Helloween has always been a sticky wicket for yours truly. I worshipped their debut EP and the first two albums, which basically were the Old Testament for how Euro power metal should sound. With Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II came the disturbing trend of incorporating candy-coated, cutesy, tongue-in-cheeks numbers presumably designed to appeal to 12 year old girls and soccer moms. When they titled the follow-up album Pink Bubbles Go Ape, Steel Druhm packed his bags, said his goodbyes to Gorgar and decamped from the Helloween fan club. So how are they faring as a band in 2013, years after I bailed on their cheesy, German melothrash?
German Metal
Paradox – Tales of the Weird Review
Paradox has been knocking around for ages, with few albums resulting. Steel Druhm is here to fill you in on the latest from these Germanic mavens of melo-thrash. Can one of metal’s least prolific bands sway the nostalgic metal heart of the Steel One?
Destruction – Spiritual Genocide Review
Happy Anniversary to Destruction!! 30 long years in the thrashing biz and biz has mostly been good. To help celebrate, they delivered a brand new album for our listening enjoyment. Steel Druhm dons his party hat and tells us if Spiritual Genocide is a party thrasher or a party crasher.
Orden Ogan – To the End Review
Who doesn’t like Blind Guardian and Rage? Orden Ogan sure as hell does, as their new opus ably demonstrates. Its rich, creamy German power metal all day long on To the End and there are enough layered vocal harmonies here to choke a white whale! That means there are lots!
Rebellion – Arminus: Furor Teutonicus Review
More power metal reviews by Steel Druhm? When is enough really enough? Rebellion rocks the classic Grave Digger style of Germanic power metal and with several ex Digger members onboard, they usually get it right. This time though? Tricky question.
Paragon – Force of Destruction Review
Steel Druhm heard the cries for more power metal and now he’s running amok with power reviews! This time its Germany’s long toiling speedsters, Paragon. They put the “power” in power metal and Mr. Steel surely appreciates that since there’s quite a power shortage in his neck of the woods.
Mob Rules – Cannibal Nation Review
People say we don’t review enough power metal around here. We haven’t gotten all that much lately and besides that, we’re trying to only review death metal! Regardless, Steel Druhm has a big ole bag of new power metal he needs to review and the first up is Germany’s Mob Rules. Don’t say we never listen to our loyal sheeples.
Grave Digger – Clash of the Gods Review
Year after year I’ve waited for Grave Digger to recapture the power and glory of the Rheingold era. Finally, they’ve stopped digging a trench of mediocrity and delivered the Rheingoods!!
Sophicide – Perdition of the Sublime Review
Technical death metal was the darling of the death metal scene about 5 or 6 years ago, but since the ever-growing retro-death craze has begun to take over the number of quality technical death metal releases that I’ve gotten my hands on has dramatically decreased. Still, that didn’t stop the now 22 year-old Adam Sazslo from writing a bunch of pretty fucking sweet techy songs and getting himself a worldwide deal with Willowtip. Perdition of the Sublime is Sophicide’s debut record and one can see why this record – produced by someone who can’t tour to support it – is being released by a label of this quality: because it’s a truly elite technical death metal experience.
Grave Digger – Home at Last EP Review
Grave Digger is back with a new EP. Seriously, this stuff is so rudimentary, it makes Accept sound like Dream Theater.