Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Helloween
Label: Sony Music
Released: 2013
Length: 60:13
Rating: 4/5
The new Helloween album »Straight Out Of Hell« is a brighter record than its predecessor »7 Sinners« (2010)! It’s been written in a more traditional manner again, so it instantly satisfies all the fans who want Helloween to deliver a typical album with the band’s recognizable trademarks and as few stylistic changes as possible, or none at all. And »Straight Out Of Hell« is exactly that. It sticks with the cranked-up modern metal production of today, but arrangement-wise it leans once more on the old-school, tried-and-tested legacy of the classic Helloween albums.
Helloween aren’t delivering a musical revolution on this one! They diligently, routinely juggle phrases they’ve been serving up to the faithful countless times over a rich career. What’s been the one constant variable since about »Rabbit Don’t Come Easy« (2003) is just the atmosphere from album to album. That’s where the “nuances” are. The production is just as hard-hitting as ever and Helloween sharpen their teeth uncompromisingly this time too. The album doesn’t leave as dark an impression, nor the »thrashy« contours that made »7 Sinners« such a stiff, rigid record. The main reason for that feel lies in four straightforwardly written songs, World of War, Far From The Stars, Straight Out Of Hell (which instantly confirms why Gamma Ray and Helloween share an eternal blood pact of metal brotherhood) and especially the chorus melodies of Make Fire Catch The Fly and Burning Sun. That’s the traditional slice of the pie that’s run through the Helloween legacy since forever, and on the new album it’s pushed to the front again. The occasional »Happy, happy Helloween…« chant, dosed just right so it doesn’t get irritating in its chewed-over familiarity, guitar phrases »studded« in triplets at ultra-sonic speed, songs propped up by a venomous stampede of double bass drum pedal pounding. Puffed-up European power metal, in other words!
Helloween, unlike a trillion other power metal bands, are entitled these days to replicate themselves, more than anyone else in the genre! They’re basically the chief architects of European power metal. That saves their skin even in years when it’s well known that the band’s musical evolution is already over. The »Tetra Pak« run of excellent albums between 1994 and 2001 was the band’s last creative kick, and for many also their favorite stretch of the whole career.
»Straight Out Of Hell« keeps up the band’s standard of high-quality releases. Opener Nebataea is a mini epic metal suite, the kind of composition that rides a proven middle line between melodic catchiness (the chorus) and a complex stringing together of motifs, you could call it a Time Of The Oath-style classic for new times. The new collaboration with Mathias Ulmer on keyboards keeps the symphonic element firmly woven into the arrangements. A Helloween constant, but one that in new times they’ve pushed to the max. Waiting For The Thunder uses a similar, somewhat sedate keyboard motif in the chorus, which works with a grabby, proven feel in the vein of classics like If I Could Fly or As Long As I Fall. Proven. Routine. Ignites instantly! The ballad Hold Me In Your Arms works great too, lifted to its peak especially by an exceptional, dramatic chorus melody.
Let me spice it up again! Highlights like the mini epic metal pieces Nabataea and closer Church Breaks Down, the wonderfully dynamic instrumental middle section of Burning Sun, the rousing Live Now!, and the already mentioned excellent ballad Hold Me In Your Arms prove, more confidently than ever, that power metal veterans aren’t running out of witty spark in new times!
There are a few »gems« that are easy to skip. The first is the typically »Queen-esque« Wanna Be God, the second is the sarcastic Asshole, which, next to older Helloween tunes like Anything My Mama Don’t Like or The Game Is On, comes off as less fun, even though the move keeps all the credibility of yet another proven and therefore typically »Helloween-esque« trick . But as said. Two skippable tracks that steal your time.
»Straight Out Of Hell« is an album that offers a varied and dynamic course of events! Even though those same events are predictable in advance, it’s never boring. Helloween get that liveliness mostly through sheer routine! By the usual formula, then. Staying true to themselves and to the diehard crowd of Helloween fans who don’t like change, Helloween effectively hold on to their revered pedigree of metal pioneering, which doesn’t let up in the mature era of their output. »Straight Out Of Hell« ranks, alongside »Gambling With The Devil« (2007), as the most polished and expressively complete »post-The Dark Ride« era Helloween album.
You can already buy the album »Straight Out Of Hell« at:
Line-up
Andi Deris – vocals
Michael Weikath – guitar, backing vocals
Sascha Gerstner – guitar, backing vocals
Markus Grosskopf – bass guitar, backing vocals
Daniel Löble – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Matthias Ulmer – keyboards
William “Billy” King – backing vocals
Olaf Senkbeil – backing vocals
Ron Deris – backing vocals
Production
Charlie Bauerfiend
Track list
1. Nabataea
2. World Of War
3. Live Now
4. Far From The Stars
5. Burning Sun
6. Waiting For The Thunder
7. Hold Me In Your Arms
8. Wanna Be God
9. Straight Out Of Hell
10. Asshole
11. Years
12. Make Fire Catch The Fly
13. Church Breaks Down
