Helloween

Hamburg in 1984: four players pulled from local outfits Iron Fist, Gentry, Second Hell and Powerfool decide heavy metal needs more speed and a lot more melody. Helloween started with Kai Hansen singing and playing guitar, Michael Weikath on the other guitar, Markus Grosskopf on bass and Ingo Schwichtenberg on drums, and they landed on Noise Records. Then in 1986 Michael Kiske took over the microphone, a singer who could soar right over the twin guitars, and Hansen was left to concentrate on his six strings.

What followed were Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I in 1987 and Part II in 1988, a pair of records that hit like a galloping cavalry charge with a choir attached. "I'm Alive" is pure adrenaline; "I Want Out" is a fist-pumping escape anthem with a chorus the size of a stadium. This is power metal in its first flush, and the band has been called one of the most influential in Europe's '80s metal scene.

Hansen left in 1989 to start Gamma Ray, with Roland Grapow taking his place, and by 1993 Kiske and Schwichtenberg were gone too; the drummer died in 1995. Andi Deris took the microphone in 1994, and Weikath and Grosskopf kept the ship afloat through years of changes. Eventually every surviving member of the Keeper lineup came home to share a stage with Deris, Sascha Gerstner and drummer Daniel Löble, a heavy metal family reunion on a grand scale. Along the way they've made 17 studio albums and sold over 10 million records.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.