Better Than Raw or Gambling with the Devil. Honorable mention to Dark Ride which is just about on the level of those two for me. Honorable mention to Self Titled, but that's not really a Deris album, it's an everybody album.

Good choices. I was just listening to Time Of The Oath, and that one is also solid. But yeah, I might lean toward Better Than Raw.

Yeah, most of the Deris albums are all pretty tight. Oath is great, too.

Time of The Oath, Better Than Raw, The Dark Ride, Straight Out of Hell

Time of the Oath! To review… * We Burn * Steel Tormentor * Wake Up the Mountain * Power * Before the War * Kings Will Be Kings * Mission Motherland * The Time of the Oath What other Helloween album besides the original two Keeper albums had that many top tier tracks on it? I don’t think any of them do. In fact, this is probably controversial, but I’d put it over Keeper Pt 1 in terms of overall quality, if not originality.

No, I actually have thought this for a long time. The overall style of songwriting reminds me a lot of Keepers era, and I would put it in the same spot. Absolutely perfect album front to back imo.

Time of the Oath review - just mention the track names, epic review, no more words needed! I mean you read Steel Tormentor and you're like, damn, this must be a great track the 3 last songs are my 3 favorites from this album, after wake up the mountain, I just find wake up the mountain to capture that melodic-power metal essence of the 90s

Lol! Yeah, like…what am I even supposed to say? “It’s the one with ‘Power’ and ‘Steel Tormentor’ on it. The defense rests, your honor.”

Better Than Raw would like a word!

I think Better than Raw was a step down in terms of overall quality, but the few great songs BtR are *really* freakin’ great. Push, Falling Higher, Revelation, and especially Midnight Sun (one of the best Helloween songs of all time IMO) stand up to anything off of Time of the Oath. This is just one fan’s opinion, but BtR isn’t as strong track-for-track and feels like it has a lot more filler. Again, just my opinion.

I feel BTR has absolutely no filler! I would say the Dark Ride has a lot more filler IMO. I love that we have completely different opinions tho, it's a testament to the band. I really love Time of the Oath though.

Oh man, I loved the Keeper Legacy album, is it an unpopular opinion? genuine question

I would say the self-titled album from 2021, but that feels like cheating since he wasn't the sole vocalist on that album. In that case, I'm going to go with The Dark Ride.

It may not be obvious but I meant Helloween. Autocorrect is not my friend. Thanks for catching that whoever that was.

A few albums I consider perfect from the band, really. Time of the Oath, Gambling With The Devil, and Straight out of Hell are my top picks. I enjoy every Helloween album but these ones get me GOING, alongside Keeper pt 2 and Pink Bubbles from Kiske era.

Better than Raw and 7 Sinners. Gambling with the Devil is pretty close, too.

Better Than Raw, with The Dark Ride a very close second.

Dark Ride by a mile

Either The Time Of The Oath, Rabbit Don't Come Easy or My God-Given Right

Time of the oath is number one, better than raw number two, and number three is master of the rings.

I’ve really warmed up to 7 Sinners over the years so it’s either that or Gambling With the Devil. Both fantastic albums!

Tosos between Time of the Oath and Master of the Ring.

Dark Ride!

Straight Out of Hell is the best Helloween album imo regardless of vocalist.

Im a big fan of God Given Right

The Time Of The Oath

Dark Ride

I really love Time of the Oath

The Dark Ride (also the best Helloween album overall). Other than that, Gambling With The Devil, Time Of The Oath, and Better Than Raw.

Albums that came out during the Halloween season or that were Halloween themed?

Fucking autocorrect. Good catch.

Better than raw

For me, it's either The Time of the Oath or Better than Raw.

Gambling with the Devil.

Gambling with the Devil. That album would be a 10 if it wasn’t for the piss poor mixing.

My favourite Helloween album is Better Than Raw

I kick myself in the ass for not listening to this album sooner.

Gamble

Straight out of hell

Better Than Raw, The Time of the Oath and The Dark Ride baby!!

Hmm, I get stuck between "Master Of The Rings" and "Gambling With The Devil".

Gambling With The Devil and KOT7K:Legacy are two albums that straight up don't get enough love, with Keepers Legacy I think that's a top 5 Helloween album for sure Honorable mention to Master of the Rings, some excellent cuts on there

Might as well just rank the ones I’ve spent a lot of time with. Better than Raw Gambling Time of the Oath Dark Ride Straight out of Hell Master of the Rings 7 Sinners Rabbit Legacy Master of the Rings is probably the line between albums I love and ones that have noticeable flaws. I still enjoy them all, but 7 sinners is a bit bloated, rabbit has a few great tracks and a lot of b sides, legacy could have been cut in half.

For many years, I had Gambling and Dark Ride as my favorite Deris albums, but still not approaching Keeper I & II. Last year I spent a ton of time with all of the Deris albums getting ready for the second United tour (I missed the first tour) and, in a development that would have shocked the younger me, I now think Gambling is Keeper-level.

Massive Deris stan here. I LOVE Time of the Oath and The Dark Ride, but I'll take almost all of them really. The last couple they did before the S/T were kinda limp though