Helloween – Giants & Monsters
Helloween – Giants & Monsters
Reigning Phoenix Music
29/08/2025
Review by Victor Augusto
8.5/10
I’m probably not the best person in the world to talk about Power Metal, considering this style of music is not even close to being something I use to listen to at home. I believe the saturation of bands doing it, mainly in the early years of 2000’s, helped me to not follow what happened in this genre. Nevertheless, I was always an enthusiastic guy to study and understand the origins of different kinds of music and we all know the importance of Helloween inside the Heavy Metal music scene.
My first contact with the band was looking for a bunch of CDs stored in my older brother’s bedroom. Luckily for me, he had the best of two eras in his album collection, which were “Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1” and “The Time of the Oath”. Basically, I can say they were the best definition of how the band can sound with two incredible vocalists, Michael Kiske and Andi Deris. I just need to highlight that I heard them in the late nineties and despite the Kiske era being extremely loved in Brazil, Andi Deris was very loved too, mainly after the first Helloween concerts in Brazil happened just after he joined the band.
Well, the years have passed and I believe the best thing for the band happened in 2017 when Michael Kiske returned to split vocals with the long-time vocalist Andi Deris. Also, Kai Hansen returned, which brought his vocal collaborations and mainly his guitar skills, something that is very remarkable. I must confess that the previous album, already with this line-up, didn’t even come close to calling my attention. But this one is something totally different and I would finish my review here summarising the reason “Giants & Monsters” is such an incredible album. Amazingly, it brings the spirit of all eras of the band, without trying to be the same Helloween of 1987 or 1996. Simple as that.
Even though this is enough to love the album on it’s own, there is one more thing that I loved here. The sound has shifted more into something like Traditional Heavy Metal, rather than Power Metal itself. If this album is your first time hearing Helloween, maybe you can hear influences from bands like Accept or Judas Priest. ‘We Can Be God’ is the perfect definition of what I’m saying, even though it still carries Power Metal elements with beautiful piano notes and great melodies.
Another good highlight is the more epic and longer track ‘Universe (Gravity For Hearts)’ that is totally made for people (like me) who love songs similar to ‘Halloween’. It is full of great moments, having remarkable solos and guitar leads. At the same time, as I mentioned, the main goal here is the band not trying to sound the same as in 1987, when the song ‘Halloween’ was released on the first “Keeper”.
There are songs for all musical tastes. If you love a good ballad, but not totally a ballad, there are ‘This Is Tokyo’ and ‘A Little Is A Little Too Much’ (this last one stayed annoyingly glued in my brain, by the way). I confess I stay with the more complex ones, like the closing song ‘Majestic’. What really matters is that Helloween looks like they have finally found their identity for this new age, with this current lineup, who have been together for almost a decade.
‘Universe (Gravity For Hearts)’ Official Lyric Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Giants On The Run
02. Saviour Of The World
03. A Little Is A Little Too Much
04. We Can Be Gods
05. Into The Sun
06. This Is Tokyo
07. Universe (Gravity For Hearts)
08. Hand Of God
09. Under The Moonlight
10. Majestic
LINE-UP:
Michael Kiske – vocals
Andi Deris – vocals
Kai Hansen – guitars, vocals
Michael Weikath – guitars
Sascha Gerstner – guitars
Markus Grosskopf – bass
Daniel Löble – drums
LINKS:
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