Helloween are past their creative peak. That's obvious. And so, like many creatively bankrupt act's have done, they've decided to pillage their back catalog in hopes of capitalizing on their respectable legacy. Like many works of self-plagiarism, Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy will likely be touted as a return to form by devout fans desperate for something worthwhile to cling to from a band that has been spiraling into mediocrity for over 15 years.

Legacy, a double album , is absolutely overwrought by compositions that yearn to be epic, but ultimately play as overwritten. Helloween compensate for their lack of new ideas by stacking old ones on top of each other, hoping that by some divine alchemy they can create evocative music. They fail. "The King for One Thousand Years" and "Occasion Avenue", both which eclipse 11 minutes, eventually build up to parts that are enjoyable in the blatantly self-referential sense, but are neither worth their remarkable track lengths.

Helloween are still as painfully bright eyed and rosy cheeked as as always, but with such a pristine and clinical production, even the punchier tracks like "Pleasure Drone" are stripped of any real bite. The proficiency is still here, Markus Grosskoph turns in a particularly dexterous performance, but the songwriting sense and vitality are long gone. Helloween, when they were relevant, could deliver painfully melodic riffs and solos in such a furious manner that it more than made up for how fruity they were. The fury is gone, folks. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that leaves you with.