Helloween is the sixteenth studio album by German power metal band Helloween, 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 performing at Wacken Open Air in 2018. From left to right: Michael Kiske and Andi Deris.
Helloween performing at Wacken Open Air in 2018. From left to right: Markus Grosskopf, Sascha Gerstner, Kai Hansen, Michael Weikath, and Daniel Löble.
Helloween is a German power metal band founded in 1984 in Hamburg by members of bands Iron Fist, Gentry, Second Hell and Powerfool. It is said that the band is one of the most influential European heavy metal bands of the 1980s. Its first lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Kai Hansen, bassist Markus Grosskopf, guitarist Michael Weikath and drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg. By the time Hansen left Helloween in 1989 to form Gamma Ray, the band had evolved into a five-piece, with Michael Kiske taking over as lead vocalist. Schwichtenberg and Kiske both parted ways with Helloween in 1993; Schwichtenberg died two years later as the result of suicide. Between then and 2016, there had been numerous line-up changes, leaving Grosskopf and Weikath as the only remaining original members. As a septet, their current lineup includes four-fifths of the Keeper of the Seven Keys: Parts I and II-era (1987–1988) lineup, featuring three additional members, vocalist Andi Deris, guitarist Sascha Gerstner and drummer Daniel Löble.
Helloween performing at Wacken Open Air in 2018
Helloween in 2006
Helloween at Przystanek Woodstock in 2011
Helloween performing at Wacken Open Air 2018. From left to right: Markus Grosskopf, Sascha Gerstner, Kai Hansen, Michael Weikath and Daniel Löble.