United Alive (2 Blu-Ray/3 DVD/3CD Earbook)

Many old Helloween fans have always wished for a reunion tour with Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen. With the Pumpkins United World Tour (2017-2018) their wishes were finally answered and as a bonus the band put out this amazing live video release to celebrate the event. This is a dream come true for the old fans and a historical live documentation for the band’s legacy.United Alive offers value for money as it serves nearly 3 hours of live footage and several interesting extras. The concert footage is taken from three different locations and thus you get to experience more of the tour than just one specific concert. Most songs are filmed in a large arena in Spain, others in a packed venue in Brazil and the rest in Wacken Open Air Festival. There are four bonus tracks, including two songs filmed in two different locations and a long interview with the band members. In addition you get extras like compilations of animations and LED content shown during the shows. Finally there is the CD version which offers the full show in Madrid, Spain with the addition of bonus tracks from other concerts.The band’s performance is spectacular as both old and newer members are in great shape and mood. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and the energy from the band and the crowd is captured perfectly. Even though some solos are altered the guitar work is mesmerizing and the triple guitar attack works fabulously. The vocal performances by Michael Kiske and Andi Deris are on a very high level and although Kiske is clearly on a different league, they both work with each other successfully and offer great harmonies during their duets. There are plenty of songs sang entirely by either singer, several duets from all eras and a couple of tracks were Kiske, Deris and Hansen share vocals. The drumming is truly impressive, especially during the older songs and the performance of the bass guitar is also remarkable and varying. The whole band sounds very tight, as if they have played in this formation for decades and the emotion emitted from their performance shines through.If one band member deserves separate praise, that is Michael Kiske. The guy is in his 50’s and sounds very close to his younger self back in the 90’s. He goes through demanding songs like “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” and “Eagle Fly Free” with little effort, still hitting some crazy high notes and exhibiting plenty of power and charisma.The set list is carefully chosen and offers plenty of fan favorites that run through Helloween’s entire discography. The band was not afraid to perform long songs like “Halloween”, “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” and “Kai’s medley” clocking in nearly 14 minutes each. In addition they added tracks that are rarely played like “I’m Alive”, “A Little Time” and “Rise And Fall”, newer songs, as well as fan favorites like “Eagle Fly Free”, “Future World” and “I Want Out”. The highlights are many but personal favorites include the aforementioned long songs, the phenomenal renditions of “Eagle Fly Free”, “I’m Alive” and “How Many Tears” and the ballad “A Tale That Wasn’t Right”. Out of the bonus tracks “March Of Time” is easily the strongest performance.The video footage is of great quality. The concerts are filmed with multiple cameras, the image is crystal clear and split screens are used in several instances to show the various performers simultaneously. The audio quality is also on a high level, although it slightly varies depending on the location of the filming.Besides the praise there are also some flaws. The band should be congratulated for reuniting with the old members while keeping the previous line-up intact and performing in such a high level, but this decision also causes some disadvantages. As mentioned before Andi Deris is in a much better shape compared to the past 7 years but he is not in the same league as Michael Kiske. This is obvious throughout the set, it is most noticeable in the CD version and it drags some songs down. The other flaw has to do with the video editing which rarely focuses on the drums and misses some great vocal moments and some guitar solo parts, choosing to show the crowd instead.In conclusion United Alive is a must buy for Helloween fans and metal fans in general. Personally I view it as one of the best metal live video releases ever. It needs to be watched in its entirety in order to be fully appreciated and it is surely worth everyone’s time.

I have been listening to Helloween's music since the band released the (underrated) Rabbits Don't Come Easy album. I was lucky enough to see the band in Glasgow in 2006, the last time the band made a little effort to play for their UK fan base. Because of their lack of love for the UK, my liking for Helloween has fallen to the side in favour of bands that do tour here. But with a nice discount on the release United Alive, I thought I'd dive right back in.It's safe to assume that United Alive is a very good live album. After all, the band have always been known to put on a great live show. This 2017/2018 tour album is no different. The version of the album I bought is the gigantic ear book. This beast contains two blurays, three DVDs and an entire show split across two CDs with a third for the bonus tracks. The show on CD is the December 9th, 2017 performance in Madrid, Spain. The same performance makes up a number of songs on the film. The video also contains footage from Sao Paulo and Wacken Open Air from October 29th, 2017 and August 4th, 2018. The second bluray disc (and dvds) feature a tonne of extras including a few extra songs as well as some documentary footage etc. It's an impressive package to look at and was well worth the £36 I paid for it.In terms of quality, you really can't go wrong. The CDs have a good beefy sound holding it's own against the concert film. The guitars have very satisfying thick tones and have been reasonably well produced. There are a few moments where one of the guitarists get a little lost in the mix but it's not a frequent problem and easy enough to forget about. The drums and bass have good levels and I also really like the way Deris and Kiske's voices have been panned. Both singers bring their A game here and sound the best they ever have. Their voices are a surprisingly great match, working very well in many of the songs presented here.The video footage from the concert film is excellent, for the most part. I was a bit disappointed to see that it wasn't a full show and instead, a bit more of a compilation of three shows. This worked out reasonably well for the Sao Paulo and Madrid shows, but the Wacken Open Air performance had an obvious change in quality. It's not bad by any means but has a very noticeable look compared to the other two shows. The sound quality through out is very good and if you weren't watching, I'm not sure anyone would actually notice the changes between shows.The actual book that holds all the disc in place is quite nice. It's a lot better than the similar Dimmu Borgir product I own. It features better, more colourful pictures and art work. Naturally with this sort of thing, you'll find all the credits for those who worked on the album as well as band members and those that worked on the tour. It's a very well put together product and certainly looks good on a shelf.United Alive is a fantastic live performance. Fans of the band new and old should absolutely pick this up, if they haven't already. The song choices are excellent and the band are firing on all cylinders. My minor disappointments are nothing but nit picks and don't really spoil the overall product. If you're a fan of this band, Gamma Ray or power metal in general, this is by all means a must by.Now, if only the band would tour the UK...

The best tracks from what has to be the best possible lineup, live.The audience are passionate and the music is performed perfectly. Two, if not three, of the best metal vocalists of all time.The cds arrived in superb condition and played without fault.

When the Pumpkins Reunited tour was announced, I was excited but couldn't find anyone to go with - nobody was free on the night. I did regret missing the London show, so when I saw there was a CD release (inevitable really) I pre-ordered it. It only reinforced my regrets about not going to the show.For those not in the know, the tour took the current Helloween line-up and brought back the singer, Michael Kiske, and the other founding guitarist, Kai Hansen, from the Keeper of the Seven Keys line-up. It could have been the whole KotSK band but sadly drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg is no longer with us.The Keeper... material dominates the set but the later period, with Andi Deris as singer, is still well represented. And the original band's material (pre Michael Kiske with Kai Hansen as singer) gets a medley sung by Kai himself, although this was maybe not the best move - but perhaps you had to be there. And there's a new song that gives a nod to the history of Helloween.The Keeper... period was probably the peak of Helloween but the albums featuring Andi Deris (that I've heard), well there's not a bad one among them. It's a good few years since I saw the band in concert but the Pumpkins Reunited line-up is continuing and they've announced new tour dates. I'm not making the same mistake again, I've already booked my ticket even if going on my own. See you at Brixton!