Helloween

how is there no Helloween thread? how then can our future life be properly glorious?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9h3jRaZyB4

"keeper of the seven keys" also one of the single greatest album titles of all time

i love this band

i like to think of them as dragonforce for people that arent saps

Great band

Prefer the comparatively poppier Part II ("I Want Out" and "Dr Stein" were my JAMS when I was like 10!!!) but that may have to do more with when I discovered them. They actually showed the "I Want Out" video on MTV!

Great band, at least for three or four albums. They're nowhere near as good now as they were in '86-'87.

Walls of Jericho is amazing but Kai Hansen sounds like an elf being murdered in a blender

You say that like it's a bad thing

god I love Keeper of the SEven KEys so much, but have never listened to Pt II, which I am rectifying tonight.

so I was curious as to how Andi Deris sounds on older Helloween material.

I wish I hadn't been. dear GOD what the fuck is he doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJMw0KrXmno

Loved some songs on Keeper 1 years ago (the Hansen songs mostly) but didn't have the patience for Keeper 2 yet. Now the time has come and I'm enjoying it; I'm more up for their sound than I was years ago (although I still find Kiske a bit too unvarying) and wanting to dive into more power metal soon. Probably Blind GUardian.

Bemused by the cartoon art in the Keeper 1-2 set. Seems like an odd fit for the band, to me. Was their earlier stuff more Halloween orientated?

Definitely prefer Keeper 1, but "Rise And Fall" is terrific fun and "Keeper Of The Seven Keys" does a good job of recapturing some of the virtues of "Halloween" (doesn't match it though).

I think I might try Gamma Ray before I do the first two Helloween albums.

Walls through Keeper is so classic. Shame how bad the Deris iteration of the band is

I was amused that "Future World" was cited as the deliberately commercial song on Keeper 1.

i mean it's definitely the most streamlined of the tunes.

I don't think you can really beat the first two songs out of the gate on Keeper.

"Twilight Of The Gods" is so awesome.

United Alive in Madrid is a live album/tour i didn't even know existed. From a 2017/2018 tour covering all eras of Helloween, and actually brought Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske to perform on their songs.

It's really fuckin' crisp and Kiske sounds great.

There's Deris era shit on there too and he duets with Kiske on songs like "Halloween"

saw em on this tour and it ruled so much. best show I saw that year.

part of the magic was def how much fun everyone in the venue (band included) seemed to be having tho, tough thing to get on a live record

those are the best kinds of shows. jealous that you got to see that. esp hearing Kiske singing shit like "I'm Alive" or "Halloween".

i'm checking out Gambling with the Devil now to see if there's a single Deris album I can get into. i don't even like Better Than Raw

ok cheesy pop choruses like most of the Deris, not too terribly diff than Angra.

i'll give it a go

oooooooh k this is getting a bit too hokey for my tastes.

"Paint a New World" is a lot better woohoo

meh, throwing in towel. last time I listen to someone say "it's surprisingly good"!

but uh yeah back to that live album....man I wish I coulda seen that Helloween tour.

dipped back to Deris's first (Master of the Rings) and I like this way more, it's much less overproduced and sterile sounding in the songwriting. not the classic era by any stretch , and I prefer Kiske's voice, but this is pretty enjoyable.

I imagine after Chameleon this probably sounded like fuckin' King Crimson's Red in comparison, which helps

ahh now Time of the Oath, now THIS is ace. this is how to remake a band that's dealing with several personnel changes, particularly a new vocalist.

it sounds quite a bit like their later material but nowhere near as overproduced and the choruses are really good, and the guitar is still punchy and fist pumpy, not mindless "chug a chug chug a chug ok here's the chorus, one held chord for every measure"

"Skyfall" is out, and it's a ripper. Classic Helloween, and it's so great to hear Kai and Michael again. The new album is really, really good, but this track, which has been pretty heavily edited, is Kai's one songwriting contribution. He made it count.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLV530n3kMw

From what I read Kai always seemed a bit reticent about why he left the band and the other members said they never understood it. Did he ever make it totally clear?

I've never heard the exact reasons for his departure either. They were all so young back then and had a lot of growing up to do. They're a lot more easygoing now. Turning 50 will do that to a guy!

this is my most anticipated album of the year, which feels weird to say. after so much of the pedestrian Deris era (which has some good stuff, but not a huge amount), it's nice to hear them actually playing power metal with riffs and so nice to hear Kiske again.

i hope I'm not disappointed "Skyfall" (and "Pumpkins United", which I know is not on this album but was kinda the first 'reunion' song) destroyed, I wasn't feeling the second single as much even though I liked it.

actually never wanted to see them live as I never liked how Deris sang Kiske's songs and half the setlist would be 'meh' but now it might be a fun fucking idea.

it's not a perfect album but this may hit my top ten list, and if not that, top twenty. i can barely stomach a lot of the Deris albums, and this one is full of hooks and good guitar work, and man how does Kiske still sound this good. his low notes actually sound better.

also love Kai's harsh vocals.

glad to hear more of those harmonized lead runs which have been missing forever from their sound

weirdly some of this reminds me of the first few Angra albums

alright after many many listens I still love this and it's currently in my top 5 for the year.

It's not Keeper-era Helloween, which was a bit more raw and fist-pumpy, but it does have the same ancestral DNA. The hooks are a bit poppier, but not in the annoying way a lot of the Deris era has been (almost 'pop-punk' power metal).

Obviously, the return of Kiske and Hansen help, but neither of these had a significant effect on the songwriting, sans "Skyfall". Deris wrote a lot of the songs, as well as Weikath, Gerstner, and Grosskopf - basically the same songwriting core as the last few albums. but the material does 'feel' more like classic Helloween, though it does have a few elements of other European bands they inspired (like aforementioned Angra).

also yes, Kiske's voice on the material helps because Deris just doesn't fit Helloween at all to me; he's a hair-metal vocalist who sounds like a fish out of water. but he really is second-fiddle here, like he does sing lead, but he often shares it with Kiske, he harmonizes a lot, and a lot of his lead spots occur in places where they're well-suited. Kiske carries the material (Hansen does a few vocals here and there, and it's pretty obvious when).

I'm guessing the presence of Kiske and Hansen just made things more exciting and that's where the inspiration came from. The hooks are undeniable on almost every song, and while I'm not usually into feel-good happy sounding metal, Helloween have always scratched that itch for me and then some. it's also weird how good Kiske sounds, his highs are still really smooth, but his low range has really gotten fuckin' resonant as hell - it always was, really, you can hear it on "A Tale That Wasn't Right", but he didn't like to sing down there much in Keeper era.

I've basically been playing all 80s Helloween all week, and hell those first two Deris albums are actually alright!

Is this lineup going to stay or is it just a one-time thing?

This album purs a great big smile on my face. Especially "Skyfall", an instant classic.

As far as I know, they're going to stuck with the expanded lineup for ss long as it's fun for everybody. Doing the interviews the big thing that came across is how well they get along these days.

US Tour! albeit a short'un!

May 13 - Dallas, TX - The Factory
May 16 - St. Petersburg, FL - Jannus Live
May 18 - Silver Spring, MD - The Fillmore
May 20 - New York, NY - Terminal 5
May 21 - Worcester, MA - The Palladium
May 23 - Toronto, ON - History
May 24 - Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Hall
May 26 - Chicago, IL - The Riviera
May 27 - Minneapolis, MN - The Fillmore
May 30 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
Jun. 01 - Las Vegas, NV - Brooklyn Bowl
Jun. 02 - Los Angeles, CA - YouTube Theater
Jun. 03 - San Francisco, CA - The Warfield

(next year obv)

I WANT OUUUUUUUUUT

still can't believe Andi Deris came from a group called Pink Cream 69, or that there are dudes who can be in a band named that without embarassment of their poor life choices.

keeper of the 7 keys is a jawn

two of my favorites. (I refuse to count the third Keeper album which should never have been made)

I still play the Walls of JerichoCD with the EP on it and the first Keepers album, like, a lot.

yeah Walls featuring Helloween EP is a staple for me too. was just listening to last night actually.

GORGAR WILL EAT YOU

I was kinda wondering why the two Keepers were so sonically different, the latter having more of the traditional power metal trappings we come to associate w/ the genre, the first being more speed metally, and...huh, guess Weikath barely played or wrote on Keeper 1, it was all Kai. that'd explain it.

Walls of Jericho owns

Minutes away from showtime!!!!!

OH MY FUCKING GOD

seeing em this weekend, it’s gonna rule

I'm so happy

oh mami

ur the keeper of the seeeeeven keys