Helloween
7 Sinners
Spinefarm Records
31 October 2010
by Tom Dare
The course of power metal greatness had never run smoothly, particularly in the case of Helloween. After all but defining the genre with the classic Keeper Of The Seven Keys pair of albums, founding guitarist Kai Hansen departed to form Gamma Ray, and after such forgettable records as Pink Bubbles Go Ape (who knew that that one wasn’t going to be a classic just from the title? Oh. Everyone.) vocalist Michael Kiske also left the fold. While a succession of line-up changes have followed in the years since, it wasn’t until a stable core within the band emerged, with it coming some level of consistency.