Rabbit Don't Come Easy / Helloween (2003)

1. Just A Little Sign

2. Open Your Life

3. The Tune

4. Never Be A Star

5. Liar

6. Sun 4 The World

7. Don't Stop Being Crazy

8. Do You Feel Good

9. Hell Was Made In Heaven

10. Back Against The Wall

11. Listen To Flies

12. Nothing To Say

"The Dark Ride" was a chaotic album musically and created a huge split in the band. After the tour, Roland and Uli were fired and formed "Masterplan". Many people were wondering what would await this band. When they returned, I was wondering what kind of music direction they would head to. Weiki emphasized about returning to their root and the music that fans were expecting of this band.

When I first heard the lead single, track 1, I thought it was fairly good. I felt the positive energy from the song. What surprised me was that the song was written by Andi. It has been Weiki's job (not intentionally, I think) to write  typical Helloween style power metal songs until the last album. It really shows that Andi is truly the member of this band and one who carries DNA of Helloween. Andi's name is credited in 7 songs in this album. It is really impressive how many ideas he has. 

Overall, I think the album is fairly good. The new guitarist Sascha already has shown his composition skill in this album. He become one of the important pillar of this band. This album was also that Markus started his talent as a songwriter. Track 9 was played on their later tour. Nevertheless, the album is not very exciting in their standard. If this album was released by a new band, it would be really impressive, but I want to expect more from Helloween since they are the pioneer of melodic power metal. 

☆☆☆☆