Straight Out Of Hell

The legendary German metal band Helloween released its first album in 1985 but really hit its stride a few years later with *Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I & II*. Though Helloween never got as big as some of its first-generation contemporaries, hardcore metalheads embraced the group, which performed on the first Headbangers Ball tour with thrash pioneers Exodus and Anthrax. Over the next 25 years, the band dealt with a seemingly unending stream of drama, including multiple lineup changes, substance abuse, suicide, ill-advised genre experimentations, and waning public interest. Nonetheless, Helloween continued recording new material, keeping its small but devoted fanbase satiated. *Straight Out of Hell* is its 15th album and the first since 2010\'s *7 Sinners*; it assaults listeners with classic-minded riffs and lyrics about forgotten kingdoms (\"Nabataea\"), religious hypocrisy (\"Church Breaks Down\"), and dealing with rejection (\"Make Fire Catch the Fly\"). Whether you\'re an aging head who remembers the band\'s heyday or a youngster with respect for the architects, this is an impressive effort from a band that never gave up.

The 14th studio album from venerable German power metal outfit Helloween kicks off with the blistering "Nabatea," a typically ambitious, seven-minute epic concerning a kingdom of nomadic, Mediterranean, peace-loving folks swallowed up by the Roman Empire in AD 106.

Andi Deris has now been fronting the illustrious HELLOWEEN 19 years, can you dig it? Those few still clinging to the archaic opinion that HELLOWEEN died with Michael Kiske ought to wake up by now, because this band has soldiered on as one of the highest caliber metal acts the genre's ever known. Onl...

A review of Straight Out of Hell by Helloween, available now via The End Records.

German power metal band Helloween follow-up 2010’s 7 Sinners with their 14th studio album, 2013’s Straight Out of Hell.

Helloween - Straight Out of Hell review: Straight out of their bag of old tricks.