Release Date: August 29, 2025 (Reigning Phoenix Music)
Helloween Giants & Monsters album review
In this Helloween Giants & Monsters album review, we find a band forty years into their career and still refusing to slow down. If anything, Giants & Monsters feels like a victory lap with the throttle pinned. This isn’t just a band looking back on four decades of power metal glory, it’s a band still writing the next chapter, and doing so with the full weight of their “Pumpkins United” lineup firing on all cylinders.
The premise alone in this Helloween Giants & Monsters album review is mouthwatering for fans. Three iconic vocalists, Michael Kiske, Andi Deris, and Kai Hansen trading lines like heavyweight champions swapping blows, flanked by the triplet guitar trifecta of Weikath, Hansen, and Sascha Gerstner, anchored by Markus Grosskopf’s bass and Dani Löble’s powerhouse drumming. But what makes Giants & Monsters more than just a roster flex is how cohesive it all sounds. Where the 2021 self titled reunion record occasionally felt like two separate Helloweens sharing space, this time every song feels like the work of one unified force.
The Sound of Pumpkins United, Refined
Produced again by Charlie Bauerfeind and Dennis Ward, the album retains the crisp, modern production of its predecessor. Clear enough to catch every harmony, heavy enough to keep the double kicks rattling your ribcage. The difference is in the songwriting chemistry. With contributions from five different members, this Helloween Giants & Monsters album review swings between classic speed metal, melodic hard rock, sprawling epics, and soaring ballads, yet never loses its thread.
Opening track “Giants on the Run” sets the tone: a Hansen/Deris penned mini epic with galloping riffs, layered harmonies, and a midsection that nods to Blind Guardian’s operatic grandeur before tearing back into speed. It’s the kind of opener that announces, “Yes, we’re still the masters of this game.”
“Saviour of the World” follows with Kiske at the helm, channelling peak Keeper of the Seven Keys energy. Pure, joyful power metal in its most unfiltered form. Weikath’s fingerprints are all over it, and it shows in the classic major key choruses and precision guitar interplay.
Then comes “A Little Is a Little Too Much.” A deceptively sweet sounding Deris/Kiske duet with an ‘80s radio rock sheen hiding lyrics that take a decidedly more adult turn. It’s playful, catchy, and proof that Helloween can still slip in surprises without losing their edge.
Hansen makes his mark with “We Can Be Gods”, a speed metal barnstormer with piano flourishes and an anthemic midsection that feels like a stadium singalong waiting to happen. It’s also the first track to feature all three vocalists in full trade off mode. A formula the band uses sparingly, making those moments even more potent.
The emotional core of the album hits with “Into the Sun”, a lush, string laced ballad about reincarnation. Deris and Kiske’s voices intertwine beautifully, one grittier and earthy, the other pristine and soaring. It’s heartfelt without tipping into saccharine territory, and the guitar solo is a thing of slow burning beauty.
“This Is Tokyo” might split the room. A bouncy, hook heavy love letter to Japan that’s more hard rock than power metal but its sincerity is undeniable, especially knowing Deris’ deep personal connection to the country.
Gersteners’ “Universe (Gravity for Hearts)” is the proggy centrepiece thats over eight minutes of shifting tempos, big melodies, and cosmic imagery. It’s intricate without feeling self indulgent, and its theme of interconnection gives it a quiet emotional weight.
Things take a darker, groovier turn with “Hand of God”, a moodier number that flirts with industrial pulse before opening up into a huge, singable chorus. It’s one of the album’s unexpected highlights, showing that Helloween can colour outside their own lines and still sound unmistakably like themselves.
Weikath brings it back to familiar ground with “Under the Moonlight”, a quirky mid paced number that wouldn’t feel out of place on Keeper I or II, complete with Kiske’s unmistakable flair.
And then there’s “Majestic,” the eight minute finale that earns its title. Written by Hansen, it’s equal parts cosmic odyssey and self mythologizing anthem (“We’re back and we’re the Masters of Power Metal”), packed with three vocalist interplay, shifting movements, and enough guitar heroics to leave a crater in your speakers.
The verdict in our Helloween Giants & Monsters album review.
Is this album perfect? Not exactly, there are a couple of tracks that feel more like deep cuts than future setlist staples. But that doesnt necessarily translate badly. It actually works here. The peaks are very high, and the overall cohesion, energy, and inventiveness make this easily the band’s strongest album since Master of the Rings. It’s more confident and adventurous than the 2021 reunion record, and crucially, it feels like a band together, not a nostalgia act riding its own coattails.
Forty years in, Helloween are still finding new ways to be Helloween. Giants & Monsters is a reminder that when the pumpkins unite, they still tower over the field.
Pre-order Giants & Monsters Here
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 Metal Horns. A late career classic from power metal’s eternal champions.
Giants & Monsters Track List:
1..Giants On The Run
2.Savior Of The World
3.A Little Is A Little Too
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
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