Helloween’s maverick decision in 2016 to merge their current and classic line-ups turned out to be a masterstroke. What could have been an ungainly, Frankenstein’s Monster-style assemblage of musical body parts instead resulted in a kind of German metal Avengers, an unlikely supergroup where all the members happened to have been in the same band at different times.
The first album this new iteration released, 2021’s Helloween, was good, but an obvious desire to not reignite past acrimonies lent it an air of cautiousness – the musical equivalent of an ex-wife tiptoeing around the party so as not to upset the current partner. There’s no such issues with this follow-up. Giants & Monsters is a top-tier Helloween album, one that can sit alongside their twin high points Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt 1 and Pt 2 without disgracing itself.
