HELLOWEEN Helloween | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Nuclear Blast on June 18th, 2021

Quick Background

Helloween is a German power metal institution founded in 1984 in Hamburg. Its first lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Kai Hansen, bassist Markus Grosskopf, guitarist Michael Weikath, and drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg. With the addition of singer Michael Kiske and the released of the Keeper of the Seven Keys albums (1987 and 1988), Helloween led the creation of the power metal subgenre. Despite several line-up changes, Andi Deris established himself as the lead singer since the release of the powerful albums Master of the Rings (1994) and The Time of the Oath (1996). In 2002 Sascha Gerstner  became the second guitarist and in 2005 Daniel Löble the drummer. The line-up has been stable since then and has released 5 studio albums. The last one being My God-Given Right back in 2015. In November 2016, it was announced that former members Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske were re-joining the band for a world tour titled the Pumpkins United. After several successful shows and tours and a live album, In March 2021, it was announced that the band's first album with the Pumpkins United line-up would be simply titled Helloween.

Helloween

Consequently, Helloween is their first self-titled and sixteenth full length studio album. Following the longest gap between two albums from the band, the S/T album is the first to feature more than one singer, as Hansen, Kiske and Andi Deris, all of whom had performed as sole lead vocalist on previous albums, share lead vocal duties. The three of them have very different voices and marked different moments of the band's history. So now to enjoy them now together on one record, is the ultimate Helloween experience.

The standard version of the album features 12 tracks and runs for 65 minutes. This is a band that tends go long on their albums. On one hand, the collaboration of different songwriters created a unique mix which draws from all chapters of the band's history. On the other hand, the new line-up didn't change the writing credits that much. The returning members, Kiske has no song with writing credits and Hansen is credited with 2. The short instrumental "Orbit" which serves as an intro to the epic 12-min and album closer "Skyfall". The song was also released as edit 7-min single back in April. Weikath wrote 3 songs, Deris 4, Grosskopf  and Gerstner one each and "Best Time" is the only co-written song and it is pinned to Deris and Gerstner. This is actually a very fun track that reminds us of the mockery phase of the Keepers, it's on the same veins of "I Want Out" for example. 

Charlie Bauerfeind who has worked with the band on all studio albums since The Dark Ride in 2000 and Dennis Ward who has worked with Hansen and Kiske (Unisonic) and Deris (Pink Cream 69) produced the album and apparently were in charge of keeping all the egos in balance. They made the decisions of which songs to include. The album sounds good and quite organic, but given the long time producer and the strong contribution from Deris, it doesn't deviate too much from the last albums and it doesn't call back to the first albums as much as one might have expected. 

Now, we must talk about "Skyfall", an amazing song capturing the best of early and modern Helloween with a flavor of early Gamma Ray. It's a mix of the Keeper song and Gamma Ray's "Heal Me". It's epic, it's catchy and fantastic. The three vocalists work in perfect balance sharing the lead vocals but also adding some powerful backing vocals to each other. And the vocal melodies are beautiful and constantly changing. A very dynamic song and yet the chorus is so catchy and powerful. The ending feels inspired by Stargazer, even singing coming home. It's of course no Rainbow, but still great. Anyways, I can't praise this song enough. 

Another great one: "Out For The Glory". Is it this just me or the intro sounds a lot like "South of Heaven"? But overall this song is a merger of Walls of Jericho with Pink Bubbles Go Ape. It's really cool to hear Kiske singing again a tune from Weikath. It's a trademark Weikath song but with Hansen vocals we get this early Helloween vibe. Great opener and one of the stronger songs of the album. 

"Down in the Dumps" is another great contribution from Weikath. A darker and heavier song reminds me of The Dark Ride or 7 Sinners albums. I think the highest notes are sang on this song, I would not expect to see this one on the live set-list. A pity if I am right, because it's a very good song.

"Fear of the Fallen" the single by Deris and two of his songs "Mass Pollution" and "Rise Without Chains" are all typical Deris era Helloween but with the added value of the shared vocal duties with Kiske.

Guitar solos are not overdone, but they are all over the album and always come to add value to the songs and not just a check in the box. Despite 3 guitars, there is still room for some very cool bass lines taking the spotlight. Grosskopf is one of the best and underrated bass player in power metal. Additionally his song is also good, "Indestructible"

The Picky Guy

Helloween tends to go for loaded albums and inevitably some fillers. I am happy they didn't go for a double CD and left some songs out and others as bonus tracks. But even then some songs are less interesting than others. "Robot King", "Cyanide" and "Angels" did not work for me. Given that "Skyfall" is the best song on the album, I'd have liked to see more contribution from Hansen and maybe more co-written tracks to fully leverage the powerhouse of song writers they have. The good thing is that we don't a mellow ballad or a pop oriented song.  

Wrap Up Opinion 

Despite the return of Hansen and Kiske, the album doesn't sound much different than previous records from the Deris era. It is not a bad thing but a missed opportunity. With that said the album is very good and shines at most moments. "Skyfall" is an instant classic and many songs call back subtly to other phases of the band. All and all, the self titled 2021 album has a little something for any Helloween fan, old or new, and the execution is outstanding. At the end of the day, I am giving it 85/100 a very good album, and highly recommended for any power metal enthusiast. 

SCORE: 85/100

Genre: Power Metal

Released by Nuclear Blast on June 18th, 2021

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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