Helloween
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With a history that spans more than twenty years, it’s safe to say that long running German power metal band Helloween have seen plenty of highs and lows throughout their career.
In the early 90’s, Helloween’s future looked more than a little shaky with both 1991’s Pink Bubbles Go Ape and 1993’s Chameleon seen as too experimental and not up to the standard set by the band’s critically acclaimed Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I (1986) and Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II (1988) albums.But with the departure of vocalist Michael Kiske, and the subsequent recruitment of former Pink Cream 69 vocalist Andi Deris in the band’s fold, Helloween quickly made amends with their highly acclaimed 1994 release Master Of The Rings.
For the next decade, Helloween continued to release albums on a regular basis. And while some albums were considered stronger and more consistent than others (1998’s Better Than Raw and 2000’s The Dark Ride in particular stood out as critical and commercial successes), Helloween still managed to tour extensively throughout the world to an ever increasing fan base.
From 2000 right up until early 2005, Helloween went through a series of member reshuffles, leaving many fans concerned about the future of the band. But with a solidified line-up in place (consisting of vocalist Andi Deris, guitarists Michael Weikath and Sascha Gerstner, bassist Markus Grosskopf and drummer Dani Löble), Helloween quickly laid to rest any lingering fears with the release of Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy in 2005. While the title ensured some level of success, Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy was once again considered a huge return to form for the band, with the ensuring tour (which was documented on 2007’s Live In Sao Paulo CD and Live On 3 Continents DVD) the biggest and most successful the band had ever undertaken.
Eager to prove that the album was not a one off, Helloween have recently returned with their thirteenth studio effort Gambling With The Devil, which has been praised by both fans and critics alike as the group’s finest efforts in close to a decade!
Following the release of Gambling With The Devil, I caught up with founding guitarist Michael Weikath (who happened to be filling in for Deris at the last minute after coming down with a touch of the flu) in Paris (France) to talk about the challenges faced by the band in following up the critically acclaimed Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy, all the while attempting to forge a new and decidedly modern direction.
“The direction on Gambling With The Devil is a very different step for us. When you look at Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy, it’s essentially an album that is compatible with our past. Everything from the title right through to the sound was linked in some ways with our past, but also showing some move toward a modern sound. The album was really a link between our past and to where we are at in the present. Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy was a lot of hard and intense work for us, but it was very worthwhile. We were very happy with the album. But after making an album like that and touring the world in support of it, we decided we had to do things a little differently. Gambling With The Devil is us saying, ‘Ok, you have seen the band do something like Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy where we had a new drummer and a young new guitarist in the band. Now see what we can do with this line-up now!’ Before we went into the studio, we already had the title of the album Gambling With The Devil in place. So having that gave us a subject to work towards, and something to consider when composing songs. Unlike Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy, working around the theme of Gambling With The Devil gave us a lot more freedom, and I think that shows.
“This album is very different from Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy,. Gambling With The Devil is a very modern Helloween album. It has nothing to do with Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy,, or the past for that matter. This album is how Helloween sounds in 2007. We’re very happy with the album, and so far there have been no real complaints yet (laughs)!”
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