Helloween
Helloween – Nuclear Blast Records
The Keeper of the Seven Keys returns with Helloween’s eponymous album. It’s a return to the glory days of the 1980s, when Helloween became one of the biggest power metal bands on the planet with their shift away from the thrash metal of their first EPs. Out for the Glory opens the album with all the pomp and theatricality that was their trademark sound before they lost their way on Chameleon. This album feels 30 years old, but that’s not to say it sounds dated, rather it feels like Helloween at their best again. Best Time is arguably the weakest track, but rather than feeling like a filler track it’s just a change of pace that prevents the album from feeling like an aural onslaught. Despite running at over an hour and 14 tracks it doesn’t quite hit the lofty highs of Future World, and the tongue in cheek Robot King is certainly no Dr Stein, but it still sits up there with Keepers parts 1 & 2 as one of their best albums to date. No Helloween album ever feels complete without an epic and the science fiction inspired Skyfall is the epic on the album, turning in at over 11 minutes (12 minutes if you include the introduction, Orbit). All in all this is for the Helloween fans that lost their way in the 1990s. It’s a lot more serious than some of their later works, and there’s none of the outright ridiculousness that crept in later. Don’t expect Pink Bubbles Go Ape or Rise and Fall, but do expect Helloween at their best.
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Review by Mark Bestford