Helloween - The Time of the Oath (1996)^{Release ID: 801}

Helloween’s last album, Master of the Rings, was a comeback album returning to pure Power Metal, featuring line up changes after the maligned yet underrated Pink Bubbles and Chameleon. On The Time of the Oath, Helloween double down on this and deliver (in my opinion) an amazing album that easily rivals the Keeper of the Seven Keys albums.

We Burn is a blistering album opener that is perhaps the best song of their entire career up to that point, and plainly one of the best Power Metal songs period. The guitars are wild, twisting like melodic lightning as the nonstop double bass drumming lays down some intense power. The soaring, layered vocals are not without edge, and the bass has some truly funky noodling of its own. Plainly said, the song is a masterpiece.

Now, every following song doesn’t quite match that astounding opener, but almost all of them feature fantastic work from each member. I know people hold the Seven Keys albums in a very special place as some of the earliest great works in Power Metal, but the fact is that the band have never sounded as good as they do here. This album is the peak of their ability and songwriting so far, and the production is super clear, fantastically mixed so that you can hear those wonderful basslines and each layer of melodic guitar, without sounding overproduced or modern in any way.