Helloween is the living proof that German metal is not limited to Scorpions or Rammstein. Powerful music, fast rhythms and lyrical flights enthusiasts, they have long since dynamited the scene to impose their style. They are at worst the forerunners of power metal, at best the founders. Double pedal hammered as if their lives depended on it, guitars playing harmonies or fighting in duels, high-pitched vocals in the manner of Iron Maiden, no doubt, there is something deeply epic in the sounds of this quintet straight out of hell !
Accompanied by their diabolical pumpkin, we can say that the members of Helloween go through the ages in their own way. And it is certainly not a long, quiet river! Climbed to the top in a dazzling way, they hit the bottom just as fast and slowly resurfaced, riff after riff, solo after solo, like the melodic epics they will never tire of telling.
It's no surprise if their lyrics, unlike Gamma Ray or Blind Guardian, don't evoke fantastic themes. Wrestling with the devil himself, they prefer to talk about what they know: the struggle between good and evil, love, inner conflicts that have more than once almost brought the band down. But also the redemption that Helloween has finally found after more than 30 years of existence. Today, on stage, the voices of singers from different eras mingle, the guitarists tune up and the band still distributes hits in the form of monumental slaps to their fans. Maybe hell has finally turned into paradise ?
The band enters the heavy metal scene with a bang, producing the very good Walls of Jericho. The rhythm is extremely fast, the solos are melodic, and the critics already praise the invention of a new genre, the melodic speed, which will soon become power metal. This first opus was soon followed by Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part 1 (1987) and Part 2 (1988), which confirmed the band's success, also signing its best sellers and its most famous songs, Halloween or I Want Out.
It is only one year after their worldwide success that the group begins its descent into the underworld. In 1989, Kai Hansen, founder and guitarist of the band, decided to leave the band due to tensions with the other members. The albums that followed received a frosty reception from critics and fans, this time pushing singer Michael Kiske towards the release. He left the band in 1993, followed by drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg, who suffered from schizophrenia and committed suicide two years later.
The group is then moribund and rumours of separation are going around. It is without counting on the resilience of the remaining members who recruit Andi Deris on vocals and Uli Kusch on drums. The band finally stabilizes and resumes its success with the very good Time of the Oath (1996) followed by Better than Raw (1998). Helloween then seems to find its cruising rhythm after this series of big turbulences.
This is a thunderbolt in the world of metal. After years without having played together, the band announces that Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske will join the current members for an exceptional tour called Pumpkins United, to the delight of their fans. The concert series is a huge success, as is the eponymous single. Following this success, the seven members of the reunited band entered the H.O.M.E. studios in Hamburg, where it all began, to record a new album.