It was the wish of thousands of fans, challenging Andi Deris, Michael Kiske, Michael Weikath, Kai Hansen, Markus Grosskopf, Sascha Gerstner and Dani Löble during their PUMPKINS UNITED WORLD TOUR tour — and their dream came true! With this new album, simply called HELLOWEEN, the band opens a new chapter after 35 years of a glorious career. The future of one of the most influential metal bands will now include three singers. Originally planned for live performances alone, it is the birth of a unique metal alliance of seven! This Japanese Limited Edition features digi-book packaging and comes with a bonus CD with three new songs, including a exclusive bonus track "We are Real." Also includes message for fans in Japan.
In the world of heavy metal, 1988 may be best remembered as the year that prog metal was born, thanks to such popular and enduring releases as Metallica's …And Justice for All, Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime, and Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. But predating all of these aforementioned titles by a year was Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1 by Germany's Helloween. Influenced equally by Maiden and Judas Priest, the group specialized in both anthemic metal (with operatic vocals) and tricky musical bits – as evidenced by the epic track "Halloween," which received quite a few spins on Headbangers Ball as an edited version…
After well over a dozen albums, Helloween still has an impressive knack for grafting memorably anthemic choruses over full-throttle power metal. What's more, their quieter, more melodic moments never dissolve into schmaltzy sentimentality (a mistake made too often by the band's many followers); the ballad "Don't Stop Being Crazy" has a certain pathos without being corny…
While Helloween can hardly be called a true "singles" band, this hefty box spread across seven discs stands as proof positive that they belong in the conversation of great European metal bands. The band combined the structures of Iron Maiden with the propulsion of Motorhead, stopping just short of thrash or speed metal; compared to contemporaries like Metallica and Slayer they could almost be considered traditionalists. This set covers every era from their 1980s heyday through shifting line-ups and comebacks in the '00s. As this box set is designed with completists in mind, the casual enthusiast might want to start with something more bite-sized.
Helloween is the upcoming self-titled sixteenth studio album by German power metal band Helloween, due to be released on 18 June 2021. The album is the first released with the "Pumpkins United" line-up, which marked the return of original member Kai Hansen on guitars and vocals and Michael Kiske on vocals in 2016, in addition to the five-member line-up active since 2005. Helloween is the first album to feature Hansen since 1988's Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II and the first one with Kiske since 1993's Chameleon. Released six years after its predecessor My God-Given Right (the longest gap between two albums from the band), the album is also the first to feature more than one singer, as Hansen, Kiske and Andi Deris, all of whom had performed as sole lead vocalist on previous albums, share lead vocal duties.
Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part I is the second studio album by German power metal band Helloween, released in 1987. It marks the first appearance of vocalist Michael Kiske, and is considered the album that created the genre of European-style power metal.