958. Helloween / The Time of the Oath. 1996. 4/5

The return of Helloween as a happy band, along with the return to the sound that their fans knew and longed for, as well as an album in Master of the Rings that was at the top of their form, was a relief. Whatever the aberrations that had occurred early in the decade, it appeared that the quintet was back in vogue, and all that was required now was a follow up album that showed that it hadn't been a one-off, and that they could continue to produce the kind of music their hard core fans were looking for. The question was, could they do it?

For me, the first four songs on the album showcase everything that was good on the previous album, and that the news was good. The opening of "We Burn" comes in hard and fast, leaving nothing to the imagination. The drums and bass line tear along, while speed is of the essence in the solo break as well, while Andi's enthusiasm in his vocals is contagious. This dives straight into "Steel Tormentor", which is one of my favourite songs of this era of the band. The song truly charges along, and is a great audience song too, encouraging plenty of supporting vocals along the way. Uli's brilliant drumming throughout is a star attraction, perfectly matching the urgency that the song requires. Just brilliant. "Wake Up the Mountain" again features that superb drive underneath by the drums and bass with the harmony vocals producing another great sing-along rendition. This is followed by "Power" which features some great guitaring from both Roland and track writer Weiki.
For me, the other two-thirds of the album is a bit of a mish mash. The excellence that is apparent on those opening tracks doesn't quite flow through to the remainder of the album. That doesn't make them bad, just different, or even indifferent. They look for something closer to the reflective though not quite as bad as balladish, and also look to draw upon the epic proportions without quite being able to achieve it. "Forever and One (Neverland)" sits in that power ballad genre, slowing up the tempo of the song and letting Andi sing in his soaring harmonies while the keyboards tend to dominate the structure of the song. It isn't a terrible song, but it is noticeable because of the major tempo shift from the opening songs. This becomes exacerbated by "Before the War" which heads back into that fast paced rhythm of Uli Kusch's drums and Marcus Grosskopf's bass driving the song, before Weiki and Roland's solo section really ups the ante nicely. The solo section of this song is the closest these two have come to mirroring what Weiki and Kai were able to do on those early Helloween albums. It sounds terrific, and is the equal of those opening tracks in true metal style.
"A Million to One" is an interesting song, because it has some musical flavour from the Chameleon album, but is written by Andi and Uli, who are the two members who were not in the band at that time. The differing piece of the puzzle that raises it above that album's songs is the harder and heavier rhythm section, and Andi's driving vocals, rather than soft and soaring vocals that highlighted the disappointing songs on that album. "Anything My Mama Don't Like" is a much more straight forward hard rock track with plenty of tongue in cheek about it, an enthusiastic vocal from Andi and supporting players and a raucous band in good spirits. "Kings Will Be Kings" rocks along at a good clip as well, rarely pausing for breath.
The final three tracks are where some problems lie. "Mission Motherland" is a nine minute epic which mixes a whole heap of different styles and tempos within the song, such that I'm not sure works for me at all. Their epics in the past have done it well, but this song eventually comes to bore me, especially through the middle of the track. "If I Knew" goes one further, really slowing up the tempo to what probably isn't quite what you would categorise as a power ballad, but it has many of the characteristics of it. These two songs, along with "Forever and One (Neverland)" would be the ones on this album that are the less likely ones for me.
The album concludes with the title track "The Time of the Oath", a track that while it has its moments, certainly with the riff and Andi's vocals, just feels to be missing something for me. I think it needed to be faster for me to really get into the song, rather than it have this very heavy riff and slow grunging tempo throughout.. Again, it isn't a bad song but it just lacks something that lifts it for me into that higher category on the album.

Overall Helloween has done an excellent job of returning to its roots, and drawing its inspiration from the beginnings of the band's musical writings, while not trying to reproduce them note for note. This is another excellent album, one that shows further growth from their previous album, and continues to point towards a bright future.

Rating:  "Flashing from down under, flesh and blood and thunder".   4/5