A lot could be said about the ups and downs of Helloween and their numerous line-up changes. Suffice to say that this album sees original guitarist/vocalist Kai Hansen (in the band 1984-89) and vocalist Michael Kiske (1986-94) reunite with the current line-up of the band, which still includes ever-present members Michael Weikath (guitar) and Markus Grosskopf (bass) plus interim members Andi Deris (vocals, 1994-), Sascha Gerstner (guitar, 2003-), and Daniel Löble (drums, 2005-).
In other words, the band will continue with three lead vocalists (including guitarist Kai Hansen who also is a lead vocalist) and three guitarists. That’s a lot of chefs in the kitchen. Most of the band’s issues in the past can be traced to several strong personalities, several writers fighting to contribute material, and many strong opinions on musical direction. After all that’s happened before, surely a seven-piece line-up is a recipe for disaster?
After finding common ground again and even enjoying each others company, a reunion world tour was initially planned. Titled Pumpkins United, it lasted from 2017-18. That gave them a chance to test the waters, but nobody quite knew how well it would go. Going back to the most recent five-piece line-up was a very possible – even likely – scenario afterwards. However, the tour worked out much better than expected. This led them to go into the studio to record a new song called Pumpkins United, released in October 2017 as a free download. Another test, another success.
The good vibes meant they needed some deeper conversations about their future, and after also discussing with their label Nuclear Blast, it was clear that a full album by this line-up was desired by all parties.
There were still things to figure out. The band contains more than a few songwriters, all with slightly different styles. “How do you pull everything together without sounding like a f*cking samba band?,” Kai Hansen at one point said to Classic Rock Magazine.
Obviously they figured it out. Some band members – including Hansen, Weikath and Deris – would be principal songwriters, with Gerstner and Grosskopf also pitching in. Kiske decided to sit out on the writing this time, taking a philosophic view as well as seeing it as a chance to put aside material for a coming solo album.
The resulting album is simply called Helloween and is the band’s sixteenth studio album. It sees them interweave a flavour of each stage of the group’s career into the finished product. As much as everybody considers the new line-up a new and valid configuration of Helloween that they are looking to the future with, the other foot stands firmly in their past. To that particular end, a lot of vintage equipment was used, including an old Marshall stack last used on their debut album Walls of Jericho (1985), and a Vox AC30 amplifier featured on Better Than Raw (1998). Also, Löble recorded his drum parts playing on founding drummer’s Ingo Schwichtenberg’s original kit. This was a poignant touch and a nice tribute to Schwichtenberg who passed in 1995.
Most of the album was recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic. Kiske returned from his recording sessions in Tenerife in early April 2020, shortly before flights in Europe were brought to a halt. Weikath, on the other hand, was caught in the middle of strict lockdowns and had to spend a night in the studio.
The cover art was painted by hand by Eliran Kantor and selected amongst a number of digitally created images. Markus Staiger (founder of Nuclear Blast) was initially against it and tried to convince the band to chose another one, but the musicians’ opinion prevailed.
The first time I heard the intro to album opener Out For the Glory, I heard shades of the opening guitar lines from the Slayer classic South of Heaven, which is a fitting association to me personally as I kept playing the South of Heaven and Keeper of the Seven Keys, part II albums back to back in 1988.
The intro is grand, with guitar lines layered over a backing choir until the song explodes into a familiar-styled track. It is great to hear Kiske’s voice on a Halloween album again, and the song is classic Helloween in every sense. It is peppered with vocals, guitar lines, and different movements propelling the song onward. It is a sunburst opening to the album, similar in feel to Eagle Fly Free which opened Keepers part II.
“Out for the glory, fist held high” they sing in this song about taking on the world, making it somewhat of a mission statement for themselves in the process. Hearing this song feels like coming home, which must be exactly what Kiske and Hansen felt upon returning.
Fear of the Fallen was the second single from the album, premiering on 21 May 2021. The track sees Deris, Hansen and Kiske share lead vocals very evenly and to good effect. By playing on their different approaches and strengths the result has the flavour of rock opera; that they are able to signal different characters, viewpoints, or just simple things going on in the song. The vocalists discovered that they were having a ball working together. “I had so much fun not only writing a song for my voice but also for one of the greatest singers out there,” said Andi Deris, who wrote this song with input from Kai Hansen. “I always have an extremely broad smile on my face when I hear Kiske singing my melodies.”
Michael Kiske feels similarly, saying: “The whole process, including the spirit, was just ideal. If I had the feeling that one of the parts would not be really fitting, I asked Andi if he would sing it and vice versa. There was no competition whatsoever – what counted was what is best for the respective song. I am thankful to be (again) a part of this crazy family. I love them all.”
Best Times sees the band continue with more of a mid-tempo track (for Helloween), but the melodic drive is strong and it pushes ahead. The lyrics continue their positive outlook. “I will have the best time of my life / Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery” they sing, making you wonder if they are self-referencing. The song has a more straightforward arrangement than most of them, which isn’t a problem at all. If they plan to release a single for the mainstream this would probably be a good candidate.
A more traditional heavy metal riff gets Mass Pollution going, with Deris doing a very good job of channelling Rob Halford in the verses. Helloween is known for their fast-flowing speed metal tracks, but it is great to hear them drill down and pump classic metal riffs here.
The lyrics are also very ‘80s metal’ in their attitude. No mountains are climbed, no worlds are saved – we just love it loud! I have to admit that of all the songs on the album, this is definitely the one I find the most fun!
We just love it loud
Bang and shout it out
We’re no weapons of
Mass pollution
Raise your hands up now
‘Till the final row
Having fun is no
Mass pollution
Things get interesting on Angels, which starts with Kiske singing over a repetitive synth theme, with a gothic organ and choir making their mark before the full band comes in. The organ adds a distinctive flair through most of the track, which also features piano work with the song dipping in and out of a full electric arrangement. As the previous track represented the 1980s, this represents Helloween as they became over the years, and it feels nice that there is room for both here. The next track Rise Without Chains is much more classic-styled Helloween, racing along with lovely guitar parts – especially a dual-guitar solo in the middle – and a pinnacle chorus with vocals reaching for the stratosphere.
Indestructible is a more traditional metal track – musically strong, lyrically more hit and miss. Kai Hansen contributed to the track and he is prone to writing lyrics about playing/loving/fighting for heavy metal, but this time they lack the panache of similar lyrics by, say, Manowar. Examples? Riding through the storm. No one tell us what to do. Fighting dusk to dawn. We break the rules, we live intense. Tonight we will be winners. It feels cliched and randomly put together, ringing more than a bit hollow. The chorus of “We’re indestructible / ‘Cause we are one!” is delivered with a cool gang vocal which makes that part sit a bit better, but this track is still as close as the album gets to having filler material. It’s still not a bad song – it’s good filler with definite merits especially musically. My 14-year old self would probably have loved it, including the lyrics, and maybe that should also count for something.
Robot King picks up the pace and is another classic-sounding Helloween track, with a theme not too dissimilar to the Judas Priest classic Metal Gods. That track is about a race of metal overlords arriving to wipe out mankind, while this track is about a robot taking charge of a robotic army to… well, wipe out mankind! At over seven minutes of length, it becomes a mini-rock-opera where the plot is laid out in peculiar detail: the robot receives its orders from its positronic brain, meets up with his subjects in the park, accesses the virtual networks to coordinate their strike, and goes on ousting regimes and exterminate mankind. According to the song, they succeed, too!
The song is gloriously epic, well-arranged, and filled with interesting playing and movements. It does not stand still, but keeps ever moving on to the new passages and sections. Definitely one of the most interesting tracks to listen to. It is remarkably upbeat and empowering, which probably reflects the glorious success of the robotic crusade, and you almost forget that you’re banging your head along to the soundtrack of humanity’s demise. If that happens, I hope it will at least sound as good as this.
Cyanide is a short (the shortest full song on the album) and sweet Helloween staple, while the near-twice-as-long Down In the Dumps starts with an intriguing and slightly spooky intro leading into a full-on assault, with Löble pounding those drums with some intensity. The lyrics describe waking up from a dream and feeling horrible. Everything is going wrong, and he wonders if a curse is at play. This sorry fate is played out to one of the most pounding musical arrangement on the album, the speed and intensity adding a real sense of urgency and drama to what is going on.
We are approaching the climax of the album. The track Orbit serves as an instrumental intro to the final track Skyfall, the album’s 12-minute finale. This was the first single from the album, premiered on 2 April 2021.
A music video was also made, accompanied by a write-up from Nuclear Blast Records: “The epic track describes an alien landing on earth and a dramatic chase while Michael Kiske, Andi Deris, and Kai Hansen duel each other in a breathtaking manner and create a vocal broadband adventure. Produced by Martin Häusler, it is the most elaborate video clip in the history of the band.”
Helloween added the following to the press release: “The epic 12 minute track Skyfall, written by Kai Hansen, has the long yearned ‘Keeper Of The Seven Keys’ vibe, but isn’t musically telling the whole story of the album – this has a musical arch spanning every era: from unforgettable times to glorious newer adventures all the way to the upcoming first album of the Helloween new age.”
The track is pure space opera, and incredible in scope. Mild spoiler alert: An alien is crashlanding on Earth, sending out a distress signal. Instead of receiving help, he is shot down and captured. He ends up in Hangar 18 and is examined. While in captivity, he meets a different alien who helps him and they plan to escape together. And it goes on… The story is grand and you should explore the rest for yourself.
Amazingly, this epic finale to the album was an after-thought and nearly didn’t happen. The band had finished the other tracks and believed the record was done. At that point, Hansen unveiled his alien-themed epic to the rest of the band as a late composition. Fortunately they all agreed it was worth working on, quickly realising it would become an important track.
The song contains a tip of the hat to David Bowie. “When I wrote Skyfall I wasn’t thinking of him at all,” Hansen told Classic Rock Magazine, “but when I took the demo to the producer he said: ‘I like the Major Tom thing.’ It’s great to be compared to somebody so fantastic.”
This is the end of the normal album. There are several versions with bonus tracks out there. My own digipack includes two extras. There’s the unexpectedly good Golden Times, which really is an amazing speed-metal vehicle of a very classic Helloween-y nature, with strong guitar lines and a very melodic and earwormy vocal melody – more than strong enough to defend its inclusion on the main album. Save My Hide is an enjoyable and more modern Helloween track which represents another side to this band.
And there we have it – the first Helloween album featuring both Hansen and Kiske since 1988. While it is very unrealistic to expect the band to immediately pick up where they left off at that point, I think they made a very good stab at it. This album certainly contains tracks that reminds me a hell of a lot more of the two Keepers-albums (from 1986 and 1988) than the albums that followed them. That was a nice surprise that I don’t think anyone could realistically expect.
More than that, though, the album really is a quintessential Helloween album. With that, I mean that more than any other album this one successfully represents every era that has gone before; there are traces of styles from every decade that the band has been active. That is very interesting and gives it a diversity that will strengthen this album’s place in the catalogue when the time has come to sum up their career.
Helloween was released on 18 June 2021, and reached the Top 10 positions in several international music charts – crucially reaching the #1 spot in their native Germany, hitting at least the Top 3 in Austria, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK. They also reached #35 on the US Billboard 200, which is a very good result in that market.
The album is still new, and it’s obviously far too soon to say “I can’t wait to see what they get up to next” – but I really can’t wait to see what they get up to next. Will this seven-man line-up last? Something tells me this band will continue to be interesting to follow, and not just musically. But, I hope they have it in them to continue working together for the duration. It took them long to get to this point, and they are just too good to stop now.
Svein Børge Hjorthaug
Norway, August 2021
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