Helloween "The Dark Ride"

The Dark Ride is the ninth studio album by German power metal band Helloween, released in 2000. The album's style was quite different from Better Than Raw as it had a much darker sound, very tuned down guitars, and gruffer vocals. The album was produced by renowned figures Roy Z and Charlie Bauerfeind. It is also the last studio album to feature guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch, both of whom were fired after completion of the supporting tour for the album. They went on to form the band Masterplan.

The album contains two singles, which are "If I Could Fly" and "Mr. Torture".

On a later interview, bassist Markus Grosskopf commented on the album, saying: "The Dark Ride was kind of constructed, all the people were telling us try this, let's do this, you know, it's a good album but it's a very difficult way to do records when there's somebody always going on your nerves all the time."

The Japanese cover art has the "Helloween" logo in the same type of "scratch writing" as the album title.

Additionally, the Japanese cover art signifies the first time ever that the band uses the proper letter "o" in the "Helloween" logo instead of a pumpkin.


"Do You Feel Good" was originally written during the sessions for The Dark Ride, but would not be recorded until the following album, Rabbit Don't Come Easy.

On some copies of "The Dark Ride" and "Rabbit Don't Come Easy" (as a special two for the price of one cd) the disc has "Mr. Torture" and "All over the Nations" in reverse order so this way "All over the Nations" is track #2. The tracks are also flipped on the Japanese version of the CD. Also on copies of the special two for one cd, there is a listing for track #13 "Far Away" on "Rabbit Don't Come Easy" which does not exist on the cd and is a mis-print on the back label.

Comes with a 16 page booklet.

Tracks 1, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11 by Deris
Tracks 2, 8 by Kusch
Tracks 4, 12 by Grapow
Tracks 3, 7 by Weikath

Recording information:

Recorded and mixed 2000 at Mi Sueño Música, Tenerife, Spain.

Mastered at Staerling Sound, New York, USA.