Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Interview By Blackdiamond

The pioneers of power metal HELLOWEEN are marking a huge milestone of their career in 2015 – it is three decades since their first release back in 1985, with the EP “Helloween”.

Of course, as with any band who has been around for that length of time, there have been changes in line-up, but the current one is pretty solid, proved by the last ten years together.

With such classics under their belts as “Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I” and “Part II”, to the more recent “Straight Out Of Hell”, HELLOWEEN have always created the music they wanted, on their terms, whether it be longer concept type tracks or fun crowd pleasing songs, along with tackling some serious issues as well. Even if power metal isn’t your favourite genre, there’s no denying the constant quality and energy this band produce!

As HELLOWEEN prepare to release their 15th studio album “My God-Given Right” on 29th May in Europe via Nuclear Blast Records, Blackdiamond had an entertaining and informative chat with frontman Andi Deris.

Discussing HELLOWEEN‘s 30th anniversary, Andi expressed:

“Time flies you could say, 30 years is unbelievable! On the other hand, we’re still here and nearly having the third generation of fans in the audience, which is great. But at the same time it gives us lots of responsibility when it comes to new albums, to try and combine all the guys. You can’t be everyone’s darling, that’s quite clear. Nevertheless, we tried for the 30th anniversary – we tried to do an album which kind of leads you through three decades of Helloween metal and I think we succeeded.

Our producer Charlie did a great job on this one too because we wanted to have a little bit of a touch of the ’80’s, still being 2015.”

Andi revealed the story behind the title track ‘My God-Given Right’:

“‘My God-Given Right’ was actually from my father telling me on finishing school and I did not know what to do with my life. You have a big question mark over your head, what should you do? I definitely had that dream of making music like so many kids have, but I was very fortunate to have a father who completely backed me up. He said ‘you’re my only son – if I see you happy, you make me happy and it’s your God-given right to do what you want with your life, or at least give it a try. And whatever you do, I’m behind you.’

And my own son last year was more or less asking me the same question, so it went back to the days with my father. I told my son what his Grandfather told me and I thought it’s a beautiful title for a song.”

To gain more of an insight into some of the songs on the forthcoming album and possible hints about more touring in the UK as well as other countries, listen to the full chat on the audio player below:

Check out the official HELLOWEEN website at this location.