UMUR "Helloween" is an eponymously titled EP release by German speed/power metal act Helloween. The EP was released through Noise Records in March 1985. Helloween formed in 1978 under the Gentry monicker and went through a couple of band name changes (Second Hell and Iron Fist) before settling on Helloween in 1984. They released the "Death Metal Demo" that same year and in late 1984 the two tracks from the demo appeared on the "Death Metal" split release along with material from Running Wild, Hellhammer, and Dark Avenger.

The EP features 5 tracks and a total playing time of 26:28 minutes, so there is arguably enough quantity for the money, and there´s certainly nothing wrong with the quality either. Stylistically Helloween play a fast-paced, raw yet still melodic and occasionally neo-classical influenced speed metal style. Lead vocalist/guitarist Kai Hansen has a rather distinct sounding voice and delivery. He can sing both mid-range and extremely high pitched screaming vocals. He´s an interesting singer, because as a starting point his voice isn´t that powerful or pleasant sounding (he often sounds a little strained when singing), but somehow he still manages to produce sounds which suit the material well.

The instrumental work is relatively impressive considering the young age of the band and the fact that this EP is their first label release. Fast-paced tight drumming, a sharp sounding bass, and two guitarists churning out both ultra fast-paced speed/thrashy riffing, but also loads of melodic lead guitar lines and harmonies. There´s no arguing that Helloween were already a very well playing unit even this early on.

The first four tracks on the EP are all energetic, powerful, and fast-paced speed metal songs with an epic atmosphere, although the 6:38 minutes long "Victim of Fate" is slightly more complex featuring more dynamics and variation then the other three tracks. The EP concludes with the power ballad turns speed metal track "Cry for Freedom", which does come off slightly awkward, but not in an uncharming fashion. The whole thing reeks old school credibility and an adventurous touch, and those are great qualities.

The sound production is relatively well sounding for the time and genre, but it does sound a little dated today. Of course the unpolished and pretty raw sound production only adds to the authentic atmosphere of the release. In retrospect this became a groundbreaking speed metal release but the strained vocals and sometimes clumsy songwriting do drag my rating down a bit. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

Warthur Helloween's debut EP is perhaps the strongest release of their speed metal years, enjoying a brash, rough about the edges style which gives it a touch more energy than the enjoyable but not exceptional Walls of Jericho, which was the only full-length studio album of their speed metal era before they undertook their career-defining shift into power metal.

There's few harbingers of their later style here, bar for a certain flair for the dramatic and borderline theatrical, such as in the whispered narration on Victim of Fate. Kai Hansen was still handling the vocals at this point in time - him passing the duties on to Michael Kiske would be a key aspect of the group's shift to power metal - and I think he acquits himself well here, establishing himself as a compelling and characterful vocalist. Mind you, if you don't get on with his vocals this will come across significantly worse to you - but for my money, I think this was his greatest moment as a lead singer.

UMUR "Death Metal" is a 4way-split release featuring German artists Running Wild, Helloween, Dark Avenger, and Swiss group Hellhammer. The split was released in October 1984 through Noise Records. None of the band´s have had their breakthrough at this point, and all material on the split are demo recordings. Each artist are featured with two tracks.

"Death Metal" opens with the two tracks by Running Wild, which are culled from their 1984 "Demo 4". They are fairly well played but not particularly interesting heavy metal/speed metal tracks. Hellhammer is up next, and their two tracks are culled from the March 1984 recording sessions which ended up becoming the "Apocalyptic Raids" EP. The two tracks featured on this split, are however leftover tracks from the recording sessions, which originally didn´t make it unto "Apocalyptic Raids". Stylistically Hellhammer played a primitive and raw blackened speed metal style, which subsequently influenced a lot of extreme metal artists. They are arguably the most raw and extreme band on the split.

The Dark Avenger tracks are epic heavy/speed metal tracks, which are well performed, well written, and relatively well produced. As far as I know the two tracks are exclusive to this release. Dark Avenger only released a 1985 demo in addition to the material featured here and then folded. The two Helloween tracks are culled from their June 1984 "Death Metal Demo". Helloween play a more powerful, sharp, and hard edged version of the speed metal style Dark Avenger introduced on the tracks before these ones. The Helloween tracks are also well produced.

Although Hellhammer stick out a bit with their more savage sounding music style "Death Metal" is a pretty good quality split release, featuring some decent quality demo material (in some cases pretty good quality) and some of these bands would of course go on to future greatness. It´s only Dark Avenger who has more or less disappeared from metal history other than their contributions to this split. A 3 star (60%) rating is deserved.

SilentScream213 Helloween’s last album, Master of the Rings, was a comeback album returning to pure Power Metal, featuring line up changes after the maligned yet underrated Pink Bubbles and Chameleon. On The Time of the Oath, Helloween double down on this and deliver (in my opinion) an amazing album that easily rivals the Keeper of the Seven Keys albums.

We Burn is a blistering album opener that is perhaps the best song of their entire career up to that point, and plainly one of the best Power Metal songs period. The guitars are wild, twisting like melodic lightning as the nonstop double bass drumming lays down some intense power. The soaring, layered vocals are not without edge, and the bass has some truly funky noodling of its own. Plainly said, the song is a masterpiece.

Now, every following song doesn’t quite match that astounding opener, but almost all of them feature fantastic work from each member. I know people hold the Seven Keys albums in a very special place as some of the earliest great works in Power Metal, but the fact is that the band have never sounded as good as they do here. This album is the peak of their ability and songwriting so far, and the production is super clear, fantastically mixed so that you can hear those wonderful basslines and each layer of melodic guitar, without sounding overproduced or modern in any way.

LightningRider How many bands on this earth have a long-awaited reunion of the old legends like Helloween did? They hadn't even broken up, just shifted line-ups, and their legend made their reunion with old buds as eagerly awaited as Metroid Dread. After a 3-hour live album recorded in Madrid with seven bandmates (three singers included: Kai, Mike and Andi), the wait for the studio album was met with worldwide impatience. Was that impatience worth it? Let's put it this way: it's a fallacy to say that reunion albums never work. And these guys are 60.

The driving force of this reunion is not just old friendships and nostalgia, but the passion that evolves from it. You can tell that Helloween are putting crazy amounts of effort into this piece. Pieces like "Fear of the Fallen" and "Down in the Dumps" are the mightiest of mighty headbangers as far as this classic power metal band is concerned. Normally it bothers me when a band sticks with one or two genres and keeps writing songs based on that, especially when the album is close to an hour. Helloween makes it work, though. People love the two Keeper of the Seven Keys albums for their anthemic energy. Honestly, there's so much of that in this album that if you scratched the CD you'd be blasted with a Kamehameha. And of course, they have to end it with a 10+minute epic. The only real problem one may have is that it doesn't start out feeling like one of their epics, using the same 10-beat a second tempo that defined so many of their early hits. This doesn't stop the song from being unique and progressive, though. And I have to add that this is their heaviest album since the release of Better Than Raw, and the influences range from the speed thrashing of Walls of Jericho, the jovial cheese of the Kiske era, the heavier sounds of Raw and Time of the Oath and the nocturnal feeling of The Dark Ride. But it's not too much of any one. I mean, Keeper Pt. 2 is a bit simple of a metal album, sometimes acting like a pop one, though rightfully so.

A common criticism is that the album is a little too long. If you ask me, that's flat-out WRONG. I just got done listening to Better Than Raw and Keeper Pt. 2. Better Than Raw is essentially flawless, and it still felt like the hour that it was. Keeper Pt. 2 was consistently entertaining, but I was always aware of the length of the album and I almost felt it by the end. Almost. The 50 minutes felt more like 42. But the self-titled feels like a 45 minute epic, and it's a 65-minute piece of work. Why? Energy. More energy than the band ever had, like they just told double espresso coffee to fuck off. These guys are still 60, people. That is the MOST impressive part of the album. And I'll be honest. Even after 65 minutes, I wanted to spin it again. So not only does this album have a crazy amount of replay value, but it can also act as a great intro album for anyone wanting to get into this kind of music.

And now that they've had such critical and financial success with their reunion, how can they avoid making another album with this modern classic hybrid line-up? They just effing can't. With this new line-up working way too well, it's quite clear that this album is the heart and soul of power metal itself, and only the pioneers of the genre can create such a monster of an album. I give the eponymous Helloween album the highest recommendation I can to anyone willing to listen.

Kingcrimsonprog Imagine a Judas Priest show with both Tim Ripper Owens and Rob Halford singing together. No wait… Imagine a Sepultura show with both Max Cavelera and Derick Green singing. No wait, that’s not even it. I’ve got it… Imagine an Iron Maiden show with Paul Dianno, Bruce Dickinson and Blaze Bailey all singing. Well, maybe, if Dickinson had left after four albums and Blaze had been there ever since. Ok, Now swap out the zombie mascot for some comedy pumpkins and you’re approaching the situation here. Helloween, one of Germany’s biggest and most important bands, one of the most iconic Power Metal bands in history, with one of the most impressive family trees (Gamma Ray, Masterplan, Freedom Call, Unisonic, Iron Savior etc) make one of the most anticipated decisions in the history of the genre.

Who is your favourite Helloween singer? Is it Kai Hansen, the heaviest singer and the original? Is it Michael Kiske, the most technically accomplished and the one from their most iconic record? Or is it Andi Deris, their best frontman and the singer on the most albums? – Turns out, now you don’t have to choose. United Alive, the live video from the Pumpkins United tour sees all three join the stage together, cracking out a career spanning mixture of material from the earliest thrashiest material to the modern gems, with all the iconic genre defining masterpieces from the peerless Keepers’ era sprinkled in too.

There are over 20 tracks here (some are intros and solos, and some are medleys/combinations, but still…) that’s a lot of Helloween. All three singers take it turns to sing. Sometimes not even a song each, but rather dividing it up section by section inside each song, or all at once. It is very welcome to hear them back on some of their own tracks like ‘Heavy Metal Is The Law’ after not hearing it on the other live videos, or ‘Dr. Stein’ after having heard only Deri’s take on it previously. Conversely it is very interesting to see Kai or Kiske sing on some of the big commercial ‘90s/’00s hits like ‘Perfect Gentleman’ or ‘If I Could Fly.’

There are often 7 members on stage at the one time (or 8 if you count the keyboardist, Eddy Wrapiprou). There’s Weikath and Grosskopft on guitar and bass as always. Sascha Gerstner and Daniel Löble on guitar and drums like the last several albums. And the three aforementioned singers (with Kai also playing guitar).

There’s a mix of footage, ranging from headline shows in Madrid, Spain to festival appearances at Wacken and in Brazil. Sort of like they did already on their previous ‘Legacy World Tour 2005/2006 DVD.

Normally I really prefer a concert DVD to come from one single show, rather than complied from a series of different dates in different places with different lighting, sound and camera work, but given that the band itself is now a compilation of past and present members and some of the songs included are medleys, I don’t know why but it just works here.

The band put on a great show. There’s a lot going on. There’s video screens, a big pumpkin stage set piece around the drum kit (which has 4 kickdrums for some reason, just to add to the over-the-top feel of it all), a light show, and a few cheesy moments like members coming out dressed in a top hat and cane, or raining pumpkin balloons.

Deris, ever the consummate front man is great at revving up the crowd, and then the different members get spotlights for certain tunes and join up on others, there’s prolonged solo segments, a tribute to late drummer Ingo Schichtenberg, its all very diverse and entertaining. They even do a stripped-down bare bones version of the ballad ‘Forever And One’ straight after a super heavy Walls Of Jericho/EP medley, which pretty much shows both polar opposites of the band’s varied discography.

There’s multiple different ways you can buy it. DVD, Blu Ray, combinations thereof. Versions with CDs. The version I got it two Blu Rays. One with the concert and one with a load of extra footage. There’s a few extra songs (Including the underrated ‘Kids Of The Century’ from the oft maligned Pink Bubbles Go Ape album). There’s a bunch of behind the scenes footage looking at various aspects of the tour and production. It comes in a nice shiny digi-book with some brief liner notes and a glossy photo booklet. You know, just as if it wasn’t value for money enough already with an almost three-hour concert of a Helloween fan’s wildest fantasy line-up.

As a concept you really have to hand it to them; its quite a clever move to reuinite with past members without losing current members as some fans never got over Kiske leaving the band or only ever even tried the Keepers albums. Some fans really love the Kai era and you never get to see Helloween play much material from it anymore (you only really get the chance if he chucks one in to a Gamma Ray show some time). Its a great idea to reel them back in and show them how great the Deris era can be too. Come for ‘Halloween’ and ‘Future World’ but stay for ‘Sole Survivor’ and ‘Power’ then learn to love the Deris era if you don’t already.

Thankfully though, its not just the concept that’s good. The whole package is good. The sound, footage, editing and bonus material. Most importantly though, the performance. It doesn’t come across as a novelty cash grab, it really feels like a jubilant celebration. As they say in the opening track ‘Halloween’ ”There’s magic in the air.” This may be cheesy to say (but hey, if you like Helloween, you better be used to cheesy) but it really is a heavy metal dream come true. Buy it!

Kingcrimsonprog High Live is a concert DVD by the legendary German Power Metal band Helloween, recorded in Milan, Italy (and Gerona, Spain) in 1996 on the Time Of The Oath tour.

The main feature is a scorching 84-minute concert, in which an energetic and totally on-form band blast through a lot of material from Master Of The Rings and Time Of The Oath to an enthusiastic crowd. Just going off the performance, this is an absolute 5-star live album.

Songs like “Sole Survivor,” “Before The War” and “Power” sound absolutely blistering here, and I’d highly recommend checking it out on that basis. Andi’s vocals on his own material are absolutely excellent on this release, and Uli’s powerful, understated drumming absolutely kills.

There are a few downsides to the overall product however, such as the picture being a little soft and not the sharpest. The sound is pretty great in one way, and you really get that “live feel,” but you have to turn it up fairly loud for it to become clear, as things can sound a bit muddy on low volumes. Nothing show-destroying though.

The other potential downside is that at the end of some songs, it stops, when they cut to the other concert (eg. from Italy to Spain) and the transition isn’t perfectly smooth, which may interrupt the flow a little. Luckily this never happens in the middle of songs or anything outrageous like that, and for the most part isn’t actually too disruptive.

Apart from that, this is a pretty great main feature all round, and shows the band proving why they are still one of the biggest names in Power Metal. In terms of bonus features: There is a text “History” feature, a discography feature and a photo gallery. All your standard ‘90s DVD extras that don’t add too much really, but look good written on the back of the box.

There is also a five minute “review” feature by Malcome Dome, which is a brief Metal Evolution style history lesson with a mixture of archive footage of the band and talking-head footage of Dome. The dialogue is a bit stiff and the audio is a bit muffled, but as a free extra its still worth a watch.

The track-listing for the main concert is:

1. We Burn 2. Wake Up The Mountain 3. Sole Survivor 4. The Change 5. Why 6. Eagle Fly Free 7. Time Of The Oath 8. Future World 9. Dr. Stein 10. Before The War 11. Mr Ego 12. Power 13. Where The Rain Grows 14. In The Middle Of A Heartbeat 15. Perfect Gentleman 16. Steel Tormentor

Overall; If you like the band, especially if you like the Deris era, then it’s a pretty worthwhile purchase. It shows the band at their Europe-conquering best, dripping with enthusiasm and playing like they mean it. The sound and editing are a tiny bit imperfect, but the band themselves more than make up for it. Comment