Straight Out Of Hell with Helloween (2013)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 4 October 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Rok Klemše

Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška/ Slovenia
Interview date: March 18, 2013

Dani Löble is one of the best drummers in modern Euro power metal. As the first drummer and driving wheel of the rhythm section in Helloween – a band that in many ways defined the very idea of European power metal – he’s been with the Pumpkins for eight years now.

Helloween have a new album out, »Straight Out Of Hell« (RockLine review HERE), and on their new co-headlining tour with fellow countrymen Gamma Ray, called »Hellish Rock part II«, they also dropped by Ljubljana. Despite the long road that brought Helloween here, since the guys set off for Slovenia from Bucharest in Romania, Dani seemed remarkably well rested and slipped into the conversation in a seriously mischievous mood…

RockLine: You’ve got the new album »Straight Out Of Hell« out. How are your followers reacting, how much excitement is there around the new studio effort?
Dani: We honestly didn’t expect such a stormy reaction from our fans. Nothing but positive reviews, ratings, praise everywhere. The album has been received brilliantly. You can see it in the charts too, where our album is doing really well against the competition so far. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

RockLine: How would you describe the main differences between the previous album »Seven Sinners« and the new »Straight Out Of Hell«?
Dani: This time we actually wanted a slightly brighter album, a more positive one. »Seven Sinners« turned out, as a finished product, to be a really dark album, which we neither planned nor expected ourselves. I think that darkness was heavily influenced by the fact that we tuned the guitars lower than we normally do. For the new album we went back to normal tuning, the »Helloween way«, and that gave the album its brighter side. You can see for yourself that the state of the world isn’t exactly rosy. At the end of 2012 they were predicting the end of the world, the Mayan calendar, all those stories and so on. And nothing happened. »Okay,« we said to ourselves. Let’s give people a more positive album, after we’d sunk into hell and apparently survived the end of the world. That’s why it has that title, and a kind of wake-up-call vibe that’s meant to stir up positive feelings in people. A leap out. Out of hell.

RockLine: It’s been eight years since you joined Helloween. The energy isn’t fading, you’re still an incredibly powerful stage crew and a live attraction. How have the bonds that exist in Helloween today grown? How do you see that process, from the moment you joined the band to now?
Dani: It’s a kind of gradual, logical progress. When you join a band, you enter into a relationship. Nothing more, nothing less. At the start I didn’t know all the members well enough, and they didn’t know me well enough either. The point is that the team finds a way to always land on its feet, in all kinds of situations. Even in the toughest moments. You have to stick together. When I joined Helloween, a whole new world opened up for me. Suddenly I was heading off on tours around the world, and with such a big band, I can say a legendary one. At the same time the pressure on you from the outside grows. Everyone suddenly expects the maximum from you. So every night on stage you have to give 100% of the best you’ve got to the audience! At least 115%! DVDs get recorded, shows get recorded. All of a sudden, once you’re in a big band. So you have to be that much more focused and organized. But I can confirm that after eight years the band has truly matured and grown into a strong entity with real character. Today we all know each other really well. Each of us knows exactly where everyone’s limits are in the team, how far someone can go and where they can’t. No hiding games, because there can’t be any. And yes! It’s just as you’re hinting. We grow from album to album. And the next one will surely surpass the current »Straight Out Of Hell« in maturity. That’s not just motivation, that’s the normal development path of a band. And this lineup of Helloween has been building on it for eight years now.

RockLine: And your drum kit on stage is growing from year to year to match. Every time I see you, you’ve added another cymbal, another tom tom…
Dani: Ha ha ha… That’s proof we’re maturing too. That the desire is still in us to level up our playing, to keep perfecting ourselves as musicians. Constantly. There’s a kind of kid in us that wakes up and wants to jump out. That’s usually when we can move mountains, if we want to.

RockLine: Working with the legendary producer Charlie Bauerfeind and recording at his studio in Tenerife is obviously love at first sight for Helloween, one that just won’t fade. You’ve been working with him since the album »The Dark Ride«. What is it about Charlie Bauerfeind’s character that made you click so well?
Dani: I’ve known Charlie for a very long time. I worked with him even before I joined Helloween. It’s all very natural. Charlie’s character, his ideas, his approach and the way he takes in the music we write simply match our musical philosophy. That’s why Charlie is more than just a producer for us, he’s the sixth member of the team! He knows all of us inside out. He knows everything about us. He’s always on the ball when you’re in the studio, and he always squeezes the maximum out of your talent. That’s where he’s a master. He’s our motivator. Even when we come to him with a song that’s already good at its core, he says we can do even better. Charlie understands really well how the instruments work, he knows them as well as he knows our characters. He’s a great listener and he reads every situation really well. That’s hugely important. Charlie is like an adviser to us. During recording only one law applies. The law of Charlie Bauerfeind. Nothing is above that law!

RockLine: »Straight Out Of Hell« is an incredibly colorful and diverse album. Once again you thought of everything. The shortest song, Wanna Be God, is especially interesting. It’s a kind of tribute to Queen. Whose idea was it to include this track on the album?
Dani: It was actually Charlie who came up with the idea. Wanna Be God was the last song that landed in my email inbox. The track was written by Andi (vocals, Helloween, ed. note), but we already had enough songs for the new album by then, and at first I thought we didn’t need to put this one on the album. But then, once we were in the studio, Charlie stepped onto the scene. At one point he literally lined us up and handed out assignments for what we had to do in the studio. In a way he got us to play something we hadn’t really planned to at all. Later, when I was recording the drums for this song, which seemed very innocent at first glance, and when the idea took shape for Andi, I realized for myself that it’s an excellent moment on the album. Since Andi developed the idea, he wanted to dedicate the track to Freddie Mercury, because he’s been a huge fan forever. Freddie is Andi’s idol. With this song, Helloween also want to say thanks to both the person and the work of Freddie Mercury, and to the music of Queen.

RockLine: What about drumming idols? Your idols? Who inspired you in particular?
Dani: Oh, there are really a lot of them, it’s hard to pick…. Tommy Aldridge, for example (Whitesnake, Black Oak Arkansas, Thin Lizzy,.. ed. note), then Dave Lombardo (Slayer, ed. note). I was still a teenager when Lombardo launched his career with Slayer. Then there’s Lars Ulrich (Metallica, ed. note). But I admire Lars mostly for his stage character. For his nature, how he behaves and reacts on stage, how he responds to a given situation, his staging of excess is appealing, and so is his wild side. Otherwise, though, Lars didn’t influence me in terms of drumming technique. Then there’s Tico Torres (Bon Jovi, ed. note), and Jörg Michael (Saxon, Stratovarius, Grave Digger, Running Wild,.. ed. note). I know Jörg personally, too. His drumming style is such that I often had to follow in his footsteps. In the bands Jörg played in, you can clearly hear the family ties with Helloween’s music. No way around it. The German school, you know, he he he. I respect him a lot. But it’s hard for me to answer this question in enough detail.

RockLine: Since you mentioned Lars Ulrich and his stage escalations, his wild character, what do you think about talent shows, that trend today? Is it a positive or a negative thing?
Dani: It’s not right, it’s not okay. What we see on TV, these shows,… They have nothing to do with reality. That’s why it’s bad, because it affects people badly, since it wrecks their healthy idea of what it means to be a musician, what making music is, performing it, interpreting it and so on. As a musician you’re condemned to a lot of hard graft. You have to secure the conditions to practice, to practice a lot. You go down to the basement, you give things up, you strive to one day stand on a stage. Even if you’re talented, you’re improving, you’re getting good, that’s still no guarantee you’ll ever really make it. That’s why people get the wrong idea when they see staged stuff in shows like that. How someone picks a »talent« and the fame of a star instantly sticks to them. That picture is wrong. People think these things are really easy to achieve in the music business. And that’s the downside of such shows. Heaps of money are in play, and money is what’s making everything go wrong in the world these days anyway.

RockLine: You recently decided to start doing drum clinics. What’s that experience like?
Dani: What I like most about drum clinics is that I can get totally close to the fans, that everyone who’s interested in my drumming can come straight up to me for a chat. It’s a spontaneous flow of information and lots of fun moments. I’m happy if I can help anyone who’s decided to play drums, with advice, point them in a direction, motivate them somehow. At first, though, I wasn’t keen on running drum clinics. There are too many of them today and people have slowly gotten sick of them too.

RockLine: Does the music of new artists grab you? Do you follow the development of new bands on the scene?
Dani: When it comes to music I’m very broad and I listen to absolutely everything. I follow new artists, but there’s a lot of generic stuff and copying. On top of that, the music industry is in deep trouble, and by not giving a chance to real bands, meaning ones that nurture their own original ideas, it’s sawing off the branch it’s sitting on. Actually, it’s already sawed it off. There’s less and less room for young bands to make it. I’m talking about bands that build on their own recognizable musical character.

RockLine: Unfortunately they’re already hurrying us, and we have to wrap this interview up fast. One last, admittedly pretty generic question. What are the plans for Helloween in the near future?
Dani: First we have to survive this tour, he he he… If my memory serves me right, we’ve got eighty or ninety confirmed shows on the schedule. But real plans, I’d say really well thought-out plans, we definitely don’t have at the moment. Maybe we’ll head back into the studio after the tour. I can’t predict. It depends on how the situation develops and how we feel once the tour is over.