Andi Deris - Come In From the Rain

I believe I'll start off by saying that Andi Deris is an amazing man! Not only does he have a great voice (something quite a bit important to a vocalist), but he can also write all sorts of songs - heavy and intense, slow and soothing, hard rocking, and more - and he demonstrated this skill in Helloween, in spades! His very first disc with the band, especially having to fill someone like Michael Kiske's shoes, Deris stepped in, wrote/co wrote well over half the material, only to further establish the band's current sound. Simply put, he's exactly what Helloween needed, what with their Kiske/Chameleon crisis which cost them quite a bit of fans. So here we have the solo disc from the man himself, Deris! Think of this as the exquisite meat between the two fine slices of French toast (Time of the Oath and Better than Raw), the solo disc is actually quite a bit away from Deris's songwriting in Helloween, only a bit reminiscent perhaps, of his hard-rockish material in the band; save for one track, it manages to be much more relaxed and laid back, and at the same time, the most emotionally fulfilling stuff he wrote...well...ever!! If you really need a cast-in-stone musical categorization, think of it as a mix of Pink Cream '69, U2, Springsteen, and perhaps a wee bit of KISS. Sorry, but that's the best I could do... The songs on the disc vary in degree, and I can safely say that out of the 11 tracks, 10 are at least on the level of 'good', with just one nasty, little filler taking up precious space...as it is though, it's 40-some-odd minutes of great music...enjoy.

1.) House of Pleasure
A nice and solid opener with crisp guitar, and a relatively short playing time, which make it easy fare for the listener. Both musically and lyrically it acts as the encore for the album - an opening of sorts, and it lets you get a slight idea of how the rest of the album will sound (although no other song really sounds like this one). Crisp and tight throughout (quite reminiscent of Pink Cream '69), although the bass seems too down toned...

2.) Come in from the Rain
The first true highlight of the album, this is quite a lot like the hard rocking Deris tunes from the previous two Helloween discs - this could safely fall under the same category as 'In the Middle of a Heartbeat' and 'Why?', although it's not AS heavy as those two...and dare I say it, it's a bit better - some cool church organ in the beginning, and it leads to a slow moving verse, and an emotion-laden chorus. Very nice!!

3.) Think Higher
A very good, hard rocking tune that actually reminds me a bit of U2 - it has a mid-paced tempo, and one of those melancholic riff things in the background during the chorus - that and the guitar-work make me draw the similarities to some of U2's better (or perhaps the word is salvageable) stuff...

4.) Goodbye Jenny
Now if this isn't a highlight, I don't know what is!! Extremely emotional and moving song - a goodbye to what appears to be a dear old friend of Deris's (assuming by the police noise in the beginning, she might have been killed - but I don't really know...). The verse acts as something of a buildup, and the huge chorus just oozes emotion, as do the deep and thoughtful lyrics - "...she didn't wanna live forever, she didn't wanna live forever, but she didn't wanna go today...". I really respect Deris for making such a great and almost tear jerking song - it really moves me every time I listen to it.

5.) King of 7 Eyes
Appears no album with Deris is complete without a fast and 150% metal song, so here it is. Fellow Helloween team mates Roland Grapow, Michael Weikath, and Markus Grosskopf guest star here, and play the instruments they play best, so as you can imagine, the song is totally intense from start to finish; actually despite popular belief, only the solo sounds like Helloween - the rest sounds very much like mid 80's KISS, especially the riff in the chorus which is EXACTLY like a certain song from either Asylum and Hot in the Shade (although it could be a different KISS album; I'm not exactly sure). I think more people would notice this if they weren't busy bitching about KISS's 80's ventures (which at least in MY opinion were excellent). But what am I going off on KISS about?? This is an Andi Deris album after all, so here is...

6.) Foreign Rainbow
I love this one as well...quite a lot actually. Deris lets his cool German accent peer through a bit during the main verse, but the high point of the track is the incredibly cool and catchy chorus which has a hook-like thing in it - you'll see what I mean when you hear the song. Bottom line is - short and sweet...

7.) Somewhere, Someday, Someway
Good, solid track; mostly slow throughout, although it does thicken up towards the last minute or so. Good, but not great...

8.) They Wait
Sorry to badmouth Deris, but this song is absolute shit!! The weird, cult-related lyrics are bad enough, but the problem lies in the actual music, which is just...well, it's just not good! Totally unnecessary pauses appearing almost constantly during the verse, and the semi-spoken vocals just don't work...I don't mind the chorus too much, since it has a pretty cool, somewhat jazzy approach - unfortunately the rest of the song just plain sucks.

9.) Now That I Know this Ain't Love
I actually like this one quite a bit, although Deris REALLY mellows out here - the music sounds a LOT like Springsteen (his slower and...err...older moments). Mostly acoustic based, it's quite slow and methodic, but very solid nonetheless.

10.) Could I Leave Forever
The song feels a bit left out with all the other hard rockish songs, but it's quite good - exactly along the lines of what you'd expect from Deris in Helloween - songs 'Why?', 'Hey Lord!', 'In the Middle of a Heartbeat', all come to mind.

11.) 1,000 Years Away
Well, you'd never expect what was coming at you after the somewhat less than impressive last couple of tracks. I sure DID, since this is the first song I heard from the album, but someone less informed might not. This is the highlight of the album for me - not so much because of the music, which is quite standard, catchy mid-tempo; it's rather the emotion the song conveys, which is simply incredible. A heartwrenching track about child abuse, Deris sheds any extras from his voice - there are no vocal layerings, and he sounds so different during the main verse - and there's the spoken section after the second chorus, which is the closest thing in any song that came the closest to making me cry. Incredible stuff, though you're gonna have to hear it to know why...