It would be tempting to compare Helloween’s first album after the return of singer Michael Kiske and founding guitarist Kai Hansen to the reunion that made Iron Maiden a three-guitar band. A better comparison would be Testament’s reunion with Alex Skolnick and Greg Christian. Maybe a weird comparison, but like ‘The Formation Of Damnation’, ‘Helloween’ is a good album, though not something the band could not have made without the return of historic band members. However, after the insultingly poor ‘Straight Out Of Hell’ and the occasionally far too goofy ‘My God Given Right’, ‘Helloween’ is a bit of a return to form.

One thing the expanded Helloween line-up does run with on their self-titled sixteenth album is the possibilities offered by having multiple singers. Andi Deris in particular seems to get a kick out of contrasting and harmonizing his lower, rawer voice with Kiske’s squeakily clean highs in the songs that he has written. This notable mutual respect between Deris and Kiske was already key in making the live releases with this line-up so good and ‘Helloween’ is no different. Despite some key lines, Hansen’s role on ‘Helloween’ is mainly that of a guitarist. He is a secondary singer more than anything here.

But how does the music on ‘Helloween’ sound? Honestly, not very different from other recent Helloween releases. It is notably better than its two predecessors and ‘Rabbit Don’t Come Easy’, but overall, it is still the hypermelodic, uptempo power metal sound they pioneered with an above average amount of AOR influences in many of the songs. That is not a complaint, as the melodic rocker ‘Best Time’ is easily one of the greatest songs here. It is highly reminiscent of the better moments of Unisonic, which Hansen and Kiske were a part of, but surprisingly, it was written by Deris and guitarist Sascha Gerstner.

Metal is still here in spades, however, and the more traditional tracks are the better ones of that part of the equation. ‘Mass Pollution’ and ‘Fear Of The Fallen’ have a couple of cool riffs with a distinct NWOBHM vibe, while ‘Rise Without Chains’ and the midly Accept-ish ‘Indestructible’ could have been singles from any latter-day Helloween album. As usual though, the somewhat surprising tracks are the most memorable ones. Gerstner’s dramatic midtempo stomper ‘Angels’ cleverly toys with dynamics, especially when its haunting chorus enters out of nowhere. ‘Cyanide’ might seem like a fairly standard upper mid-tempo Helloween track, but has a feel the band hasn’t shown for a long time.

Anyone who likes any twenty-first century Helloween album can blindly buy their self-titled. Just don’t expect another ‘Keeper Of The Seven Keys’. Not that ‘Helloween’ needed to be that; it’s got notably less filler than the second ‘Keeper’ album, though a few songs feel a bit phoned-in. Overall, Helloween deserves all the praise they can get for not forcing themselves to make another ‘Keeper’ album. Instead, you can hear a bunch of old friends making some music they enjoy. Admittedly, I don’t enjoy every single track as much as they do, but the lack of pretense on ‘Helloween’ is part of why it is as good as it is.

Recommended tracks: ‘Best Time’, ‘Cyanide’, ‘Angels’, ‘Fear Of The Fallen’