A rather peculiar return by the mighty Helloween. After 2-3 brilliant albums in a row, here comes “My God-Given Right” that will most definitely divide all the Pumpkin fans out there. The only certain thing is that the legendary German band has offered us far better albums than this one. For starters, the basic problem is that it is an uneven bunch of songs the majority of which is totally forgettable and you can’t help but skipping them after a couple of listening sessions.
Andi Deris is once again the axis around which every one in Helloween revolves around and naturally he has the lion’s share from a compositional standpoint (with Sascha Gerstner being the runner up). Surely, there are a few remarkable moments (eg. The title track and “Stay Crazy”) but unfortunately the mediocre tracks reign over the new record. In addition the lyrics are childish (to say the least) and Helloween doesn’t succeed in getting away from all the detrimental power metal cliché. Helloween is the most heralded representative of the European metal genre and we expect nothing less than the best of them…after all, they did so lately with “7 Sinners” and “Straight Out Of Hell”. This is a much unneeded safe offering by the lads.
Highlight: Superb photo shooting in the general post apocalyptic theme of the booklet.
