Metal Jukebox is a cover album by Helloween Released: 9 November 1999
Once towering titans of the German metal scene, Helloween found themselves by the late 1990s scrambling for relevance in a world increasingly enchanted by younger, fresher, more fashionable noise-makers. The lineup shuffles certainly didn’t help.
The departure of Michael Kiske — whose voice once soared with almost operatic purity — left fans feeling like they’d just been served cold schnitzel on a porcelain platter. Enter Andi Deris, a perfectly competent vocalist by most standards, but let’s be honest: when compared to Kiske, Deris is like replacing Dracula with a tax accountant.
Metal Jukebox is a curious little tribute album — not quite a reinvention, not exactly a resurrection. It’s a love letter to the bands that helped shape Helloween’s sound
Though one can’t help but raise an eyebrow at the absence of tracks by Judas Priest or Iron Maiden, despite the fact that Helloween had previously paid homage to Priest in other collaborative projects. Perhaps they didn’t want to walk into that cathedral of metal and light a candle next to giants who cast too long a shadow.
What we do get, however, is a mixed bag of genre-spanning covers that Helloween infuse with their unmistakable brand of melodic power metal.
Metal Jukebox
The opener,” He’s a Woman – She’s a Man” (originally by fellow German pioneers Scorpions), is given a speed-metal adrenaline shot that turns it into a joyous riot. It’s faster, heavier, and arguably more fun than the original — as if the track had been exhumed from its 1970s grave, slapped with war paint, and sent screaming into battle.
Then there’s the audacious, glitter-stained choice: “Lay All Your Love on Me” by ABBA. Yes, you read that correctly. The synth-laced disco-pop anthem is recast as a thundering metal tune without entirely shedding its pop skeleton.
It works disturbingly well — a reminder that good songwriting survives genre exorcisms. It’s still ABBA underneath, but now dressed in leather and wielding a flaming sword.
Their take on “All My Loving” by The Beatles is one of the album’s more thought-provoking experiments. They preserve the original’s nostalgic charm while injecting a healthy dose of Helloween’s signature energy. It’s not sacrilege, but a gothic reimagining — picture Lennon and McCartney dining with Nosferatu.
Meanwhile, Hocus Pocus (by Dutch prog legends Focus) is a gleeful frenzy of riffs and yodels that feels like a carnival run by demons — gloriously unhinged, and possibly played by men who had too much schnapps and too little supervision.
Space Oddity
And then comes “Space Oddity,” a track so drenched in Bowie’s interstellar melancholy that attempting to reinterpret it is akin to repainting the Sistine Chapel with finger paint. Helloween’s version is faithful in atmosphere, and for listeners unfamiliar with the original, it might even work.
But for those who’ve lived in the shadow of Bowie’s haunted astronaut, Helloween’s rendition feels like an admirable séance — lacking the ghost, but full of good intentions. That said, Markus Grosskopf’s bass performance here deserves a sinister little nod; it’s a rare moment when his instrument takes the lead with gothic gravitas.
One truly unexpected gem — or at least a baffling oddity — is Faith Healer by Alex Harvey. Frankly, this reviewer hadn’t encountered Mr Harvey before this album, and so it arrives as a fog-shrouded mystery from the depths of rock’s cult corners. What matters is that Helloween took the risk.
In hindsight, Helloween’s classic line-up did for melodic power metal what Mary Shelley did for Gothic literature — they gave it form, emotion, and theatrical thunder. But post-Kiske, the band’s direction wavered like a ghost searching for its tomb. With Metal Jukebox, they begin to find footing again — not through innovation, but by paying homage to the monsters under their musical bed.
Final Thoughts
Despite my eternal grumbling about Deris’ vocals (which I’ll stand by till the apocalypse), this album succeeds in showing the breadth of Helloween’s influences and the peculiar joy of hearing well-worn tracks twisted into pumpkin-shaped metal spells. It’s a jukebox from a haunted fairground — spinning songs you thought you knew, only now they bite back.
Artist: Helloween
Title: Metal Jukebox
Released 9 November 1999
Recorded 1999 at Fixitinthemix and Crazy Cat Studio, Hamburg, Germany and Mi Sueno Studio, Tenerife
Genre: Power metal, Pop Metal
Length: 57:24
Label: Castle Communications
Producer: Helloween
Line Up:-
- Andi Deris – vocals
- Michael Weikath – guitar
- Roland Grapow – guitar
- Markus Grosskopf – bass
- Uli Kusch – drums
Track listing
- “He’s a Woman – She’s a Man” – Scorpions (Schenker/Meine/Rarebell) – 3:13
- “Locomotive Breath” – Jethro Tull (Anderson) – 3:56
- “Lay All Your Love on Me” – ABBA (Andersson/Ulvaeus) – 4:36
- “Space Oddity” – David Bowie (Bowie) – 4:51
- “From Out of Nowhere” – Faith No More (Bordin/Bottum/Gould/Martin/Patton) – 3:19
- “All My Loving” – The Beatles (Lennon/McCartney) – 1:44
- “Hocus Pocus” – Focus (van Leer/Akkerman) – 6:43
- “Faith Healer” – Alex Harvey (Harvey/McKenna) – 7:08
- “Juggernaut” – Frank Marino (Marino) – 4:50
- “White Room” – Cream (Bruce/Brown) – 5:46
- “Mexican” – Babe Ruth (Shacklock) – 5:48
- “Rat Bat Blue” – Deep Purple (Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice) – 5:30 (Japanese release only)