Magali Luyten of A Beautiful Sin.
I picked it up about a year ago, and I remember what I thought from the first spin … “Hey, this sounds cool. And more than just a little familiar!” The riffs and melody from “Lost,” the first track from A Beautiful Sin’s album The Unexpected, sent me scuttling to my stack of Helloween albums. Sure enough, I found exactly what I was looking for on the German speed metal band’s The Dark Ride album – a track called The Departed.
Same riffs. Same vocal melody. Same just about everything. And guess who wrote the tune for Helloween? If you guessed Uli, you are correct. He ripped himself off for the title track. I wonder how much this pisses Helloween off. Think I’m exaggerating? Take a listen and see for yourself:
The bottom line is this – Uli is not much of a composer. The keyboards sound flat-out goofy, and he could’ve taken them a better direction as the unquestioned band leader. I also have to blame him for overproducing the hell out of the vocals. The singer for A Beautiful Sin, Magali Luyten, is excellent. More Doro Pesch than Tarja Turunen, and I like it. In fact, if Andi Deris ever gets tired of being in Helloween, I’d vote her in as his replacement in a second. I’d love to hear her rock “Eagle Fly Free!”
I’m not actually sure A Beautiful Sin still exists. I can find more evidence of Magali working with a band called Virus IV.
