Helloween is an extremely influential band for the genre of Power Metal as well as Speed Metal. Helloween sort of created the genre of Power Metal and defined its sound, every Power Metal or Speed Metal band out today owes a little bit to the first two Helloween releases. Today I’ll be focusing on Helloween’s extremely influential self titled EP and their First proper album. A bit odd, both came out in the same year the EP in March and the album in October.
Band - Helloween
Album - Helloween EP
Genre - Speed/Power Metal
Year - (Early) 1985
Country - Germany
A little intro referencing Halloween III then we’re thrusted into Starlight. As soon as the vocals come in, you notice that Kai Hansen isn’t… really… the best singer… But it’s ok, because the EP has a very raw, underdeveloped sound to it that the sorta kinda crappy vocals complement. It actually seems like the bands getting better as the EP goes on. Anyway, Starlight is a great opener, lots of energy to it. Murderer and Warrior are both short fast songs. Murderer is a little bland to my ears; Warrior however is a great song! Great riffs and a very catchy chorus as well as other great vocal melodies make this song great. Victim of Fate is one of the best songs on this EP. The first part is a speed metal assault and then it goes into a mellow part with some creepy, hissing vocals. Love this part! Then it goes back to speed metal assault mode with lots of soloing, great song. Could be a bit faster though >_> Cry for Freedom starts with a cool ballad type intro, but proceeds to kick into a wild Speed Metal massacre! Awesome riffs and amazing lead work make this song leap out in front of the pack, it’s amazing!
Lots of great Speed Metal riffs and even a few that sound almost thrashy. The lead work here is great, plenty of great leads here. The bass playing really stands out here which is unusual for power metal, then again this EP was kind of the first thing out of the gate when it comes to Power Metal. It’s a shame more Power Metal bands don’t make such good use of their bassists. He doesn’t just follow the guitars, instead going all over the place to fill out the sound. Drums are pretty basic, but get the job done. As I stated earlier the Vocals are a bit crappy at times, but it adds to the raw, unpolished sound of the EP. This is a great release from a very important band I highly recommend it. This is an insanely important release in metal history! It’s pretty hard to find on its own, but it’s usually sold combined with…
Band - Helloween
Album - Walls of Jericho
Genre - Speed/Power Metal
Year - (late) 1985
Country - Germany
Another great release from these wacky German’s! After an intro reminiscent of the one for starlight your ass is immediately kicked by Ride the (fucking) Sky! Such a great speed Metal song. Right off the bat you can tell Kai has gotten better at vocals. The riffs are sweet, the vocal melodies are perfect and there are even some good backing keyboards during some parts of the song. Lead work is great. A perfect song to kick off a great album! Reptile is a bit of a let down after the Immense first track. It’s an alright song but not particularly memorable, it kind of sounds like a song German speed/thrash metalers RISK would do. Guardian’s is a great, fast, melodic tune with great guitar work and very prominent bass. Great bridge bit in the middle too! Phantoms of Death is a bit of an epic tune, with a very similar sounding main riff to Maiden’s Two minutes to Midnight. A fair bit of Keyboards in this tune but they’re never distracting and used tastefully. It’s a pretty long song (hence the epicness), but it holds your interest. All the longer songs on this album tend to hold your interest because it never starts to get old due lots of riff changes and plenty of soloing. The bridge is fast n wild with plenty of soloing. Metal Invaders is another pretty melodic speed metal tune. Actually a very melodic tune, especially when the bridge comes in. The guitars in the middle of this song are a bit overwhelming. Its short and sweet but till has a lot of sweet riffs. Gorgar is a mid-paced, heavy tune, which is a good contrast to the rest of the album which in pretty much a speed metal paradise. Very Cheesy chorus, but its alright, metal should never take itself TOO seriously. I mean the song is about a killer arcade machine anyway so… There’s also a little lead break in the middle referencing the classical score “Hall of the Mountain King” which is a great touch. Heavy Metal (is the Law) is one of my personal favorite Helloween songs. I can’t tell you how much I love this song. I once pulled a muscle in my back I was head banging so hard to this song! It’s just like, a perfect metal song. It’s a mock live song, as in played live in studio with crowd noise added in later. The guitar work is amazing and the bass is even better! Definitely my favorite Helloween song bar none! The album probably should have ended on that note. How Many Tears is kind of weak. Not a bad song really, great lead work as usual and there’s a balladesque part about halfway through. It kind of starts out with nothing special you know? It makes up for it in the later half of the song though! It’s very reminiscent of Victim of Fate. Oh, there’s also a bonus track on some releases called Judas. Great song! Vocals and riffs are very much in tune with each other and lots of sweet riffs and leads. Definitely should have been on the album proper! The album could have used Judas instead of Reptile.
Great album these are pretty much essential if you like Speed, Heavy or Power Metal. These guys did pretty much invent Power Metal as we know it today. If you’re a Power Metal fan and you don’t have these two releases you kind of owe it to yourself to check out your roots. Its way better then any shitty modern “Flower Metal” band out of Europe anyway ;)
Here are some stand out tracks from the EP
Enjoy! Part two will be about the Kiske fronted Keeper of the Seven Keys albums. Expect that next week sometime.
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