1996 would see Helloween release their 7th album The Time Of The Oath and dedicated to the memory of former drummer Ingo who commited suicide the previous year. Many considered this to be the best album since the Keeper era. The Time Of The Oath had songs that were loosley based on the writings of Nostradamus. The album is meant to reflect the choices of humanity. The Keeper that appears on the album cover, having returned from the first two Keeper of the Seven Keys albums could represent God, or the stupidity of humanity in the form of the seventh trooper in the song "Before the War." Instead of a space scene as on the cover of Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1, the area under the Keeper's hood is filled with stars and a line of golden rings, in the fashion of Master of the Rings. The track "The Time of the Oath" reflects on Act V of Faust Part Two, written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Andi Deris plays the part of Mephistopheles, reclaiming the soul of doctor Faust, whereas the "Johann Sebastian Bach" children's chorus sings the Dies irae from the traditional requiem, representing the angels rescuing Faust's lost soul.

Three singles were released for this album. Power, The Time Of The Oath and Forever and One. There was also a video for the song Power.

The Time Of The Oath saw Helloween earn many gold and platinum albums throughout the world.

This album is great all the way through with not one single filler song to be heard what so ever. If you never heard Helloween and are looking for a starting point I would always suggest to get a best of but if you dont like best of's this is definetly the album I would suggest you to start with. You might as well get the expanded edition while your at it because it contains all the B Sides.

Favorites off this would be Steel Tormentor, Power, Before The War, and Mission Motherland which is a wierd aliens from outter space song. If you can get past the odd lyrics the music itself is awesome. Uli's use of the double bass on this song blew me away.

I got nothing else to say really... Just go get it!

This was the first album that I got with Andi Deris on vocals and it brought me back to Helloween. It is still my favorite album of the Deris aera.

The Time of the Oath was a very dark album from Helloween at the time. But I loved the epicness of it, and it is a fresh breath in their catalogue. They dared to be different again, yet without loosing their trademark melodic speed metal sound. "We Burn" and "Steel Tormentor" are just classic Helloween.

Time of the Oath is real awesome. I don't understand how come I don't have this on CD. I have all the other Deris-era albums.

Oath is an improvement over Master of the Rings, and it just sounds heavier and faster all around. Still melodic though - I think 'Power' was the first Helloween video I saw on telly. It's a harder approach to Helloween-style power metal, but it works real well. I don't have too much to say because I haven't heard the album in a long time.

Favourite tracks: We Burn, Steel Tormentor, Anything My Mama Don't Like, Mission Motherland

THE TIME OF THE OATH was another strong album. After PINK BUBBLES and CHAMELEON I had pretty much written them off, but the combination of this album and the previous MASTER OF THE RINGS brought them back into my good graces again. By this point I didn't miss Kiske one bit.

This was also the first Helloween album in quite some time that got an official U.S. release so I didn't have to pay import prices for it. That was a pleasant surprise.

An album that seemed to be recognized by fans everywhere, except the states, as being great. This style of metal was not accepted much here which is too bad as this is a stellar album.

This album is tied with the next one as my 2nd favorite Helloween albums (Keepers II being #1). I picked this up at a mall in San Diego along with Dream Theater-Metropolis II (it was quite an awesome day in music purchases). This album is just fantastic and I love every single song. While almost impossible to pick a favorite, it would be either Power, Mission Motherland, Steel Tormentor, Wake Up The Mountain, A Million To One, or Kings Will Be Kings. I would later find a t-shirt of this album while in Greece (unlike all the other European t-shirts I've gotten it never shrunk), however the image on the front is almost completly faded (you can still make it out if you look closely).

I am missing a couple cds I recently got their singles on cds, finally got to see them live last year it was awesome!

Wargod50

The Time Of The Oath is a phenomemal release. The title track is an awesome tune. About the only song I don't really like is Anything My Mama Don't Like (it's okay but compared to the rest of the album,it sticks out like a sore thumb). I have the Japanese import with the 2 bonus tracks Still I Don't Know and Take It To The Limit.Both are pretty good.

Interesting fact, you can get two Karaoke CDs containing Hellowen songs up to this point. Vol. 1 is only $200 and Vol. 2 is only $210 on Amazon.

I would love to have those but unless I win the lotto there is no way I'd pay that much (damn those Japan only releases).

I found the one on ebay for $25, but they arent really must haves.

From the end of 1996 through 1997 saw the band take somewhat of a break. During the break they release a double live album and DVD called High Live. High Live would feature songs from various albums but mostly songs from Time Of The Oath. It was also a first chance to hear how Andi sang the Kiske era songs and he pulled them off quit well considering the different vocal ranges. Unfortunetly there were not any songs from Walls Of Jericho.

This is a pretty good live album. I dont really listen to it much, but from time to time It pops up while im shuffling through my ipod. One thing that was pretty cool is on the song Steel Tormentor Roland Grapow traded off vocals with Deris.

During the break Andi Deris releases his first solo album entitled Come In From The Rain. Its basically nothing like helloween. Its more of a hard rock sort of album in the vein of how Pink Cream 69 was before he left the band. There is one faster song called King Of The Seven Eyes which was suppose to be a Helloween song but never made it on an album. All the members of Helloween would play on this song but not the whole album.
I think the album is great from start to finish. Think Higher is one of my favorite songs.

Roland Grapow would also do the same and release his first solo album, along with Uli Kusch on drums, entitled The Four Seasons Of Life which he sang on the whole album and collaberated on one song with Ralf Sheepers who had left Gamma Ray and was forming a new band called Primal Fear by this time.

Again this is a pretty good album. Only thing I dont care for it the real crappy production. It sounds like it could have just been recorded live but im not too sure about that. Rolands vocals are actually decent. hes not the greatest singer but he did impress me that he could sing and he is a fine guitarist similar to Yngwie Malmsteen.

I listen to both of these solo releases from time to time. Great stuff!

I used to have High Live on CD (not sure what happened to it) and I have it on DVD. Unfortunatly the DVD won't play on some American players due to it being a European DVD. However, I can still watch it on my computer and portable DVD player (not sure how it'd work on my new DVD player).

High Live isn't among my favourite live albums, but I guess it does show how good Roland Grapow really is.

I have the CD version, but I've seen the video, too. The CD sleeve liner notes annoy me because, while clearly they wanted to do a favour to the listener and print the lyrics of all the songs, the person who did it only copied and pasted all the information from other Helloween album sleeves. So you get all those "solo Kai" bits in there, too. Could have paid a little attention!

Favourite tracks: Before the War, the Time of the Oath

1998 saw the release of Helloweens 8th studio album Better Than Raw. Once again the album was received with rave reviews from all around the world. During the recording of this album the band used most of the same equipment that was used on Walls Of Jericho which I think gave them a really heavy sound that was kind of missing up until this time. Better Than Raw also featured for the first time a song written in Latin called Lavdate Dominvm.

Two singles were released for the songs I Can and Hey Lord! Also a video for the song I Can was released.

Better Than Raw is another really great album with no filler songs and something you can listen to all the way through without getting bored. A very solid release and possibly even better than The Time Of The Oath in my opinion. They really went all out on this album. My favorite tracks are Falling Higher, Hey Lord!, I Can, Time and A Handful Of Pain.

This was a very high point for Helloween but like once before tension was starting to rise within the band, but that will be for the next album.

During this time Marcus Grosskopf got a band together called Shockmachine which featured Uli Kusch on drums. The release was actually decent. The vocalist had a very gritty voice which in a way ruins the music but If you can get past that its not a bad album. They weren't a Helloween clone at all and this would only last for one album.

Magnificent album and you're right, you can listen all the way through. Who knew they had this in them after all the changes and years? Hey Lord is classic but Handful Of Pain is Helloween at their best.

BETTER THAN RAW smokes! I got lucky when this came out, I found a used copy of an import version (it came out in Europe a month or two before the US if memory serves) so I was the first kid on my block to have it, so to speak. Of course, when it did get a U.S. release, it had an extra track on it ("A Game We Shouldn't Play") so I traded in the copy I had and used the store credit towards buying the U.S. version (haha).
Anyway, this was definitely the strongest release thus far from the Deris lineup, and arguably one of the strongest albums in Helloween's catalog, period. Other than the rather silly "Laudate Dominum," which I never cared for (maybe because I don't speak Latin), this one simply smokes all the way through. It still gets regular spins around my house to this very day and depending on what day you ask me, it might be my favorite Helloween album of all.

In 1998 I found a Helloween album I didn't have (besieds Jericho, Keepers I, and Keepers II) and it was this one and apart from an awesome album cover and a vocalist I had yet to hear was some awesome music. I love this album and it is tied with Time Of The Oath with my 2nd favorite Helloween album (Keepers II being #1). Favoirtes are Falling Higher, Hey Lord!, Don't Spit On My Mind, Revelations, Time, I Can, A Handful Of Pain, Lavdate Dominvm, and the bonus track A Game We Shouldn't Play. The pumkins on the inside sleeve were as hilarious as the ones on Oath. I also have a t-shirt of this album cover (not being a European t-shirt it still fits and the image is not faded in the least).

I had a bunch of t shirts from this album. I had the album cover one (which I cannot seem to find anywhere). Also have one for Hey Lord and I Can. I over wore the shirts so much they didnt fade so much as the design was sort of cracking. I was also bigger at the time so now I cant even wear them because they are too large.

I love the vocals on Don't Spit. He kind of, well, spits them out.