Sometimes life is not so much about the destination but more about the route you take, and the road to Helloween’s seventeenth studio album has been an exciting one. A career full of triumph and tragedy, label tribulations and lawsuits, this German crew have been through it all (and brought the t-shirt). However, a period of stability (including return of vocalist Michael Kiske) has found the band releasing some of their best work. Continuing the band’s upward trajectory, Giants & Monsters is a ten track celebration of metal that will please their legion of fans and attract many new admirers.
Rightly considered the “godfathers of power metal”, Helloween’s legacy is secured and it would be easy (and quite understandable) for the band to fall into the trap of playing things safe, yet Giants & Monsters bristles with an edginess that only comes from a band taking a few risks. Of course, such an approach comes laden with danger and things could quite easily go pear-shaped (as they did on the band’s 1993 album Chameleon), but this time around it seems that fortune really does favour the brave. That becomes immediately evident on opening track ‘Giants On The Run’, a track that’s infused with the brand of power metal that Helloween pioneered, yet it also feels as if the band are striding towards the future and ensures that this is no mere exercise in nostalgia. The sudden sonic shifts within the song turns ‘Giants On The Run’ (like much of the album) into a mirror ball that fractures sound in every direction. With no two songs inhabiting the same sonic space Giants & Monsters is a diverse affair with the pure song sensibility of ‘A Little Is A Little Too Much’ rubbing shoulder with the high octane ‘We Can Be Gods’ quite effortlessly.
Power metal is a genre that lends itself very well to the epic, and there are a couple of tracks here that fit the bill very well; ‘Universe (Gravity Of Hearts)’ is a progressive track in its purest definition. It finds the band exploring their speed metal roots, but not exclusively, it’s a shapeshifter which revolves and evolves over the course of eight-and-a-half minutes, taking on new form like an alien life form. Likewise, ‘Majestic’ is an epic closer that builds towards an ominous conclusion and one that will stay with you long after the disc has stopped spinning. But the overarching aesthetic of this album is grandiose and has a propensity towards the big; from the soaring guitars and vocals to the boomy drums, Giants & Monsters is hard to ignore, but when the music is this good, why would you want to?
A triumphant return from the power metal demigods, and one that suggests there’s much more to come.
- Giants & Monsters is released via Reigning Phoenix Music on 29th August 2025.
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Track List:
1. Giants On The Run
2. Saviour Of The World
3. A Little Is A Little Too Much
4. We Can Be Gods
5. Into The Sun
6. This Is Tokyo
7. Universe (Gravity For Hearts)
8. Hand Of God
9. Under The Moonlight
10. Majestic
