Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Helloween
Label: Sony Music
Release: 2010
Length: 62:19
Rating: 4/5
“7 Sinners” is proof that the inventors of European power metal, Helloween, don’t always stick to the adjective “happy”, and that in 2010 “heavy” can fit a whole lot better. Their thirteenth studio album replaces the catchphrase “Happy, happy Helloween” with a full-on “Heavy, heavy Helloween!”
Helloween have always loved to experiment. “7 Sinners” is the album Andi Deris contributed the most material to (six songs out of thirteen). Luckily, Deris isn’t Michael Kiske and knows how to write music, so there’s no reason to fear another botched experiment like “Pink Bubbles Go Ape” or the eternal heartache of “Chameleon”.
“7 Sinners” boasts down-tuned, riff-driven pummeling that builds a venomous, vampiric wall of sound across the whole record. The riffing sounds downright “thrashy”. The atmosphere the guitars create is dark, and backed by keyboard arrangements it embodies moods that will remind plenty of people of the blackness of “The Dark Ride” (2000). A textbook case of a 30-year-old band defying the odds and staying inspired, and the boldest example for the new era is the album’s single Are You Metal?. That excellent mix of furious riffing, modern down-tuned production and atmosphere beefed up with keyboards is driven home even harder by Deris’s vocals, which are seriously aggressive and in-your-face on this track. Throughout, Helloween keep that minimum of typical melody, which makes the album endlessly listenable and 100% a Helloween album all the way through. It’s one of the heaviest albums since “Better Than Raw” (1998) and “The Dark Ride”, looking at the entire Helloween discography.
This time the triple-part harmonies and that signature twitchy twin-guitar play in the motifs that always hover above the riffs are cut down to a minimum. The new Helloween give absolute priority to creating a dark atmosphere. The album is completely direct, with a red-hot, lively and at times fiercely raw production, which brings the feel of a studio recording close to the vibe of a live show. It’s a raw, uncompromising sound, incredibly crushing, biting and aggressive for Helloween. Most of the melody is carried this time by Deris with his trademark vocals, who clearly feels more than at home in situations like this. Even though it’s not the fastest song on the album, the opener Where The Sinners Go is the moment that sums up the whole vibe of the record, instantly and very aptly.
The oddities on the album are Who Is Mr. Madman?, which is a sort of new Perfect Gentleman (“Master Of the Rings” album, 1994). That fits the album’s title and the saga of the seven deadly sins. Right from the start it’s easy to catch the lead motif of Perfect Gentleman being reused, and Who Is Mr. Madman? also stands out for the spoken part by Saxon singer Biff Byford. It’s Byford’s second guest spot with Helloween, after the album “Gambling With The Devil” (2007). Raise The Noise surprises with a flute that delivers a solo in the vein of Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), and the whole thing turns out to be remarkably successful and fitting. The longest song, Far In The Future, with its multilayered motifs, conjures up the vibe of Revelations (album “Better Than Raw”, 1998). It’s an intensely dramatic song, and thanks to that highly vibrant dramatic mood it’s placed at the very end of the album! Though we’ve never counted Helloween among the prog bands, My Sacrifice mildly surprises in that respect, shocking with a deliberately broken-up pre-chorus (two opposing rhythms are combined and overlap, creating a sense of chaos).
Jumping to the bonus track I’m Free from the limited (extended) edition, its verse leans slightly toward the melodic delivery of the verses in We Damn The Night from the record “The Dark Ride”, but it smells more like the older Helloween we’re used to (with the epic feel emphasized). There are other songs like that on the album too: Raise The Noise, then right after it World Of Fantasy, where the triple-part harmonies kick in for the first time on the album, and later If A Mountain Can Talk. Among those songs, The Sage, The Fool, The Sinner sounds the most retro in its melodies. It’s a song with a highly contagious chorus and a modern (down-tuned) main riff, which bridges the band’s new musical outlook and the legacy of its past work beautifully. The opening riff bears some resemblance to the opening riff of Where The Sinners Go.
For sheer crushing power, the first prize this time goes to Long Live The King, where the band reaches the ultimate peak of high-voltage rawness with Dani Löble’s extreme drumming. Perfectly tuned to the extremes, and at the same time 100% Helloween through and through! As a leveler, the calm The Smile Of The Sun comes right after it, with a chorus and a transition into the verse that evoke the vibe of As Long As I Fall (album “Gambling With The Devil”).
“7 Sinners” is an aggressive, straight-up scorching album, like the most red-hot glowing steel. Helloween deliberately simplified their arrangements, which usually involve twitchy play over the riffs. The triple-part harmonies have lost their primacy across the board. Most of the compositions stand on massive riffs, with masterfully deepened atmosphere and keyboard arrangements added on top. In such an environment Deris’s unique voice and vocal approach feel especially at home, and the whole thing works in a way that’s stable, confident and competent throughout. This way Helloween have delivered a slightly different album. For a band with proverbial predictability, one that after 13 studio albums can hardly surprise anyone with anything special anymore, that’s a huge boost. It’s proof that time hasn’t chewed up Helloween yet and that plenty of flammable dynamite still flows through the veins of the crew, the basic driving force of a classic band in creating inspired melodies of a new era. “7 Sinners” is a successfully passed exam in the collision of new musical outlooks and the competent preservation of the foundations of their own idiom, which Helloween enthroned with their past (and most important) works. Sometimes it adds a lot to a character if you signal a left turn with your indicator but then make it to the right. The album is by no means a musical revolution for Helloween. Just a really endless, welcome and successful change.
Line-up
Andi Deris – vocals
Michael Weikath – guitar
Sascha Gerstner – guitar, backing vocals
Markus Grosskopf – bass guitar
Dani Löble – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Biff Byford – spoken part on track no. 3
Matthias Ullmer – keyboards
Production
Charlie Bauerfiend
Track list
1. Where The Sinners Go (03:35)
2. Are You Metal? (03:38)
3. Who is Mr. Madman? 05:40)
4. Raise The Noise (05:06)
5. World Of Fantasy (05:15)
6. Long Live The King (04:12)
7. The Smile Of The Sun (04:37)
8. You Stupid Mankind (04:05)
9. If A Mountain Could Talk (06:43)
10. The Sage, The Fool, The Sinner (04:00)
11. My Sacrifice (05:00)
12. Not Yet Today (01:11)
13. Far In The Future (07:42)
14. I’m Free* (4:15)
*…bonus track
