Italian funsters Trick Or Treat caused quite a stir at Sentinel Daily HQ with their last album, Creepy Symphonies, when it came out last year, so I was keen to get hold of this new live album, recorded on the tour the band undertook to promote the record.

Of course it doesn’t disappoint. If anything the rawness of the recording only improves tracks like Have A Nice Judgement Day, which sends the assembled throng into paroxysms of joy with it’s fast-paced, off-the-scale guitar heroism from Guido Benedetti and Luca Venturelli and Alle Conti‘s vocals, which are fabulous throughout.

As this is the band’s first official live album, there’s material here from right across the band’s seven album career, with early highlight Loser Song (from 2009’s Tin Soldiers) testifying to the solidity of the band’s sound throughout their career. For a set that spans seventeen years the cohesion between the tracks featured here is testament to the overlying vision which propels the band forward.

Aquarius: Diamond Dust adds a little Avantasia to the usual mix of Helloween and Gamma Ray, but I have to say that over the course of the album the obviousness of Trick Or Treat’s influences matters less and less as the whole set becomes merely a celebration of European power metal as a living, breathing, force for good. It’s impossible – even if you have only the slightest affinity for this style of music – to sit through A Creepy Night Live, with all it’s double kick runs, it’s impossible key changes, it’s fist-in-the-air, cheesy grin madness – without just giving yourself to the spectacle that is unfolding before you.

Former guitarist Luca Cabri makes an appearance on closing classic Like Donald Duck, and Whitesnake‘s Michele Luppi and Avantasia b-voxer Chiara Tricarico join in the fun along the way, the former on Take Your Chance , the latter adding her huge talent to Tears Against Your Smile, but, worthy though these guests are, this is an album that’s all about celebrating Trick Or Treat, and in those terms it’s an absolute, unmitigated success. All hail the Kings of Happy Metal!

A Creepy Night Live releases on December 8th.