The Keepers Of Jericho

Keepers Of Jericho is an Helloween Tribute with what can be described only as a all-star list of performers, amongst them you'll find Rhapsody, Sonata Arctica, Heaven's Gate, Metalium, Luca Turili, Brainstorm, Labyrinth and many others... This tribute features the best True and Power Metal players of the scene and the result is very good. It starts with Guardians from Rhapsody, simply excellent, much better than what can be found on their 3rd and last CD if you ask me, where Fabio Lione shows improvements in his vocals and also that he can sing something else that what we've heard so far, and that's good cause I really thought he could simply not (apparently I was wrong). The second song is Sonata Arctica's cover of I want Out. Like I said in the Successor review, you must have big balls to try to make a good cover after the one Kai and Hammerfall delivered. By far the most fast paced I Want Out version, this one is starting to grow in me and the more I listen to it the more I like it. Heaven's Gate covers is A Little Time and is an average one. Metalium comes next with their known powerful sound, especially the drums here that are fiercely fast. The production of this song is pretty disappointing in comparison of what Metalium usually delivers. And it goes on and on with Luca Turili (song : I'm Alive), Morifade (Judas), Vision Divine (Eagle Fly Free), Brainstorm (Savage), Labyrinth (Future World), Cydonia (Save Us), Squealer (Victim Of Fate), Dark Moor (Halloween) and Secret Sphere (How Many Tears). A special congratulations to Luca Turili since both Rhapsody and Luca Turili's cover as simply amazing and my favorites on this tribute ! Labyrinth's choice is not very smart if you ask me since I don't believe that they have what it takes to make a song like Future World, and they should have stick to something easier. The cover is not that bad, but it's million light years away from the original and since it's one of the most important Helloween song, I'm very deliberately hard for this one. Congratulations also to Dark Moor (you guys again :) ) for the very cool Halloween version, also a difficult song to cover, but in this case we can say that it's been done more than successfully. If you like Helloween and if you like True Metal in general, then there's a very good chance that this disc must fill a gap in your collection. A very nice tribute.