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 was produced by Roy Z and Charlie Bauerfeind. It is the last studio album to feature Master of the Rings-era lineup with the dismissal of guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch after completion of the supporting tour for the album. They went on to form the band Masterplan.

The album contains two singles, which are "If I Could Fly" and "Mr. Torture".

In later interviews, bassist Markus Grosskopf commented on the album, saying: "The Dark Ride was kind of constructed, all the people were telling us try this, let's do this, you know, it's a good album but it's a very difficult way to do records when there's somebody always going on your nerves all the time", and that the album "sounded like it did because certain people wanted us to work with other certain people. We let people come in and mess with the arrangements, and re-work the lyrics, and generally do just what they wanted. They wanted us to work like that, and we agreed. If they wanted us to do it that way, then we were willing to give it a try and see what happened with it."