In Hamburg, Germany, the bands Iron Fist and Powerfool decided to join forces in order to bring the music they loved to the world. It may or may not be known to you all that this single band that was born that particular day has been in the music industry for over 20 years. They had enormous successes with their albums ‘The Keeper of the Seven Keys’ I and II. Today, the band returns with an album that has to honour those two releases and maybe even go beyond them.

'The King For A 1000 Years' shows that Helloween ruled and will always rule. The epic opener of  ‘The Keeper...’ is both powerful as catchy and ever since the early nineties, vocalist Andi Deris hasn’t lost a single bit of power. His strengths are still in the high-pitched parts, but even the rawer vocal lines are very well balanced, in a way that it doesn’t overwhelm the listener.
Furthermore, the songs on CD1 are all very, very good. I couldn’t help hopping along with the energetic ‘Invisible Man’, the mind blowing ‘Pleasure Drone’ and the sarcastic, but hilarious ‘Mrs. God’.

‘Mrs. God’, at the same time the single of the album, starts off with a rather ‘twisted’ arpeggio that returns throughout the song. At first it struck me as being really weird, but when I listened the song for some more times, it became rather unique. The contrast with the melodic and catchy chorus is even more of a praise because of the little jazzy bass-solo that can be heard just before the song ends.

CD2 holds another 7 tracks next to the 6 ones featured on CD1. The one song I thought was the very best of this release is the opener: ‘Occasion Avenue’. With lyrics I found devastatingly real and a melody that is suitable for every mood, ‘Occasion Avenue’ is what Helloween stands for: power, melody, irony, reality.

The duet with Candice Night, ‘Light The Universe’ is a nice semi-ballad that won’t please all of the Helloween fans, however. I think this song would have been better off on CD1, and instead have ‘Pleasure Drone’ in its place here.

 

There is so much more to say about this album, but alas, the time for reviewing is short. The only thing I have left to say is that Helloween have made a worthy successor of the ‘Keeper’ I and II albums. This is a must-have for all the Helloween fans and also for the ones who want to get into Helloween. Get it as soon as possible!