HELLOWEEN — Straight Out of Hell (review)

HELLOWEEN — Straight Out of Hell album cover Album · 2013 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Straight Out of Hell" is the 14th full-length studio album by German power metal act Helloween. The album was released through Spinefarm Records in January 2013. It is now the fourth consequitive album with the same lineup, which probably bears witness to a harmonic group of musicians. The opposite has in periods plagued the band. "Straight Out of Hell" was recorded with producer Charlie Bauerfeind at Mi Sueño Studio, Tenerife, Spain, which to my ears sounds like a nice relaxing place to record.

...and I think it´s rubbed off on the tracks, which more of them feature a nice positive uplifting atmosphere. Fast-paced and energetic double pedalling, melodic lead guitar themes and epic choruses, which are no surprise, but what we expect from Helloween. They are no one-trick pony though, and the album includes heavier tracks too. Album opener "Nabataea" can even be labelled semi-progressive and a track like "Wanna be God" also stands out quite a bit. The latter sounds like a heavier twin to Queen´s "We Will Rock You". The songwriting is professional and most of the material are memorable and rock hard. The sound production is for the most part very well sounding, but I think the snare drum sound takes a bit of power out of the music, which means that even the most hard pumped double pedal parts, sound less powerful than they could have.

At 60:00 minutes I think the album is a bit too long and there are a couple of tracks on the album that I could have done without, but with musicians/composers this skilled an album like "Straight Out of Hell" can never be less that really good (despite a few fillers). A 3.5 star (70%) rating is fair.
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