Key’s Parts 1 and 2. It was during the Keeper Of The Seven Keys era when the band was riding high on the metal scene and had introduced Michael Kiske, an 18-year-old vocalist with more range and power than even Iron Maiden’s Bruce “The Air Raid Siren” Dickinson. Helloween toured the US and elsewhere and at the time seemed unstoppable. 

After having replaced Hansen with guitarist Roland Grapow and having received much criticism for their forays into humor, pop and prog in the early 90’s with albums like Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Chameleon, the Teutonic Metal Meisters seemed to fall in disfavor with the US audiences and, much to my chagrin, were pretty much relegated to touring Europe and South America. 

Following the suicide death of original drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg and the loss of defining vocalist Michael Kiske shortly thereafter, Helloween regrouped and returned to their heavy roots with new force, this time adding singer Andreas (Andi) Deris and original Gamma Ray drummer Uli Kusch. Albums Master Of The Rings and The Time Of The Oath melded pop sensibilities with pounding rhythms and super speed. Still feeling the need to push pop aside and rebuild their metal following, Helloween added even more octane to the gas tank, which resulted in making albums Better Than Raw and The Dark Ride their heaviest and darkest to date. 

If anything, Rabbit Don’t Come Easy is Helloween’s return to yet another line-up change and yet another fantastic studio album. Whether heavy, slow, pop or progressive, Helloween has consistently released quality albums filled with monster playing and killer songwriting. This time, however, rather than dedicating a full album to one musical exploration, Rabbit Don’t Come Easy melds the best of all worlds. 

The album begins with the band’s trademark brief orchestral fanfare before launching into the thunderous Just A Little Sign augmented by moonlighting Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee who first appeared on King Diamond’s 1986 opus Fatal Portrait. The Scandinavian Skin Basher reportedly had only three days to learn, write and record his parts for the album, but it sounds like he had been playing with Helloween since day one. Though new drummer, Stefan Schwarztmann, plays on a couple of tracks, I would strongly suggest that Mikkey Dee is contracted to record on subsequent Helloween studio releases as, in this writer’s humble opinion, Dee is the premier metal drummer and I will deny anyone who refutes this statement without proper documented proof. For all of Schwarztmann’s talent, unfortunately, he’s no Mikkey Dee. 

New guitarist Sascha Gerstner’s writing makes an appearance on the next track Open Your Life, a wonderful piece that jumps between a prog intro, superb breakdowns, a fantastic pre-chorus and a thrashing power chorus and defines the best of everything Helloween has done in the past two decades. 

One of my personal favorites is the humble Never Be A Star, a song whose premise is that even though the band will never be superstars, they are very content with their position in the rock and roll stratosphere. One of the track’s highlights is Markus Großkopf’s middle section bass groove, which is probably one of his best since Chameleon’s Revolution Now and the band’s b-side version of Grand Funk Railroad’s Closer To Home. Throughout the years Großkopf’s fantastic playing is always hidden beneath a wall of drums and guitars, so it’s nice to hear him shine on occasions like this. Though he is frequently compared to Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris (my idol), Großkopf is his own man and has way better time and groove. 

Another outstanding contribution by newcomer Gerstner is Sun 4 The World, featuring a rich middle-eastern sitar intro before launching the band into a power groove and double kick chorus. Again, another great song deeply rooted in metal, but still chock full of various styles and influences. I was initially reluctant to another line-up change, but having now listened to the album and seen the band live, I feel Gerstner’s contribution to Rabbit Don’t Come Easy and the band in general is a much needed and welcomed shot in the arm. 

The rest of the album is delightfully consistent and my only criticism would be that the Japanese version contains a cover of Accept’s Fast As A Shark, a song considered by many to be the first thrash metal song, and the US release does not. 

So, if rabbits don’t come easy, then why are there so many of them? Yes, Helloween is triumphant, yes they have returned and yes, against all odds, they’ve pulled yet another magic rabbit out of their hat. For those of you that never heard of them or lost track along the way, then let me strongly suggest that Rabbit Don’t Come Easy will either win you back or start you on the journey of discovering one of metal’s most definitive and influential groups. 

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