Great Metal Albums of 1985: Helloween

Continuing on back tracking the great albums of 1985 which I didn’t learn about til a year later when I was fully immersed in thrash, the debut EP by German band Helloween definitely caught my attention. At that time, any metal that was played fast was called thrash and whether you agree or not, Helloween was lumped into that category. However, it didn’t take most people long to realize that the metal this band played was certainly not thrash. While the label hadn’t yet been officially coined, Helloween were speed metal.

Not wanting to get into the semantics of speed metal, thrash metal or power metal which has been said that this album redefined the latter, I just appreciate the album. The don’t blink or you’ll miss it power riffs in the songs are attention grabbing enough. But what sets Helloween apart from say Celtic Frost or Voivod is the melodic vocals of Kai Hansen. Those vocals are just fantastic and though he can scream, he even does that with melody. Definitely, he’s an underrated vocalist. What is also unique about Helloween is the long almost progressive rock sounding guitar solos on the songs. Again, something you don’t find on traditional thrash record but it sounds so good on this album.

Some might argue that songs titled “Murderer,” “Warrior” and possibly “Victim of Fate” are titles you would expect to find on a Venom album. Those persons are probably not as well versed in metal as they would believe themselves to be. Many mainstream metal bands have songs with similar titles and Helloween is no different. Then again, who really cares about titles when all five songs are played so well. However, the standout for me has to be “Victim of Fate.” That song does it all with the cool intro, the already mentioned melodic vocals and the prog like guitar solo. In addition, there is a spooky sounding whispering part compliments of Hansen which adds a further dimension to the song. It’s the best one in my book and that takes nothing away from the other four.

Track Listing:

1. Starlight
2. Murderer
3. Warrior
4. Victim of Fate
5. Cry For Freedom

Helloween

Kai Hansen- guitar, vocals

Michael Weikath- guitar

Markus Grosskopf- bass

Ingo Schwitchtenberg- drums

Another band stayed beneath my radar in 1985 although I would discover Helloween a year later. While to most people, thrash metal or speed metal wasn’t a thing in 1985, there were some great albums from bands waiting to spring forth upon the world. Helloween was one of them.

Next post: Helloween- Walls of Jericho

To download Rock and Roll Children, go to: http://newbooklovers.com/14510967/rock-and-roll-children.html