Thankfully, ‘Unarmed’ was not the only album which Helloween released in 2010, as they also brought out ‘7 Sinners’ which was much more like their normal fare. It is almost as if they needed to prove to others that they also understood recording a 17-minute-long medley of their songs with a seventy-piece orchestra from Prague was possibly something of a mistake, so this was back to basics. There will always be those who feel the departure of both Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske had a massive detrimental impact on the band, but Andi Deris took on the lead singer role from Michael back in 1994, so by this time he had been in the band for 16 years, during which time they had released some solid albums.

‘7 Sinners’ is for me just that, a straightforward power metal album from a band who had already been doing it for more than 25 years at this point, with founder members Michael Weikath and Markus Grosskopf still there (as they are today, some 11 years further on). Mind you, there is still room for a flute solo, which is not exactly normal fare for a metal band. The performances are good, the vocals excellent, but there is little here to get too excited about to be honest. It is a Helloween album, so one knows exactly what to expect, but not in the same class as the first three, but is it likely they will ever return to those heights? Mind you, “World of Fantasy” is a commercial rocker which actually manages to lift the album somewhat, and one can imagine Helloween fans worldwide breathing a sigh of relief after ‘Unarmed’.

Rating: 6/10

Links:
https://www.helloween.org/
https://www.nuclearblast.de/en/