{"id":19731,"date":"2026-08-10T16:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mannersofhate.com\/?p=19731"},"modified":"2026-09-03T18:26:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:26:49","slug":"review-helloween-walls-of-jericho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/review-helloween-walls-of-jericho\/","title":{"rendered":"Helloween: Thirty-five years tearing down the Walls of Jericho"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00abNow Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in.<\/em>
And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.<\/em>
And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.<\/em>
And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.<\/em>
And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.<\/em>
And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord.<\/em>\u00ab<\/p>\nJoshua 6, Book of Joshua (Old Testament, The Bible)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The pumpkins’ appearance at Rock Fest Barcelona 2018<\/strong> was one of the highlights of that edition and probably one of the most intense experiences I have ever had in front of a stage. The long-awaited reunion of Weikath<\/strong>, Grosskopf<\/strong>, Hansen<\/strong> and Kiske<\/strong> had been going around for many years and it seemed that the moment when their comeback tour to Spain would finally be announced would never arrive. It must be said that Helloween<\/strong> is one of the bands that has marked my life the most, probably being one of the bands I listened to the most during the first ten years of my life. The \u00abKeepers Of The Seven Keys<\/strong>\u00bb accompanied me throughout my school years and played an important role in my musical development over the years. And although they are two timeless records and genuine jewels of the genre, \u00abWalls Of Jericho<\/strong>\u00bb is another of those releases that I believe should occupy the same place in the kingdom of power metal<\/em>. I had the pumpkins’ debut recorded on cassette, and although at first it was difficult for me to enter the realm of German speed\/power metal<\/em>, once I finally crossed the threshold and entered their territory, I could never leave its rooms again, and that was more than two decades ago<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first incarnation of Helloween<\/strong>, known as Gentry<\/strong>, was formed in 1978 by Hansen<\/strong> and Piet Sielck<\/strong>, current vocalist and leader of Iron Savior<\/a><\/strong>. The band went through several name changes during the following years, becoming known as Second Hell<\/strong> in 1981 and Iron Fist<\/strong> in 1982. In 1985 \u00abHelloween<\/strong>\u00bb saw the light of day, the mini-album that introduced the Hamburg quartet, a release consisting of eight tracks filled with the fast and powerful sound that would characterise bands of the era such as the demos of Lucifer’s Heritage<\/strong> \u2013 later renamed Blind Guardian<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 or Rage’s first two albums, \u00abReign Of Fear<\/strong>\u00bb and \u00abExecution Guaranteed<\/strong>\u00bb. That release, barely twenty-five minutes long, was the perfect example of the sound the pumpkins possessed during their early years. The band had been formed one year earlier under the leadership of Michael Weikath<\/strong> and Kai Hansen<\/strong> on guitars, the latter also taking on lead vocals, with Markus Grosskopf<\/strong> on bass and the late Ingo Schwichtenberg<\/strong> behind the drums<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later that same year, barely six months after the release of their debut EP, the Teutons entered Musiclab Studios<\/strong> in Berlin, at the time located in East Germany, in the German Democratic Republic. The composition and recording process took them little more than a month, between September and October of that same year, with the album being officially released on this very day in 1985. \u00abWalls Of Jericho<\/strong>\u00bb would be the first of the few studio albums the band released under the Noise Records<\/strong> label, which had previously released their self-titled EP and would later distribute both \u00abKeeper Of The Seven Keys<\/strong>\u00bb albums before merging with an EMI subsidiary in 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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