We all agree on the fact that Michael Kiske wants, for unknown reasons to leave his past behind and move on. Of course, this is impossible since Michael has connected his name with the glory days of HELLOWEEN, with albums that gave birth to a new Heavy Metal genre and inspired a large number of bands. So, what is the point of this release? If Michael wants to leave and possible bury his past why does he release past songs under a different perspective? Well, to be honest I don't have a clue and I am sure that as soon as Past In Different Ways will hit the stores, then there will be a love or hate situation. You can add some really annoying and kind of useless arguments between the metalheads and you can have the whole picture.
To wrap this up, I think Michael chose to give a different look to some old songs and clearly state his artistic standards that are kept in a safe distance from anything that has the word "Metal on it. On the other hand, the charismatic singer keeps making guest appearances in Metal albums making this situation even more confusing. Enough said about this Kiske - Metal "conflict and it's time to speak about the music itself.
First of all, it's clear that Kiske still possesses a magnificent voice and can handle the higher pitches at easy. You can tell that he is in a top notch vocal condition from the fact that the songs are acoustically arranged, so the vocals are on the spotlight. Just listen to Longing (originally found in the album that is mistakenly found in HELLOWEEN's back catalogue) and the excellent ballad Your Turn where Micheal sings in his best! All the songs have been worked from their foundations and given a really different approach that justifies the album's title. The acoustic guitar work becomes impressive in songs like  Kids Of The Century (just listen to the solo) or A Little Time that has little to do with the original. I have to confess that I even liked the groovy and melodic When The Sinner that is also comes from the the one that should not be HELLOWEEN album. The album closes with the new recording  Different Ways that left nothing to me, apart from the interesting accordion melodies.
In order to save sometime time for you, I can state that this in not a Metal album so don't bother buying it with the hidden hope that Michael came to his senses and returned to us. This is an honest attempt to present his artistic point of view and kind of accept his past instead of denying it. If you like his voice and respect him as an artist like I do, then go ahead and give this album some spins or more because you will find things to like here. As expected the album will remain rateless...