The reunited Pumpkins first studio album since the return of Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske is a self-titled album full of the swagger and bombast which Helloween were so good at back in the Keeper days.
Just over an hour of glorious heavy/power/prog/melodic metal with everything turned up to eleven and beyond.
Making up with Kiske and Hansen on the evidence we have here has breathed some new fire in to the band and the scope of the overall offering is breath-taking.
The vocal trade-offs between Andi Deris and Kiske are remarkable. Each right at the top of their game.
With three guitarists of the calibre of the returning Hansen together with Sasha Gerstner and Michael Weikath the riffs, powerchords and superb soloing fly in from all angles.
Add in the thundering bass of Markus Grosskopf (I’ve always though he doesn’t get the credit he deserves) and a powerhouse drumming performance from Dani Löble – what a beast he is behind the kit – and the recipe is complete.
From first note to last this is a superb album. Proper classic Helloween showing how things should be done. And the scale of what they’ve put together on this album is remarkable in scope.
Out for Glory starts it off with a seven minute salvo of hard-hitting power, soaring solos, monster vocals driven along by powerhouse drumming.
The pace doesn’t let up and amongst the bombast throughout the album there are plenty of the deft touches and melody within the power which Helloween are known for particularly since Deris joined all those years ago.
Take Mass Pollution as an example of that. A thundering song with a snarling chorus. Indestructible sums it up nicely too being in a similar style. Power and melody. Have a listen:
Robot King blazes along for seven minutes bringing in the proggy edge the band has always had. More glorious riffs, big chords, solos galore – the whole nine yards.
Cyanide hits squarely between the eyes for a short sharp shock and it all leads up to the stupendous dozen minute closer of Skyfall. A song which is right there with anything Helloween have ever written. A Keeper of the Seven Keys for the twenty-first century.
Skyfall has it all and then some. Remarkable in scope and how it encompasses everything. The time and pace changes, the vocal trade-offs, outrageous guitar work underpinned by that thunderous rhythm section of Grosskopf and Loble.
It’s clear at least to my ears that with this album the Pumpkins have pulled out all the usual stops and found some new ones. Whether it is the return of Kiske and Hansen which given them an extra dimension – who knows, however please make no mistake that this self-titled album is a monster of epic proportions and puts Helloween at the pinnacle of heavy/power/melodic metal.
Nobody does it better…..