Helloween - Giants & Monsters - review
Helloween - Giants & Monsters - review
Tracklist
01. Giants On The Run02. Savior Of The World
03. A Little Is A Little Too Much
04. We Can Be Gods
05. Into The Sun
06. This Is Tokyo
07. Universe (Gravity For Hearts)
08. Hand Of God
09. Under The Moonlight
10. Majestic
11. Out Of Control [bonus]
A review by
musclassia September 07, 2025
Nostalgia was certainly at play with Helloween 2021; on top of it featuring the first appearances in the 21st century of both Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen (forming a vocal trident with Andi Deris) on a Helloween studio release, it also had artwork that called back clearly to the Keeper Of The Seven Keys albums, and several songs harked back to this era compositionally. While the album wasn’t flawless, it was overall a successful return to the band for Kiske and Hansen, and it laid strong foundations for the band to build upon going forward.
Giants & Monsters is the result of that building, and the opening song “Giants On The Run” offers interesting contrast to “Out For The Glory” from the previous record; while that song felt like an intentional recapitulation of the 80s Keepers sound with its rousing anthemic power metal energy, “Giants On The Run” is dynamic and multi-faceted. A songwriting collaboration between Hansen and Deris, it has understated clean verses trading off with a typical fast power metal chorus, and goes through a series of distinct phases as it progresses, including some surprisingly aggressive vocals in its bridge, an anthemic chanting section near the end, and its fair share of solos. Hansen and Deris play off one another successfully in the track, and Hansen bleeds hints of Gamma Ray into sections of the song to good effect.
Vocal collaborations across the album are reasonably well explored, with over half the tracks having 2 or 3 of the singers having leading roles. However, “Giants On The Run” is the only song with more than one songwriter credited, and one can’t help but wonder whether there’s a missed opportunity in not having further songwriting collaborations. Having so many writers contributing individually, while not exactly uncommon on a Helloween album, does make the album feel like more of a compilation rather than a cohesive and meticulously assembled tracklist, particularly with there being a 50:50 split between fast power metal songs (“Giants On The Run”, “Savior Of The World”, “We Can Be Gods”, “Universe (Gravity For Hearts”, and “Majestic”) and mid-tempo anthems/ballads (“A Little Is A Little Too Much”, “Into The Sun”, “This Is Tokyo”, “Hand Of God”, and “Under The Moonlight”).
The variety of songwriters does also have the result that consistent enjoyment of the record relies on equally enjoying each writer’s contributions, and that’s not quite the case for me with Giants & Monsters. I don’t have any intrinsic dislike for Deris’s writing (“Nabataea” from Straight Out Of Hell is one of my favourite songs from the band’s entire discography), but his 3 sole-credited tracks here are my least favourite inclusions on the tracklist. “A Little Is A Little Too Much” is a cheesy mid-tempo anthem, and it has some nice Deris/Kiske vocal exchanges along with a strong solo, but it’s ultimately quite a throwaway track (not to mention the much-dreaded final chorus key modulation). “Into The Sun” is a ballad, and while it’s a competent effort, I would have been happier for the band to continue the ‘no-ballads’ policy over from Helloween. The weakest song on Giants & Monsters for me, however, is “This Is Tokyo”, whose tedious verses and grating chorus have me consistently reaching for the skip button.
With all that said, however, there’s definitely a lot more to like about Giants & Monsters than there is to dislike. While the previous paragraph might indicate a prejudice against slower Helloween songs, I do enjoy “Under The Moonlight” quite a bit; perhaps I just find these types of songs to work better with Kiske on lead vocals rather than Deris, but there’s a playful whimsy and charm to the vocal melodies across this track that makes a good stab at scratching the “Dr. Stein” itch. Beyond that, I find the album really shines with its faster cuts; “Savior Of The World” is a straightforward but stirring effort that serves as a great lead vocal vehicle for Kiske and his evergreen voice (and remarkable pitch range), while “We Can Be Gods” lets all three singers demonstrate their strengths synergistically while including quality solos.
Helloween 2021’s clear standout track was its epic 12-minute closer “Skyfall”, and nothing here reaches those peaks, but the 8-minute duo “Universe (Gravity For Hearts)” and “Majestic” are arguably the highlights of this record. The former has a “Skyfall” energy to its up-tempo verses, and is quite proggy in its structure; its standout moment is perhaps a scintillating lead guitar riff coming right after a grandstand vocal section around the 5-minute mark, which leads into another of the album’s excellent guitar solos. “Majestic” is a tad slower, but more triumphant with its rousing “Halloween”-esque chorus, and again it traverses an impressive number of distinct sections across its extended runtime. It also is perhaps the best demonstration of Matthias Ulmer’s keyboard arrangements on the album, with some very pleasant keyboard flourishes to be encountered here.
For me, Giants & Monsters has less stellar peaks and lower lowlights than its predecessor; however, on a song-to-song basis, there’s perhaps a greater number of tracks here that I find myself eager to revisit than there were on Helloween, so ultimately the two records work out to be roughly similar in quality. I don’t find Giants & Monsters to be a standout addition to the Helloween discography, but at the same time it does more than enough to cement the Pumpkins United era of Helloween as a prosperous one.
Written on 07.09.2025 by
Written on 07.09.2025 by
Hey chief let's talk why not
Rating:
8.0
8.0
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Rating:
8.0 |
Helloween surprised the world by reuniting with former members Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske, two central pieces of the golden "Keys" era. They did this not by replacing or expelling anyone, but by fully integrating the two into their mystique and sound once again. In the talent, creativity, and differences between the seven flows the essence of this upgraded Helloween. Read more ›› |
Comments
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Posts: 9641
Didn't expect to enjoy a Helloween album in 2025 this much.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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Posts: 371
Imo this is their best album in decades and i like all songs except "This is Tokyo" and “Under The Moonlight”  
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| Metal Spartan 78
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---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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Posts: 1831 Written by Novas on 10.09.2025 at 13:38 Isn’t that just a regular pug then? Since most pugs sound like they’re dying anyway.
---- Need a break from headbanging? Restore your street cred by visiting my hip-hop list! Tha Swagnum Opus: A Selection Of Hip-Hop For The Curious Metalhead
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Posts: 371 Written by [user id=336916] on 09.09.2025 at 00:25 I Agree..Unfortunately, a lot of his songs end up as bonus tracks and they are better than some of the regular ones on the albums imo!  
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| Metal Spartan 78
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Metal Spartan 78
Account deleted Written by Metal Invader on 11.09.2025 at 15:26 I agree 100%. Grosskopf has written some great tracks that should've been on the actual album, especially on Gambling With The Devil. Speaking of bonus tracks, on the last self-titled, even though it wasn't written by Grosskopf, "Golden Times" was the best song on that album, yet it was only a bonus track.
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Posts: 261 Written by A Real Mönkey on 10.09.2025 at 18:08 Haha, guess you're right 😂
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Posts: 87
This album is great. I can’t stop playing it. I find it to be more consistent than the previous one. I hated the Tokyo song at first but it has grown on me. It’s a very balanced album with a few songs that are great
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