Kai Hansen – Born With a Hammer

Country: Germany
Style: Heavy Metal / Hard Rock / Power Metal
Label: earMUSIC
Release date: 18 September 2026

Kai Hansen announced Born With a Hammer on 17 June, the same day the opening track “Feeding the Beast” arrived with an official video. Two more previews followed: “Welcome to Life” in early August and “Wait and See” on 2 September, the latter cut from footage of a trip to Slovakia, Hansen behind the wheel of a Mustang and in the studio. The album, his first solo outing since the 2016 Kai Hansen & Friends record XXX – Three Decades in Metal, came out on earMUSIC with ten songs.

The credits are short and specific. Eike Freese plays guitar and co-produced the record with Hansen and Heaven Shall Burn guitarist Alexander Dietz, who also plays. Carcass drummer Dan Wilding is behind the kit, and Tim Hansen of Induction adds further guitar. Dietz and Wilding were already part of the XXX sessions, so this is a familiar circle rather than an all-star guest list.

Musically, the label pitched it as a mix of heavy metal, punk attitude and hard rock drive, and that description holds. Very little here sounds like Helloween or Gamma Ray. “End of the Road” comes closest to the Hamburg sound Hansen helped invent, while the title track carries an unmistakable Queen-style theatricality. “I.D.G.A.F.” rides a simple, catchy guitar figure over an electronic-flavoured beat, and “Wait and See” leans on the heavier end of the record with a synthetic pulse underneath the riffs.

Lyrically the tone is loose and personal, with titles such as “Don’t Care” and “I.D.G.A.F.” that work as a mission statement from a musician with nothing left to prove. Variety is the record’s calling card, and it is clearly the point.

Verdict: not every experiment lands, and listeners who want Keeper-era speed will have to wait for the next Helloween record. As a snapshot of what Hansen does when nobody else sets the brief, it is lively, generous and clearly made for fun.

Best tracks:

Feeding The Beast
Born With A Hammer
End Of The Road
I.D.G.A.F.

Author’s rating: 8/10