Metal Reviews

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Seriously? Are you that big of a fan, Chris? The samples I heard are nowhere near as good as you make them to be. Also, while I can't rate the album yet, from what I've heard, it's hardly over 60.

I'm a huge fan and if it's even close to what you say it will be a favorite of mine.

I'm totally with you on this. Album is so booorrriiinnnggg.

Yep it's a great album imho. Samples might not tell the full story, the songs are well flushed out when it comes to songwriting. To me every album since Deris came onboard has been good, this is no exception.

But as always it's also a matter of taste, some will like it others won't. 60 would be a total insult to the band as far as I'm concerned, but that's just my opinion.

I will be getting this one 100%. It's just one of those bands.
Don't have to read any articles or reviews when it comes to Helloween. I haven't even heard that single yet and don't want to judge it ( or anything else ) by samples.
So fingers crossed.

I'm sorry, but from all the youtube songs I've heard from this album, this is another generic effort. Nothing about this band is interesting. Tons of generic phrygian mode and arabic/spanish-esque riffs and leads. This sucks. Later Gamma Ray suffers from this too. How many times can you play the same riff?

I will say this, I don't hate Deris's vocals nearly as much as I did in the past. It's not all bad. But musically speaking, I have not heard anything on this album that is even remotely interesting. That may change, but honestly, it wasn't good enough to warrant another two to three listens to become familiar with it.

I like the new single - it's decent. I also think the samples of the other songs sound good. It's all relative - it's not 1988 here. This feels like it's right in line with the previous two very solid albums. I suspect I'll be able to take the best of this one, along with the top four or 5 songs from the previous two albums and end up with one very very good mini "best of".

This single is annoying. The verses are a fucking mess. No idea why it's the lead-off single, because this is a great album otherwise.

Shocking that Holy_Terror hates it.

K just got this so I gotta speak. This album is awesome regardless of the points Holy Terror makes, which are valid technically. Those facts about the scales and riffs being similar to other Helloween material are completely irrelevant cause Helloween has a sound and a wheelhouse like any legendary band. One could make the same arguments about Iron Maiden, but they would also be wrong about whether it affects the quality of the material. Either you like what Helloween has done their entire career or you don't. If you've ever liked Helloween, this album will be a jewel in your collection with some fresh sounding new material. Techniques and scales used define any bands sound. They evolve, find ways of being creative, and work beautifully within that wheelhouse and always make me feel like the new material has a fresh sound. Whoooooooooooo! New Helloween. Yeah, obviously this is not very objective.

This. This. THIS.
On top of that, now that the album is released, I think the review is pretty accurate. This album is a catchy power bomb from start to end. As a long time Helloween fan (my first metal band), this album is sure a GREAT enjoyment after the [imho] noisy 7 Sinners.

I really like it, very catchy and ears candy to me. This is what I want from Helloween. In the past 18-19 years they did not do anything bad or sucky. Very top notch band.

My point about the scales and riffs they play is that they seem to have become the default power metal riffs/scales. Everyone from Gamma Ray to Nightmare and beyond uses the hell out of them. They are bland and generic and really need to be moved on from because they make they immediately mark the songs out as boring and uninspired to me. This of course is just my take, others (who genuinely like it and don't argue just for the sake of arguing) are totally justified in loving it and with them I have no quarrel.

I understand your point and partially agree with it except the fact that what you hate is what I like and expect from Helloween.

Many bands in the past changed their formula, musical direction (Paradise Lost, Anathema or Moonspell, for instance) and people were yelling crappy things like sell out, posers, shit music etc

so, when a band stick with a genre or always stays behind what they do the best, people keep whining that it's unoriginal, generic etc.

So in the end, the band always lose. This is my point.

And I do not want to sound pretentious or anyhting like that, it's just the way I see it.

How is this relevant, though? I'm not arguing to argue, I'm genuinely baffled by this kind of reaction to music. You're taking something that is comprised of numerous elements, plucking one element out of the bunch, and then judging the entire thing (the album/song) by that one element (the riffs/scales).

These are songs, not just guitar riffs, not just drums or vocals, etc. Why can't you judge the songs for whole compositions?