Artist: MICHAEL KISKE
Album: PAST IN DIFFERENT WAYS (CD)

Year: 2008
Media type: CD

Michael Kiske’s name came to prominence in the musical world when he became singer in the German Heavy Metal band Helloween. His dynamic and amazing vocals graced the two classic albums "Keeper of the Seven Keys"part 1 & 2 - released in 1987 and 1988 - with sales in excess of one million copies worldwide each, thus making him one of the most respected and loved singers of the scene. Kiske however, after the departure from Helloween following the release of the band’s fifth studio album “Chameleon”, started to work on his solo career.

He debuted in 1996 with “Instant Clarity", a record that counts former band-mate Kai Hansen and Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden) as special guests. The sound style differs from the old work with Helloween and paved the way for more records (“Readiness To Sacrifice” and the “SupaRed” project). During the winter of 2004 Michael, whose voice is still nowadays regarded as one of the most fascinating of the whole scene in rock, accepted to be part of a Melodic Rock oriented project called Place Vendome patronized by Frontiers Records’ President Serafino Perugino, together with members of Pink Cream 69 and Vandenplas. Following a great acclaim from the critics and fans alike, Michael started to gather again some material to give birth to his long awaited third solo album simply entitled “Kiske”, released in may 2006.

The new album paved the way for new musical paths for Michael, with a more stripped back sound, which highlighted both his songwriting and vocal abilities. Working in a creatively free environment helped Kiske even working again on the songs that Michael wrote for Helloween during his years with the band. The result is “Past In a Different Ways”, a record which includes brand new recordings of Kiske’s songs taken off the two “Keeper” albums, “Chameleon” and “Pink Bubbles Go Ape”, plus the brand new song “Different Ways”. "The sometimes more unconventional arrangements of some those earlier tracks I was getting a bit excited about, I must admit. I generally brought each song down to its basics, threw out useless weight and sometimes changed the key to make them sound better as acoustics; and I was surprised how well they worked like that. Songs like ‘In The Night’ or ‘When The Sinner’ which where never favourites of mine are much cooler and much more convincing now for my ears", says Michael, adding "it was not always easy for me emotionally to deal with this material. Music somehow seems to preserve emotional memories and I connect big human disappointments with the last years of that time. There's also something very unsatisfying about re-recording old songs; it's always MUCH better to write new stuff, but I wanted to make those songs mine again. And in spite of the fact that I strongly felt for the last couple of years that I rather have to build myself a new base of friends, it's always good to make peace with your past".

TRACKLIST :

01 You Always Walk Alone
02 We Got The Right
03 I Believe
04 Longing
05 Your Turn
06 Kids Of The Century
07 In The Night
08 Goin’ Home
09 A Little Time
10 When The Sinner
11 Different Ways (New Song)

LINE-UP :

Karsten Nagel - Drums
Sandro Giampietro - Guitars
Fontaine Burnett - Bass
Michael Kiske - Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards