Gambling with the Devil

Gambling with the Devil is the twelfth studio album by German power metal band Helloween, released in Japan on 24 October 2007, and in Europe on 29 October. The single "As Long as I Fall" is download-only and was released in late September. When asked about the album, bassist Markus Grosskopf commented:[1]

It was an album without any concept, but still we had that concept with that little game on it, that little "Crack the Riddle". [...] And then, that was nice, it was a great piece of work and when you do such an output like Keeper III it's like you've got to open your head and empty it at first, close it and then start thinking new for Keeper thing you know, but then it's very, very hard work. You've got to think very different from what you do when you just write the songs so to say, just like writing a normal metal song or rock song, it's very different. But that's what we did with the Gambling with the Devil and I feel very good just doing proper decent songs. You cannot do always like this concept thing. [...] It's never easy, but once you got an idea you don't have to think about "Oh, that's five minutes missing" you know. What do I put in to make it fit for the concept? Fit it to make it fit in the concept of something, it's just like if there's a song of five minutes or four minutes and it's cool, you don't have to think about how is it fitting in the concept, if the song's good the song's good, it goes on the record.

Gambling with the Devil
Studio album by Helloween
Released	24 October 2007
Recorded	2007 at Mi Sueño Studio, Tenerife, Spain
Genre	Power metal
Length	57:32
Label	SPV/Steamhammer
Producer	Charlie Bauerfeind
Helloween chronology
Keeper of the Seven Keys - The Legacy World Tour 2005/2006 (2007) Gambling with the Devil (2007) Unarmed – Best of 25th Anniversary (2009)
Singles from Gambling with the Devil
"As Long as I Fall" Released: 28 September 2007

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Crack the Riddle (intro)"	Andi Deris, Michael Weikath, Sascha Gerstner, Dani Löble, Markus Grosskopf	0:56
2.	"Kill It"	Deris	4:13
3.	"The Saints"	Weikath	7:06
4.	"As Long as I Fall"	Deris	3:41
5.	"Paint a New World"	Lyrics: Gerstner, Weikath / Music: Gerstner	4:27
6.	"Final Fortune"	Grosskopf	4:46
7.	"The Bells of the 7 Hells"	Deris	5:22
8.	"Fallen to Pieces"	Deris	5:52
9.	"I.M.E."	Deris	3:46
10.	"Can Do It"	Weikath	4:30
11.	"Dreambound"	Lyrics: Gerstner, Weikath / Music: Gerstner	5:57
12.	"Heaven Tells No Lies"	Grosskopf	6:56
Total length:			57:32

Bonus track

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"We Unite" (Japanese bonus track)	Grosskopf	4:34

Disc 2 (special edition only)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Find My Freedom" (European version)	Grosskopf	6:30
2.	"See the Night"	Grosskopf	6:04
3.	"Never Surrender'" (USA Tour special edition)	Gerstner	4:50
4.	"As Long As I Fall (Radio Edit)" (Japanese version)	Deris	3:45
5.	"As Long as I Fall (Enhanced Video)"
6.	"Trailer" (Enhanced)"

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Sputnikmusic	[3]
About.com	[4]

The album has received mostly positive reviews, with critics hailing it as one of the band's strongest efforts in quite a while.[5] Andi Deris' vocals on the album also got praise for their power, range and emotion.[6]

Charts

Chart (2010)	Peak position
Czech Republic Albums Chart [7]	10
Greek Albums Chart	16
Japanese Albums Chart [8]	17
Hungarian Albums Chart [9]	18
Finnish Albums Chart [10]	34
Swedish Albums Chart [11]	34
German Albums Chart [12][13]	38
Norwegian Albums Chart [14]	44
Italian Albums Chart [15][16]	49
Swiss Albums Chart [17]	88
French Albums Chart [18]	103

Personnel

Band members

• Andi Deris – lead vocals
• Michael Weikath – guitar
• Sascha Gerstner – guitar, backing vocals
• Markus Grosskopf – bass
• Dani Löble – drums

Guests

• Biff Byford - spoken vocals on "Crack the Riddle"
• Matthias Ulmer - keyboards

References

1. Syrjala, Marko (11 January 2011). "Helloween – bassist Markus Grosskopf". Metal Rules. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
2. Gambling with the Devil at AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-06-22.
3. "Helloween - Gambling with the Devil". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 2011-06-22.
4. "Helloween - Gambling with the Devil". About.com. Retrieved 2011-06-22.
5. "Helloween - Gambling with the Devil Review - Thrashpit.com". Rocknworld.com. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
6. "Helloween - Gambling With The Devil Review". Heavymetal.about.com. 2007-11-08. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
7. ds. "Čns Ifpi". Ifpicr.cz. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
8. "ギャンブリング・ウィズ・ザ・デヴィル ハロウィンのプロフィールならオリコン芸能人事典-ORICON STYLE". Oricon.co.jp. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
9. "Archívum - Slágerlisták - MAHASZ - Magyar Hangfelvétel-kiadók Szövetsége". Mahasz.hu. Retrieved 2015-05-17.
10. Steffen Hung (2007-10-26). "Helloween - Gambling With The Devil". finnishcharts.com. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
11. Steffen Hung. "Helloween - Gambling With The Devil". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
12. "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts, News, Neuerscheinungen, Tickets, Genres, Genresuche, Genrelexikon, Künstler-Suche, Musik-Suche, Track-Suche, Ticket-Suche". musicline.de. Archived from the original on 2012-10-10. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
13. "germancharts.de - Helloween - Gambling With The Devil" (in German). germancharts.com. Retrieved 2015-05-17.
14. "Charts - Official Helloween Messageboard". Helloweenboard.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
15. "FIMI - Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana - Classifiche". Fimi.it. Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
16. "italiancharts.com - Helloween - Gambling With The Devil" (in Italian). italiancharts.com. Retrieved 2015-05-17.
17. Steffen Hung. "Helloween - Gambling With The Devil". hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
18. Steffen Hung. "Helloween - Gambling With The Devil". lescharts.com. Retrieved 2012-02-17.