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This is Helloween in their prime, on the two albums which defined their career. Now both have been reissued on 180g vinyl, bringing back memories of why they were regarded at the time as pioneers of power metal.

The first, from 1987, was almost progressive in its reach, with a sense of adventure that still captures the imagination almost 30 years later. Listening to the musicianship and expressive creativity fermented on songs like Halloween, A Little Time and Twilight Of The Gods makes you realise the German band were setting standards that others have subsequently followed.

The second album, from ’88, is more commercial – through tracks such as I Want Out, still perhaps the band’s ultimate anthem, and Dr. Stein – but it complements the more exhaustive approach of its predecessor. The two albums together are among the most essential metal records of the end of the 80s.

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.