Helloween - The Time Of The Oath

Helloween in the 90's basically sound even more like Gamma Ray in my opinion, but absolute classics such as 'Power' and the title track make this record better than it really is. The first half of the album is weak in comparison with the latter half, but i don't think the band were expecting to beat their first three albums in terms of quality. A good album, even if barely anyone listened to Helloween in 1996.

Personally I love the whole album, I think it is one of their best if not THE best with Andi on the vocals.
And not only because of ''Power'' and the title track but also because of ''Kings will be kings'', ''Forever and one'', ''Steel tormentor'' (...)

I love it just a bit less than the 2 keepers. Just a bit.

This album is killer... a step up from Master of the Rings

No one else think the production is kind of muddy? It's like the instruments float together quite often and it's difficult to discern what's really happening. Oh well, this is one of their most consistent albums, Forever And One and Kings Will Be Kings are quite boring but other than that it's all good.

My favorite album from them. Should deserve the status of a power metal classic.

A bit going to metal roots and even to heavier as few opening songs, but then to PM roots anyway

IMHO my favorite album, loved it when i bought the LP in 1996, still love it as much 21 years later

I love this album but less their early albums. Do they have a similar sounding/vibe album?
Thanks

Kind of great an album with definitely some songs for future listenings. I used to enjoy this album a lot during the initial listens, but afterwards some of these songs start to feel somewhat repetitive and similiar to each other, and I think there is too much of rehashing the old Helloween material, i.e. the dual lead guitar parts. Going beyond 60 minutes is risky business in album length and in this case it did result in disposable songs like A Million To One, Anything My Mama Don't Like, If I Knew and the title track. Steel Tormentor and Wake up The Mountain are what I'd pick as favourites, and as a rule of thumb, the short songs seem to beat the longer ones on this album.

It's better an album than I remembered it was. While the songs are generally better than on Master of the Rings, I don't think there's absolute killers like Sole Survivor and Where the Rain Grows on tTofO.

Best song steel tormentor

Wake up The Mountain and Anything My Mama Don't Like weak songs, but otherwise quite good.

"Mission Motherland" is great. Production is pretty damn awful though.

First Helloween album I ever heard, instantly loved it and still do! It's fun, catchy and energetic, but yeah, production isn't great, sadly. Still, one of the best Deris era albums, together with Better Than Raw. Favorite songs: "Steel Tormentor", "Power", "Before The War" and "We Burn".

This is an interesting release and given their reputation I thought it would be a little better, there are good songs, but there are some very uninteresting songs, I don't understand why Helloween insist on making albums with such long durations if in the end they lose consistency, since in the middle there are many fillers, of good songs we have We Burn, Power, Before The War, Mission Motherland and Steel Tormentor, which is the best song on the whole album. Although these songs are good to great, they are not on the same level as Sole Survivor and Where The Grain Rows from Master of The Rings, which makes me prefer Master to this one. As for the rest of the songs, there are some decent bits, but overall I think most of them are pretty average and there are a few weak ones, such as Anything My Mama Don't Like and Kings Will Be Kings. Overall, it's a good album, but I think it could be a bit better if it wasn't so long.

If it's better than raw The Dark Ride is debatable, but definitely tops any other album after "Keepers". Production is indeed a bit muddy, but for mid-90s I'd say it's bearable.

My personal Top 3 songs from the album:

Power
The Time Of The Oath
Forever And One (Neverland)

Interesting bonus track: Light In The Sky

Excellent drumming