Helloween’s second album with their supersized all-star line-up is a fairly logical follow-up to what they were doing on ‘Helloween‘ (2021). ‘Giants & Monsters’ features a similar mix of a contemporary, bombastic take on the power metal sound the band pioneered in the eighties, and occasional AOR leanings, but it just is a better album on all fronts. It is easily the Germans’ best album since 2010’s ‘7 Sinners‘. Admittedly, the self-titled is the only serious competition there, but that doesn’t take away anything from the quality of ‘Giants & Monsters’. This is a must-hear for fans of modern power metal.

The self-titled was a solid album, but apart from the vocal interplay between the rough-edged Andi Deris and the higher, cleaner Michael Kiske, it did not really feel like anything they could not have done without Kiske and guitarist Kai Hansen returning to the fold. ‘Giants & Monsters’ actually does. Hansen, Sascha Gerstner and Michael Weikath seem to be more aware of the possibilities of having three guitarists – to be fair, the most difficult thing to balance musically within their current line-up – and the songwriting in general seems to take the strengths of everyone involved into account notably better this time around.

Speaking of Hansen: he has been more involved with the songwriting on ‘Giants & Monsters’. The powerful opener ‘Giants on the Run’ is his first collaboration with Deris, and it shows. Most of the song is Deris at his melodic best, but the riffy middle section is unmistakably Hansen. ‘We Can Be Gods’ could have been a Gamma Ray song, while the epic closer ‘Majestic’ might just be Hansen’s best composition since the Gamma Ray album of the same name. The solo section is simply mind-blowing, and the tension just keeps building. Helloween hasn’t sounded this good in a long time.

As per usual since his joining, however, the highlight on ‘Giants & Monsters’ is a Gerstner composition. ‘Universe (Gravity for Hearts)’ is an epic, mildly progressive power metal monster, some of the riffs even being borderline thrash metal, and although I generally prefer Deris’ voice, the song is clearly written to fit Kiske’s register, and he does a fantastic job. Gerstner’s other composition ‘Hand of God’ is possibly the most interesting track here; there are elements of AOR and electro-rock, combined to form an irresistibly dark and catchy track. ‘Into the Sun’ is likely Helloween’s best ballad since ‘Time’.

More than its predecessor, ‘Giants & Monsters’ feels like an anthology of all the better aspects of every era of Helloween. That does include the occasional goofy moment, but those generally aren’t as bothersome in the context of this album as they were on the likes of ‘Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II’. The two epics alone are already worth the money, and genuinely the best Helloween songs in a decade and a half. The overall more collaborative feel of ‘Giants & Monsters’ does wonders for the rest of the material.

Recommended tracks: ‘Universe (Gravity for Hearts)’, ‘Majestic’, ‘Hand of God’, ‘Giants on the Run’