Not in my wildest dreams had I imagined that this was the direction Helloween would take with this their twelfth studio album. Helloween never ever sound so hard, aggressive and heavy as they do on 'Gambling with the Devil'.

This is aggression pure, with riffs flying left and right that is borderline thrash metal - they really sound pissed off and let their feelings flow into the songs, and the result is outstanding. After a short classic intro we are thrown off the cliff by the haunting and powerful: "Kill it", "The Saints" is pounding ahead like a steam hammer and has been provided with some classic trademarks like a very catchy chorus and some brilliant twin-leads... Next in line is the classic first single track "As Long as I Fall", which is a bit softer, but still harder than most of their earlier singles.
I could go on with the rest, but will only point out the centrepiece of the album: the three songs: "The Bells of the 7 Hells", "Fallen to Pieces" and "I.M.E", which together builds the 'holy trinity'...

The rest of the pieces of the puzzle have the same high standard, and not a single song falls short, and Helloween has created what in my humble opinion is the best and hardest Helloween album with Andi Deris handling the vocals, and I must admit that I have felt that he has been the weak link in their sound. But his singing style really fits this harder approach to things like a hand in a glove, and I have nothing to object to on his performance on this album.

'Gambling with the Devil' shows the band in scintillating form and they have produced an album that will surely knock quite a few fans off their socks. This is Helloween is excellent shape and it shows that you can teach old dog’s new tricks...

Respect!