Helloween
Walls Of Jericho/Helloween EP

The day had been particularly demanding, and what lay before me was an uninteresting cloudy afternoon; desperately, I was trying to think of something interesting to do, watch a movie, read, anything... but nothing. Despite my efforts, no solution presented itself. Until my eyes fell on a CD by Helloween, which contained their first album and their first EP.

Remembering that I had never wanted to listen to it thoroughly, as I had been carried away by the joyful first two Keepers and other works by other bands, I decided to try listening with a minimum of attention, booklet in hand, hopeful to realize how negligent I had been in depriving myself of these seventy minutes of music branded by the acclaimed Hansen-Weikath duo; and for once, my hopes were not in vain, I certainly had been negligent!
But let's go in order: I took the CD out of the case and inserted it into the stereo, lying down to gaze at the drizzly sky of a February day that had just passed. From the stereo came a sort of intro; the sound of a man waking up, turning on the television, and snorting some drugs is heard; from the television, in the rhythm of the folk song "London Bridge Is Falling Down," a happy Halloween is wished... the intro is quite simple in itself, and anything but musical, but it manages to fit well with the atmospheres this album evokes. It opens with a shriek from a young Kai Hansen, who has little to do with Michael Kiske's angelic voice, as the Helloween EP kicks off with a very fast song about drug addiction, "Starlight".

Kai has a harsh, fierce, sometimes off-key voice, the production is as rough as it gets: I am immediately struck by the lyrics, incredibly prophetic if one thinks of the fate of their own drummer, Ingo Schwichtenberg, a drug addict in fact, who committed suicide under a subway ten years later. It's damn gloomy when I think of the light-hearted lyrics of "Rise And Fall" and "Dr. Stein". Throughout the EP, I find myself immersed in a particular atmosphere, plunged into a gray and dirty suburb, full of violence and misery; and after the drug addict of "Starlight", I encounter the killer of "Murderer", who kills a man in a fight and finds himself mercilessly hunted by the law, or the soldier in "Warrior", who is sent to fight and die in a war with no winners by ruthless men who remain in their shelters moving other pawns like him on the battlefield, until reaching the tormented criminal figure in "Victim Of Fate". In this song, his story is told, reaching the peak of this atmosphere: born in the rotten part of the city, son of a whore and a killer, forced into crime to survive crime, the man wants to escape that corruption, change his life, fly high until he touches the sky but is doomed to die, swallowed by his world; all narrated through chilling solos and guitar dialogues that are still imbued with NWOBHM and thrash, but already starting to take on the style that will distinguish the pumpkins and the entire power metal movement.

The Helloween create with their Hamburg a kind of personal version of the Iron Maiden's London and its characters; just like the early Iron Maiden seem to be the inspiring source of their lyrics and these atmospheres, and like them, Helloween are kids trying to break out of the German underground with an EP of an intensity they probably weren't even aware of, which concludes with "Cry For Freedom", a song quite alien to the previous atmospheres, urging slaves to break free from their chains and conquer their masters united. The EP would have ended but there's no time to breathe as it immediately jumps into "Walls Of Jericho", with the eponymous intro, almost playful. The trumpets solemnly play the tune of "London Bridge Is Falling Down," causing the walls of Jericho to collapse, almost parodying the Bible, and promptly "Ride The Sky" starts, a true anthem-like classic live tune written by Hansen, where it feels like you're climbing higher and higher, soaring and freeing yourself from every burden. And if "Reptile" seems to drag down this album, "Guardians" immediately lifts its fortunes, with a magnificent start where Grosskopf's bass crafts excellent sound designs, and where the chorus is progressively enriched by keyboards at the end. "Phantoms Of Death" doesn't strike until the solos hit, something truly exceptional, as exceptional as the bridge of the subsequent "Metal Invaders". "Gorgar" quickly aligns with "Reptile" among skip songs, while "Heavy Metal (is the law)" reveals itself as one of the greatest metal anthems of all time, complete with sampled audience screams. But no metal anthem and none of the songs listed so far can compare with the concluding "How Many Tears", entirely written by Weikath, which will be the best masterpiece ever to come from his pen: the lyrics are a desperate cry against the wars and the hatred that grips the world; there's not a verse that didn't strike me in this still tragically current text, and it was impossible for me to remain impassive in front of the appeal shouted by Kai's still raw voice, to unite against hatred in defense of human rights, or in front of the sad but heroic solo, concluded by a dreamy 70s-style arpeggio, immediately followed by Schwichtenberg's frantic drums that lead us back to the bridge and finally to the chorus, which a bit like in "Guardians" achieves even greater intensity at the end enhanced by keyboards.

"Walls Of Jericho/Helloween EP" is the best composition by Helloween, and in my opinion, surpasses the subsequent two Keepers, or at least matches them, despite the poor production and Kai's very raw voice, which nonetheless perfectly fits songs like these, just listen to "Victim Of Fate" sung by the much more gifted Kiske to notice the difference. An album not to be missed, of great importance for power and thus for metal in general, with a unique atmosphere.