Halloween - the group that created the German power-metal

Helloween (derived from the words "hell" - hell and halloween) is an innovative musical band from Germany, whose specific views on high-speed power metal have allowed them to become one of the key metal bands of the 80s.

Express-acquaintance

With the group, especially the metals, you need to get acquainted directly, and not from retelling biographies.

The key album of the group, according to many critics, is Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1. These are classical guitar guitars in the style of Rob Halford and Iron Maiden and texts of a fantasy orientation. Acquaintance with Helloween is necessary to begin with this album. In addition, it's worth listening to such songs as If I Could Fly, Lost in America and Battle's Won.

The birth of the group and its path to success

Helloween is a group whose biography is a long and winding path. It begins in 1979, when guitarists Kai Hansen and Pete Silk decided to create a project called Gentry (the name symbolizes a kind of mockery of the "noble class" over people). It happened in Hamburg.

The official date for the birth of the band Helloween is considered to be 1983, when some members of Iron Fist and Powerfool joined the Gentry. As a result, Michael Vaikat (guitar), Markus Grosskopf (bass guitar) and Ingo Schwichtenberg (percussion) joined the duo described above.

Group debut

In 1988, the first full-length album of Helloween - Walls of Jericho was released. He made from the group almost the flagship of the German metal scene, although in the world it was adopted quite cool - the album was noted only in the Japanese chart, and then on the 75th place. Critics also responded about the album is not very flattering.

But Teutonic metal lovers were delighted. The compositions "How Many Tears", "Reptile" and "Judas" became the visiting cards of the group. By the way, because of the increased speed of execution, "Walls of Jericho" is considered to be speed metal.

Critical point of success of the group

It's about the success of the creative, not commercial. In the world of music, these two concepts rarely allied.

Halloween is a group with a variable composition, which is changing to this day. In 1986, the band was joined by a new vocalist - Michael Kiske. He had a very bright and recognizable voice, which very positively affected the sound of the band.

In 1987, an album was recorded called Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1, and after it, a year later - Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2. These two albums became the classic power / speed metal. The hearts of thousands of fans shuddered in time with the melodies of Helloween. It's not sad, but Helloween is a group whose reviews are much more positive than its popularity level. Any classic is doomed to it. Halloween is a band that literally single-handedly created the German metal scene.

After that, the whole group plunged into a tour. They saw almost all of Europe and the West ... And then the central member of Helloween left - Kai Hansen. He explained this by the monstrous fatigue of touring and conflicts with the band. After that, a new era began in the life of Helloween. The band had to convince the recording labels for a while that they could do much without a leading guitarist and songwriter.

The Age of Kiske

Helloween continued to cooperate with their traditional NOISE label. The albums of the group were bought massively by inertia from the old successes of the collective. By the way, in place of Kai was Roland Grapov.

Pink Bubbles Go Ape is the band's first album recorded without Kai Hansen. It could be compared to a nonsense boulder. The album was very hard on sound and little melodic. Critics believe that this is almost the most disastrous disk recorded by Helloween. If not for the old merit of the band, Pink Bubbles Go Ape would hardly have become so popular.

After that, the band makes a series of concert and studio albums, which are still comparable to all sorts of boggy boulders, and only in 1998 they have something qualitatively new - the album Better Than Raw. This album is special in that every participant of the band participated in the songwriting. It speaks about the harmony within the group and the high professionalism of the musicians.

In general, Better Than Raw is characterized by long melodic choruses and bright, contrasting guitar riffs. With this album, Helloween proved that they do not want to stand still. The magazine "Kerrang!" Christened Better Than Raw's best album since Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2.

Care from the roots and another radical turn

Halloween is a band with a constantly changing composition. Of course, with such a way of existence, it's very hard to keep in one canons, and Helloween began to leave their roots incessantly, changing the color of their sound.

In 1994, the group began a crisis. Drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg was fired from Helloween for a variety of reasons, including schizophrenia, alcoholism, and drug addiction. After that, he rushed under the train. Replace the poor Ingo with a drummer from GAMMA RAY (Kai Hansen band) named Uli Kush.

Radical turn of the group occurred after the departure from Helloween of the next "central player" - Michael Kiske. It was replaced by Andy Derris.

And then in the life of the band, complete harmony began. The "Andy era" began. The quarrels on the battlefield ended in self-love, and Helloween again started the carnival.

Halloween is a group that can resurrect again and again like a phoenix. The next such revival became albums The Dark Ride and Rabbit Do not Come Easy. Compositions «If I Could Fly» and «Mr. Torture "became hits, which can be safely recorded in the" golden fund "of the group.

Helloween in our time

Helloween - a group whose discography is constantly replenished. And although the quarrels in the team are reborn from year to year, the guys manage to maintain the integrity of the band and continue to delight the fans with new albums. The latter, by the way, came out quite recently - May 29, 2015.