Helloween - Better Than Raw (1998) (Japan VICP-60235)

Date: Oct. 12, 2010

Never quite in the spotlight yet never quite forgotten, Helloween continued to record over a decade and a half after their debut album. And to some success, actually. Granted, that success was largely limited to Europe and Japan, but it was enough to sustain the group. And, weirdly enough, through sheer existence – continual touring and recording – Helloween accomplished something very rare indeed for metal bands in their second decade: they actually began to improve. They never quite managed to hit the peaks of Keeper of the Seven Keys, and the youthful energy of their first albums had long disappeared, but the band continued to refine its sound and push itself into new progressive territory. Better Than Raw is proof of that and arguably their best album of the '90s. There still are silly moments – if you're not a hardcore fan, the "metal will never die" platitudes of "Falling Higher" will rub you the wrong way – but the music is layered and unpredictable, ranging from metal anthems to metal ballads to neo-classical metal to neo-black metal. It's an ambitious set, and it's all the more impressive coming from veterans, not a bunch of newcomers

~ by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic.com

Tracklist:

1. Deliberately Limited Preliminary Prelude Period In Z - 1:45
2. Push - 4:48
3. Falling Higher - 4:48
4. Hey Lord! - 4:08
5. Don't Spit On My Mind - 4:26
6. Revelation - 8:24
7. Time - 5:45
8. I Can - 4:39
9. A Handful of Pain - 4:49
10. Lavdate Dominum - 5:12
11. Back On The Ground (Japanese Bonus Track) - 4:38
12. Midnight Sun - 6:20

EAC extraction logfile

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 4. September 2010, 12:29

Helloween / Better Than Raw (Victor, VICP-60235, Japan)

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-T40N Adapter: 3 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V %s

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.37 | 1:45.30 | 37 | 7941
2 | 1:45.67 | 4:47.42 | 7942 | 29508
3 | 6:33.34 | 4:48.35 | 29509 | 51143
4 | 11:21.69 | 4:07.58 | 51144 | 69726
5 | 15:29.52 | 4:25.57 | 69727 | 89658
6 | 19:55.34 | 8:23.58 | 89659 | 127441
7 | 28:19.17 | 5:45.02 | 127442 | 153318
8 | 34:04.19 | 4:39.25 | 153319 | 174268
9 | 38:43.44 | 4:49.28 | 174269 | 195971
10 | 43:32.72 | 5:12.22 | 195972 | 219393
11 | 48:45.19 | 4:38.18 | 219394 | 240261
12 | 53:23.37 | 6:20.07 | 240262 | 268768

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename C:\Ripped By liveevil\Helloween - Better Than Raw (Victor, VICP-60235, Japan).wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 32CA1C89
Copy CRC 32CA1C89
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 7) [F535CDF3]
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 7) [A92023E5]
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 7) [3BFCEFA9]
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 7) [440E5AF9]
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [4128624E]
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [47B1D69F]
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [98DD8737]
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [14FA622D]
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 7) [EA72AAD1]
Track 10 accurately ripped (confidence 7) [5B006046]
Track 11 accurately ripped (confidence 7) [4C562BC7]
Track 12 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [76F7A7F7]

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

• Andi Deris - vocals
• Michael Weikath - guitar
• Roland Grapow - guitar
• Markus Grosskopf - bass
• Uli Kusch - drums

Keyboards by Joern Ellebrock and Tommy Hansen.
Recorded at Chateau du Pare, Hamburg and Mi Sueno, Tenerife.
Mixed at Chateau du Pare, Hamburg.
Masteres by Ian Cooper at Metropolis, London, England.
Produced by Tommy Hansen and Helloween.

See others Helloween albums and CDS

Lossless (FLAC)*
http://uploaded.net/file/6hshl8pn/1998BTRW-VICP60235LOS.rar

All Covers (PNG)
http://uploaded.net/file/sfi461t9/1998BTRW-VICP60235COV.rar

Lossy HQ (320 Kbps CBR)
http://uploaded.net/file/4kofnjug/1998BTRW-VICP60235MP3.rar

* Original CD -> EAC image, embedded cuesheet & more, foobar2000 ready, etc.
Huge thanks to my friend liveevil for original CD!
Please, do not write these links at any web pages. Enjoy & keep the files alive!