Reigning Phoenix Music [Release date 29.08.25]

The Magnificent Seven :
Daniel Löble (drums), Markus Grosskopf (bass), Sascha Gerstner (guitars), Kai Hansen (guitars, vocals) Michael Weikath (guitars), Michael Kiske (vocals), Andi Deris (vocals).

The longer gap between Helloween albums again seems to have released a welter of creative energy. (Giants and Monsters comes 4 years after their self titled 2021 release).

With producer Charlie Bauerfind, the band were always skilled at crafting sensory overload and atmospherics, making smart use of soundscapes, adding inviting hooks.

This new album sees them perfect their studio act.

Giants and monsters populate the folklore and mythologies of many cultures. In biblical terms, the creatures who existed before the Flood. Helloween frequently use this as a metaphor, tying together narratives that reference life, death, forgiveness and redemption.

The title track itself spends a lot of time initially on exposition, but the vocal thunder emanating from the Deris/ Kiske combination lights up the second half, tunefully aggressive, setting the musical scene.

Elsewhere, the writing is taut and honed to a sinewy strength.

Kai Hansen’s hand can be heard on several tracks here. ‘Saviour Of The World’ re-energises a need for speed, turning up the bpms to match the escalating heavy metal operatics. The anthemic, foot on the monitor ‘We Can Be Gods’ revisits the Helloween of old… “to live and let live is the only way out for us, it won’t be easy but it’s worth a try”.

The angsty, punchy ‘A Little Too Much’ is the most accessible track, with a Desmond Child quality chorus, and an axe solo straight out the eighties. And on ‘This Is Tokyo’, a lighter waving, crowd swaying anthem, Andy Deris kickstarts an exciting call and response vocal as he leads us “into an epic realm”, and an eruption of pounding, heavily melodic metal.

The guitar sounds – tone and texture – are a pleasure to listen to on their own.

Like in the way ‘Universe’s guitar jangle transitions to speed metal freakery in the blink of an eye; or as the muted guitar tones of ‘Hand Of God’ deliver us into a marriage of image and drama . . . “right before I die, I see the light of love, coming from above”.

Or the way the piano tiptoes through the lurching, thundering ‘Majestic’. An attractively complex song that never quite reaches the crescendo we’re hoping for. Grows on you though.

At times it’s hard to resist the notion that Giants and Monsters is a bit too slick, a bit too polished in places. Wasn’t it the band’s careering juggernaut sound that so thrilled us? Maybe so. But that was then. ****1/2

Review by Brian McGowan

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