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- Artist: Helloween
- Rating:
- Release Date: April 24, 1998
- Total Time: 58:12
- Type: Lyrics are included with the album
- Genre: Rock
Review
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. [Better Than Raw was reissued in 2006 in an expanded edition that included four bonus tracks.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Deliberately Limited Preliminary Prelude Period in Z | Uli Kusch | Helloween | (1:44) |
| Push (Lyrics) | Uli Kusch | Helloween | (4:44) |
| Falling Higher (Lyrics) | Michael Weikath, Andi Deris, Uli Kusch | Helloween | (4:45) |
| Hey Lord! (Lyrics) | Andi Deris | Helloween | (4:05) |
| Don't Spit on My Mind (Lyrics) | Markus Grosskopf, Andi Deris | Helloween | (4:23) |
| Revelation (Lyrics) | Andi Deris, Uli Kusch | Helloween | (8:21) |
| Time (Lyrics) | Andi Deris, Uli Kusch | Helloween | (5:41) |
| I Can (Lyrics) | Michael Weikath, Andi Deris | Helloween | (4:38) |
| A Handful of Pain | Andi Deris, Uli Kusch | Helloween | (4:48) |
| Lavdate Dominvm | Michael Weikath | Helloween | (5:09) |
| Midnight Sun (Lyrics) | Michael Weikath | Helloween | (6:18) |
| A Game We Shouldn't Play [*] | Andi Deris | Helloween | (3:36) |
