Location: Bratislava / Aegon Arena / Slovakia
Date: Sunday, 26.11.2017
The old guard of German power metal from Hamburg, so we’re talking about one of the most successful metal bands of all time that German metal has ever produced, that is, Helloween, dropped a sensational piece of news this year. They brought two outstanding musicians and former members back into the fold, two guys who forever defined the band’s look and sound in the eighties and in many ways shaped the future development and popularization of power metal, not just in Europe but around the world. Helloween, today in many ways considered the pioneers of power metal, have reunited with Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen while keeping their current lineup intact. So they’ve grown from a quintet into a septet, and they’ve named the huge world tour “Pumpkins United”.
Every single show was sold out in advance. The European leg came closest to Slovenia on 12.11.2017, when Helloween played Munich, and then two weeks later at the Aegon Arena, a tennis hall in the Slovak capital Bratislava, where RockLine swung by to scratch its curiosity itch. With both musical eminences of Helloween’s golden era (the eighties) back on board, it was fair to expect the setlist to put the spotlight on the band’s eighties material. That is, the stuff on their cult first three studio albums. And let’s be honest, Helloween today, with Deris on vocals, have long left many of the unforgettable “gems” from those first three albums out of the repertoire of their recent tours. The more than convincing answer, and proof of why that is, comes on this tour from none other than Michael Kiske, who, even at an age relentlessly closing in on the big five-oh, still has an incredible vocal form. Kiske hasn’t lost an ounce of range or power compared to his eighties contribution, as our own experiences at Unisonic shows confirmed, the band where he and Hansen work together. Especially in those moments at Unisonic gigs when Kiske belted out the Helloween songs March of Time and I Want Out with incredible intensity. Well, Kiske has kept his exceptional vocal charisma and power, but we can’t say the same for his new-era “hairdo”. That remark would be out of place here, if Kiske hadn’t joked during one of the breaks in the Aegon Arena that back when he was young, a pretty long-haired blond kid, he always wanted to look like Elvis Presley, and it all ended with him looking like Rob Halford today. As long as the voice stays!
This Helloween show lasted, no kidding, a solid three hours. Encores included and with no breaks in between. Starting at 7 p.m. The band, which played in an expanded lineup with three lead vocalists and three guitars, came with a fresh, gorgeous stage set. Dani Löble’s drums were placed inside a virtual crown, raised on an extra platform that the rest of the members kept using actively throughout the show. The front of the stage was extended with an additional “cat walk”. Projection screens loomed in the background, themed in detail and in sync with the progression of the setlist itself. Brilliant German pedantry. What a leap from our last experience four years ago, when Helloween played CUK Kino Šiška in Ljubljana and were met by a decent crowd of about 550 people. In the Aegon Arena it looked like Helloween were at least on the level of Whitesnake. That’s how highly the band’s eighties output ranks in the eyes of its fans and the retro nostalgics of eighties classic metal. That’s what counts. The only question is how long the money will keep a septet in this format together and how much more they plan to earn with these shows going forward. After all, they’ve already recorded a single together, which means they could record a whole album as a septet. Money decides everything, but this tour and the reunion with Hansen and Kiske are certainly welcome also because the band, after that conceptually famous last album, can freshen up and renew its ideas and put together a future studio album that will once again be of enviable quality.
Helloween kicked off the show in grand style. With one of the more ambitious songs of the eighties, Halloween, where Kiske and Deris already signaled right from the start how they’d split the vocal duties. The band is known for its gallows-humor theatrics, where there’s no shortage of gags and shenanigans. There was plenty of that this time too. If nothing else works, just the sight of the faces bassist Markus Grosskopf pulls with his rubbery expressions will crack you up. Both singers, three guitarists and the “shogun” Markus on bass really put the cat walk to work, and of the guitarists, Kai Hansen by far drew the most attention. He took on most 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 as lead vocalist. It’s very likely they helped him out with backing tracks. Not only because Hansen recently brought a new singer into Gamma Ray, but mostly because I highly doubt he can still nail the chorus of Ride the Sky as well as he did in Bratislava. Another thing about Hansen, which made him so “subcutaneously contagious” this time, is that his outer appearance is now looked after by his new chosen one. At the new shows Hansen sports a neatly teased hairdo that reminds you more of Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) than of anyone who could ever have actually looked like the real Kai Hansen, and the “new Kai” also wears a burgundy-dyed streak and a thick layer of mascara and eye makeup. Even Andreas Deris couldn’t resist, and when introducing all the band members he theatrically called only Hansen “She”. Even a bit more “flammable” was the self-infatuated Sascha Gerstner, who got himself a hairstyle for the new tour in the manner of some old-school goths, darkers or black sleaze metallers, which brings Murderdolls, Wednesday 13 and the like to mind…
The two singers split their strengths cunningly. Deris took the lead on material 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 whipped cream of the fruit sundae: three gems from the excellent “Master of the Rings” album, namely Why?, Sole Survivor and Perfect Gentleman.
On the other side there’s Kiske, who still tears it up and plows through with his voice, uncompromising as ever, and literally ruled in I’m Alive, Rise And Fall, Little Time, Eagle Fly Free and Future World. Even in the songs where he and Deris shared vocals, Kiske often took most of the heavier lines, the ones that demand the most range and power, e.g. in the closing I Want Out, the opening Halloween, or Dr. Stein. Likewise, in the final 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, that is, highest vocal parts of the song. The other songs the two singers split down the middle, while on How Many Tears Kai Hansen joined them as a lead vocalist. 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” crowd-pleaser Forever And One.
Three hours of exceptional theater. Three hours of a dream recap of the legendary eighties and the “Andi Deris era”. Hop, another snarky association! With this “reunion” Hellloween ignored two more former members who contributed important ideas in defining 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’ve been fun if Helloween had played as a nonet in that case, with two drummers and four guitarists on stage. But what we got in Bratislava totally satisfies a nostalgic craving for a solid dose of the band’s rarely played eighties classics. The tour will presumably extend well into next year, although there are no official dates out yet. Helloween are hot and they’ll strike while the iron’s glowing. There’s no doubt about that. Anyone who went to their show in Bratislava had an absolute blast in every respect. Great sound, great show, great energy and cheerful vibes from the band, superb! The hall was overflowing with excitement and euphoria. Blasphemous pumpkin pasta, then! In every respect. Let’s hope we get to chow down on another helping soon.
author: 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)
