Hey everyone!

So when thinking of the "Retro album of the Month" I was torn as to which album to pick for the month of June. It's always difficult. While each month a new release is a bit easier to pick because there are only so many albums, the retro album of the month is hard because it's basically every album that has come out before the current release year. With that said I always think of an album that holds a lot of great memories for me. This month it's Helloween's "Time of the Oath"

I can't tell you how many awesome memories come back to me when I listen to this album. It was a much different time in my life as I was just a kid back when this came out and had just graduated high school. Helloween was a band at that time that I owned a few albums from but never really got into them in the same manner that I am into them now.

I had what most people in the states owned, both the keeper albums and Walls of Jericho. I thought the band had long broken up and had no clue who Andi Deris even was at the time.

Also remember that the internet had not yet become that popular and it wasn't currently a big source of information for most people. So I had no clue what Helloween had been doing or if they were even still around. One day I was in a local record shop and I just saw this album sitting there. It had just come out and I was excited to see something else by Helloween finally.

When I got home and put this album in I heard the whistling at the beginning of "We Burn" and as soon as the guitars came in and the actual song came on, my life changed forever. Everything about this album struck me from the awesome vocals of Andi Deris to the amazing songwriting these guys had going on. I didn't even know Master of the Rings existed before this because again, it was a different time where information wasn't as widespread as it is today with social media, the internet, etc. I looked at the lineup in the booklet and saw an almost totally different group of people in the band than what was on the Keeper records, however this album easily became my favorite by the band to date. It had been years since I listened to this record so when I decided to give it another listen it took me back in time........and the magic this album has never went away. I still feel the same way about this album now as I did back then, it has a certain charm and a certain magic about it. Still to this day the guitar and keyboard solos in "If I Knew" give me chills.

This was the album that really made Helloween one of if not my favorite band of all time, and led to a friendship that has lasted almost 17 years. Boy how time flies....

-Tony Webster 6/22/2014

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