''Rabbit Don't Come Easy'' is the tenth studio album by German

power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...

band

Helloween Helloween is a German power metal band founded in 1984 in Hamburg by members of bands Iron Fist, Gentry, Second Hell and Powerfool. Its first lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Kai Hansen, bassist Markus Grosskopf, guitarist Michael Weik ...

, released in 2003. It is the first Helloween album to feature

Sascha Gerstner Sascha Gerstner (born 2 April 1977) is a German musician who has been one of the guitarists and backing vocalists of power metal band Helloween since 2002. He is also a former member of Freedom Call. Biography Gerstner grew up in Nuremberg, ...

on guitars, who replaced

Roland Grapow Roland Grapow (born 30 August 1959 in Hamburg) is a German professional guitarist and music producer. Grapow is best known for his time in the power metal band Helloween, with which he played for 12 years after replacing founding member Kai Hans ...

. No drummer is listed in the band line-up for this album. Mark Cross was hired for the position before recording, but only managed to complete two tracks ("Don't Stop Being Crazy" and "Listen to the Flies") before being forced to leave due to illness.

Mikkey Dee Micael Kiriakos Delaoglou (born 31 October 1963), known professionally as Mikkey Dee, is a Swedish musician, best known as the last drummer for British heavy metal band Motörhead from 1992 until its dissolution in 2015. Dee also played temporari ...

Motörhead Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a precu ...

played on the rest of the songs on a session basis. The Japanese version contains a cover of

Accept Accept may refer to: * Acceptance, a person's assent to the reality of a situation etc. * Accept (band), a German heavy metal band ** ''Accept'' (Accept album), their debut album from 1979 * ''Accept'' (Chicken Shack album), 1970 * ACCEPT (or ...

's "

Fast as a Shark "Fast as a Shark" is a song by German heavy metal band Accept and a single from their 1982 album ''Restless and Wild''. Its fast double bass drumming is recognized today as reaching a new level in the development of the subgenre of speed and po ...

", with the band's new drummer,

Stefan Schwarzmann Stefan Schwarzmann (born 11 November 1965Larkin, Colin (2006). ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. Oxford University Press. p. 189. .) is a German drummer who has recorded for Accept,Montgomery, James et al (2005)"Metal File: Korn, Motorhead, ...

. Commenting on Dee's performance, bassist Markus Grosskopf said: About the album title, bassist Markus Grosskopf explained in 2003 that "It's based on that English saying, pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Pulling this rabbit

he album He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

out of this hat n reference to recent line up changeswasn't that easy this time. That gave us the idea of just calling the album ''Rabbit Don't Come Easy''. aughsIt's not to be taken too seriously. We were joking that statement around, and then I suggested we actually call the album that".Helloween interview (10/2003) - Metal Storm
/ref> About the recording of the album, singer Andi Deris said in 2003 that producer Charlie Bauerfeind "shows on this new record that he is the biggest fan of our genre of music because he knows how to separate the frequencies and knows where the power has to be. You have to imagine that this type of music is so packed with frequencies that it is nearly impossible to mix because it is so overloaded and you have to single out all of the instruments so you can hear them all".BLABBERMOUTH.NET - HELLOWEEN Singer Speaks Out On 'Rabbit Don't Come Easy'
After the controversial release of ''

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, drop-tuned guitars, and gruffer vocals. The album ...

'', according to Grosskopf, "The record company also wanted us to show that we are back. This song " Just a Little Sign" represents the more typical side of Helloween, and that's what we wanted to make clear. You can't really represent a whole album with one track, but this shows exactly where the album actually goes. It's more of that 'happy happy Helloween' direction. It shows that this album is not a sequel to 'The Dark Ride'".

Track listing

All lyrics written by

Andi Deris Andreas "Andi" Deris (born 18 August 1964) is a German singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the power metal band Helloween, and co-founder and former lead singer of the metal band Pink Cream 69. Singing style Deris has a high baritone ...

, except where noted.

Personnel

; Helloween *

- vocals *

Michael Weikath Michael Ingo Joachim "Weiki" Weikath (born 7 August 1962) is a German musician, best known as a founding member and one of the guitarists of pioneering power metal band Helloween. Biography Weikath was born in Hamburg and was musical from a ...

- guitar *

Markus Grosskopf Markus Grosskopf (born 21 September 1965) is a German musician who is the bass guitarist, backing vocalist and a founding member of the power metal band Helloween. Biography Grosskopf started playing bass at the age of 15 when he became friend ...

- bass ; Additional musicians * Mark Cross - drums on tracks 7, 11 *

- drums on tracks 1-6, 8-10, 12 *

- drums on tracks 13-15 (bonus tracks)

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2003 albums Helloween albums Nuclear Blast albums Albums produced by Charlie Bauerfeind