Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Bratislava / Aegon Arena / Slovakia
Concert date: November 26, 2017
Attendance: 7000
The elder statesmen of German power metal from Hamburg, which is to say one of the most successful metal bands of all time that Germany has ever produced, that is, Helloween, dropped sensational news this year. They brought two exceptional musicians and former members back into the fold, two guys whose work forever shaped the face of the band in the eighties and in many ways influenced the future development and popularization of power metal, not just in Europe but around the world. Helloween, today regarded in many ways as pioneers of power metal, have reunited with Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen while keeping their current lineup. That took them from a quintet to a septet, and they’ve named the massive world tour »Pumpkins United«.
All the shows are sold out in advance, and the European leg stopped closest to Slovenia on November 12, 2017, when Helloween played Munich, and two weeks later, when they visited the tennis hall Aegon Arena in the Slovak capital Bratislava, where RockLine also swung by to feed its curiosity. With both eminences of Helloween’s golden age (the eighties) back on board, it was fair to expect the setlist to put the weight on the band’s eighties material. That is, the stuff from the cult first three studio albums. After all, and let’s be honest, Helloween today, with Deris on vocals, haven’t played many of the unforgettable “gems” from those first three albums on their recent tours in a long time. The more than convincing answer and proof of why that is comes on this tour from Michael Kiske himself, who, even with his years ruthlessly closing in on the big 5-0, still has an incredible vocal form. Kiske hasn’t lost an ounce of range or power of delivery compared to his eighties contribution, which our experiences at Unisonic shows, where he and Hansen work together, also confirmed. Especially in those moments when Kiske sang Helloween’s March of Time and I Want Out with unbelievable intensity. Well, Kiske has kept his exceptional vocal charisma and power, which we can’t say about his new-fangled “hairdo.” That remark would be out of place here, if Kiske hadn’t joked in one of the breaks at Aegon Arena that back when he was young, a handsome long-haired blond lad, he’d always wanted to look like Elvis Presley, and it all ended with him looking like Rob Halford today. The main thing is the voice stays!
This Helloween show lasted, mark my words, a solid three hours. Encores included and with no breaks in between. Starting at 7:00 p.m. The band, which in its expanded lineup performed with three lead vocalists and three guitars, freshened things up and set up a gorgeous backdrop. Dani Löble’s drums were placed inside a virtual crown, raised on an extra stage platform that the other members kept actively using throughout the show. The front of the stage was extended with an additional »cat walk«. In the background loomed projection screens, thematically detailed, in tune with the progression of the setlist itself. Brilliant German pedantry. An incredible leap from the last time, that was four years ago, when Helloween played CUK Kino Šiška in Ljubljana and were greeted by a crowd with a decent turnout of some 550 visitors. At Aegon Arena it looked like Helloween are at least a band on the level of Whitesnake. That’s how high the eighties catalog ranks in the eyes of this band’s fans and retro nostalgics of eighties classic metal. So that’s what decides. The question is just how long the money will hold the septet together in such a format and how much more they plan to earn from the current shows in the future. After all, they’ve already recorded a single together, which means they could record a whole album in septet format. Money decides everything, but this tour and the reunion with Hansen and Kiske is welcome anyway, so that the band, after its much-praised last album, can refresh and renew its ideas and put together a next studio album that will again be at an enviable level of quality.
Helloween kicked off the show in grand style. With one of the more ambitious songs of the eighties, Halloween, where Kiske and Deris showed right from the start how they’d split the vocal duties. The band is known for its bewitching theater, which never lacks a whole bunch of gags and goofing around. There was plenty of that this time too. If nothing else works, you’ll crack up just looking at the grimaces bassist Markus Grosskopf pulls with his rubbery face. Both singers, three guitarists and the “shogun by name” Markus on bass really made use of the cat walk, and among the guitarists, Kai Hansen drew by far the most attention. He took on the bulk of the solos, and in the theatrical medley Starlight / Ride the Sky / Judas, as well as all of Heavy Metal (is the Law) and How Many Tears, he took over the role of lead vocalist. It’s quite likely they helped him out with backing tracks. Not only because Hansen recently brought a new vocalist into Gamma Ray, but especially because I seriously doubt he can still pull off the chorus of Ride the Sky as well as he did in Bratislava. Now, the other thing about Hansen, which made him so “subcutaneously contagious” this time, is that his looks are now taken care of by his new chosen one. Hansen wears at the new shows a neatly teased hairdo that reminds you more of Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) than of anyone who could ever in the past have actually looked like the real Kai Hansen, and the “new Kai” also sports a burgundy-dyed streak and a thick coat of mascara and makeup around the eyes. Not even Andreas Deris could resist this fact, and when he introduced all the band members, he theatrically labeled only Hansen with »She«. Even a bit more »flammable« was the always self-absorbed Sascha Gerstner, who got himself a hairdo for the new tour in the style of some old-school goths, darkers or black sleaze metalheads, which brings to mind Murderdolls, Wednesday 13, etc…
The singers divided their forces cunningly. Deris took the initiative on the material that was created with him. He got If I Could Fly, I Can, Power (without the painful stretching), both »7 Sinners« songs, Where the Sinners Go and Are You Metal? and three cherries on top of the fruit sundae – three brilliant gems from the excellent »Master of the Rings« album: Why?, Sole Survivor and Perfect Gentleman.
On the other side is Kiske, who still tears it up and plows through with his voice, uncompromising as ever, and literally reigned over I’m Alive, Rise And Fall, Little Time, Eagle Fly Free and Future World. Even in songs where he and Deris shared vocals, Kiske often took the bulk of the heavier lines, the ones where you have to squeeze out the most range and power, e.g. in the closing I Want Out, the opening Halloween, or Dr. Stein. And in the closing stretch, the epic suite Keeper of the Seventh Keys part II would never have come off so well if Kiske hadn’t taken on the toughest, most demanding, i.e. highest, vocal parts of the song. The singers split the remaining songs down the middle, and on How Many Tears Kai Hansen joined them as a lead vocalist too. The band didn’t forget the ballads. From the eighties we heard A Tale That Wasn’t Right, and from the nineties the »Time of the Oath« hit Forever And One.
Three hours of exceptional theater. Three hours of dream recap of the legendary eighties and the “Andi Deris era.” Hop, another snarky association! Hellloween, in the »reunion«, ignored two former members who contributed important ideas and helped define the band’s sound and style through the nineties, all the way up to and including the album »The Dark Ride«. Those are drummer Uli Kusch and guitarist Roland Grapow. I don’t know why, but it would be fun if Helloween played as a nonet in that case, meaning on stage with two drummers and four guitarists. But what we got in Bratislava totally delights a nostalgic who craves a hefty dose of the band’s rarely played eighties classics. Supposedly this tour will extend into next year, although there are no official dates out yet. Helloween are hot and they’ll strike while the iron is hot. There’s no doubt about that. Whoever went to their show in Bratislava enjoyed it without limits in every respect. Great sound, great show, the band’s energy and cheerful mood, excellent! The hall was bursting with enthusiasm and euphoria. A blasphemous pumpkin mash, then! In every respect. Let’s hope we get another serving soon.
words: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik & Nataša Pišljar
Setlist
1. Let Me Entertain You (orig. Robbie Williams, taped intro)
2. Halloween
3. Dr. Stein
4. I’m Alive
5. If I Could Fly
6. Are You Metal?
7. Rise and Fall
8. Where the Sinners Go
9. Perfect Gentleman
9. Starlight / Ride the Sky / Judas
10. Heavy Metal (Is the Law)
11. Forever and One (Neverland)
12. A Tale That Wasn’t Right
13. I Can
14. Drum solo (Dani Löble) Ingo Tribute
15. Livin’ Ain’t No Crime
16. A Little Time
17. Why?
18. Sole Survivor
19. Power
20. How Many Tears
—encore I—
21. Eagle Fly Free
22. Keeper of the Seven Keys pt. II
—encore II—
23. guitar solo (Kai Hansen)
24. Future World
25. I Want Out
26. Braveheart Soundtrack (taped outro)
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