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Helloween is a German power/speed metal band. Alongside Switzerland's Celtic Frost, Sweden's Bathory, and Denmark's Mercyful Fate, Germany's Helloween were possibly the most influential heavy metal band to come out of Continental Europe during the 1980s. By taking the hard riffing and minor key melodies handed down from metal masters like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, then infusing them with the speed and energy introduced by the burgeoning thrash metal movement, Helloween crystallized the sonic ingredients of what is now known as Power Metal.

The band has its roots in 1978, under the name Gentry, by Kai Hansen and Piet Sielck. Sometime later, they were joined by bassist Markus Grosskopf and drummer Ingo Schiwchtenberg, and changed the name again, this time to Second Hell. There was another change in the name (Iron Fist) before the definitive took of the name Helloween. From this point, Sielck left the band. Michael Weikath, who was playing in the band Powerfool, joined them after the disbandment of his band. And so, the first line-up (and official birth) of Helloween was formed, in 1984.

This lineup (Hansen-Weikath-Grosskopf-Schwichtenberg) collaborated in a compilation, (Death Metal, alongside Hellhammer, Running Wild and Dark Avenger) and released two EPs (Helloween and Judas) and a studio album (Walls of Jericho) before another lineup change.

Kai Hansen, foresawing the difficulties to take the lead guitar and singing roles, decided to focus just on the guitar part, and so the search for a new vocalist begun, which ended in the former Ill Prophecy singer Michael Kiske being hired. This lineup change was key in the band's success, with the albums Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1 and Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2.

Sadly, just as they were on the verge of breaking to a wider audience — even flirting with American success — the band's meteoric rise was rudely interrupted by internal strife and a string of bad business decisions. Hiring Kiske ultimately proved a double-edged sword — his iconic work with the aforementioned Keeper albums was what set up said meteoric rise in the first place, but he then decided he wanted to move away from Power Metal towards a lighter Hard Rock, a decision which cost them the departure of Kai Hansen, who would later start Gamma Ray, with Roland Grapow, from Rampage, replacing him. And to top it all, the band was also in a legal dispute with Noise Records about a bunch of nasty legal stuff, which resulted in them not being able to release anything for some time. Everything resulted in two disastrously mellow albums (Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Chameleon) which are best not discussed, even by the band themselves, and very nearly finished off the band. As a result of this, both Kiske and Ingo were sacked for the band, although for different reasons. Kiske was fired because Michael Weikath refused to work with him any further, while Ingo was released due to mental and drug-related issues.

However, this was not the end of the band. Michael Weikath took the control of the band and hired the singer Andreas "Andi" Deris, from the band Pink Cream 69, as well as ex-Gamma Ray drummer Uli Kusch. This change made the band to return to their roots, and continued to prosper in the international metal arena on their own terms, with the release of the album Master of the Rings. More importantly, they remained the benchmark by which most every power metal band is still measured.

In 1995, however, there was sad news: Ingo Schwichtenberg was profoundly depressed and committed suicide by throwing himself to the subway rails. This hit hard in the band, who dedicated the album The Time Of The Oath (a Concept Album about a Nostradamus prophecy) to his memory.

1998 saw the release of the succesor of Time..., Better Than Raw. It's considered the highest point of the band in The '90s.

1999 saw the band celebrating fifteen years of music, thus it was a perfect occasion to release something. This something was a Cover Album called Metal Jukebox, containing metalized covers from numbers such as ABBA, Jethro Tull, David Bowie.

2000 saw the latest release with this lineup: the Darker and Edgier The Dark Ride. It was the last album with both Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch, since they both were sacked from the band. They went later to form the acclaimed Masterplan.

Sascha Gerstner from Freedom Call replaced Grapow, but the band struggled with the position of drummer. The first drummer hired was Mark Cross from Metalium, who abandoned the band after some medical issues. Finally, Stefan Schwarzmann (formerly from Accept, and Running Wild, among plenty of other bands) took the role, although he wasn't hired in time for the recording sessions of Rabbit Don't Come Easy, the follow-up to Dark, where the drums were played by Mikkey Dee.

The final lineup change came in the form of Dani Löble, from Rawhead REXX, replacing Stefan, who left the band for Creative Differences. This lineup survives to our days, and recorded five albums (Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 3: The Legacy, Gambling With The Devil, 7 Sinners, Straight Out of Hell and My God-Given Right) and a Lighter and Softer compilation album called Unarmed.

In 2016, Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske rejoined the band and recorded a new single, "Pumpkins United", along with the band embarking on a world tour of the same name. The band's three-vocalist, three-guitarist "Pumpkins United" released a new album, simply titled Helloween, in June 2021.

Today, they're known for never having grown up or received the memo that it's no longer the 80s. Their over-the-top bombastic performances, Large Ham antics, and absolutely hilarious music videos are essentially what would happen if Limozeen were a real band.

     Band Members 

Current

  • Kai Hansen — Guitar (1984-1989, 2016-present), Vocals (1984-1986, 2016-present)
  • Michael Kiske — Vocals (1986-1993, 2016-present)
  • Andreas "Andi" Deris — Vocals (1994-present)
  • Michael Weikath — Guitar (1984-present)
  • Sascha Gerstner — Guitar, Keyboards (2002-present)
  • Markus Grosskopf — Bass (1984-present)
  • Daniel Löble — Drums (2005-present)

Past

  • Ingo Schwictenberg — Drums (1984-1993; d. 1995)
  • Roland Grapow — Guitars (1993-2001)
  • Uli Kusch — Drums (1993-2001)

     Discography 

Studio albums

  • 1985 - Helloween [EP]
  • 1985 - Walls of Jericho
  • 1987 - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I
  • 1988 - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II
  • 1991 - Pink Bubbles Go Ape
  • 1993 - Chameleon
  • 1994 - Master of the Rings
  • 1996 - Time of the Oath
  • 1998 - Better than Raw
  • 2000 - The Dark Ride
  • 2003 - Rabbit Don't Come Easy
  • 2005 - Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy
  • 2007 - Gambling with the Devil
  • 2010 - 7 Sinners
  • 2013 - Straight Out of Hell
  • 2015 - My God-Given Right
  • 2021 - Helloween

Other albums include:

  • 1989 - Keepers Live (Japan) / I Want Out Live (USA) / Live In The UK (Rest of the world) [Live album]
  • 1997 - High Live! [Live album]
  • 1999 - Metal Jukebox [Cover Album]
  • 2006/2007 - Keeper Of The Seven Keys: The Legacy World Tour - Live In Sao Paulo / Live On 3 Continents [Live CD / DVD]
  • 2009/2010 - Unarmed (Best Of 25th Anniversary) [A compilation with acoustic reimaginings of some of their older songs]

     Official music videos 

The official site.


I Want Tropes:

  • Accidental Murder: "Murderer", from the Helloween EP, talks about a guy who's persecuted for a murder he committed.
  • A God Am I: "Wanna be God" from Straight out of Hell is this from a third-person view:
    "He's a man looking down on the people
    He's a prick you got to really call evil
    Cannot be stopped, you cannot change his mind
    Shots have been lethal
    What he eyes is just there for the taking
    What he takes will soon be forsaken
    He is rich so he'll never die
    If money can buy, he says
    I don't wanna be an angel, I wanna be God!
    Mine the key to hell and heaven, I wanna be God!"
  • Album Intro Track:
    • Walls of Jericho opens with "Walls of Jericho", an orchestrated piece with trumpets which end with a castle door being opened.
    • Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1 opens with "Initiation", a piece which leads into "I'm Alive". The piece itself also opens the music video for the single version of "Halloween".
    • Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2 opens with "Invitation", a hymn-like piece which leads into "Eagle Fly Free". Vision Divine repeats this for their cover on Keepers of Jericho: A Tribute to Helloween.
    • Pink Bubbles Go Ape opens with a swell guitar-and-voice piece called "Pink Bubbles Go Ape".
    • Master of the Rings start with "Irritation", a nice-sounding piece leading onto "Sole Survivor".
    • Better Than Raw starts with an hymn-like mix of metal and opera called "Deliberately Limited Preliminary Prelude Period In Z" which ends in the furious "Push".
    • The Dark Ride starts with "Beyond the Portal", a small effect piece leading into "Mr. Torture".
    • Gambling With The Devil starts with "Crack The Riddle", a sinister piece starting with a circus-like scene and ending with Biff Byford welcoming everyone with a sinister voice before spinning a wheel leading onto "Kill It".
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In the fourth page of the booklet of the remastered Walls of Jericho, the band invokes the trope. It starts firing shots at many people into the section "Into pumpkins". Then, the last part goes this way: invoked
    "(...) all troublemakers on concerts, PUMA Sportswear, (because of no cooperation) Neil Perry (Sounds): if we sound like Discharge!, discharge yourself! You don't have any glimpse, and everyone who is still spelling HELLOWEEN with an "A"."
  • Audience Participation Song:
    • "Future World", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1, has a part right after the third chorus where Kai, Kiske or Andi play with the crowd before engaging in the fourth chorus and the end.
    • The chorus of "Power", from The Time of the Oath, certainly lends itself to audience plays whenever the band plays it live. The fact that the song is Hot-Blooded in musical format certainly helps.
  • Banned in China: In-universe, the lyrics of "Mr. Torture" claims that the eponymous character is banned in 20 countries.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: Invoked in the chorus of "Heaven Tells No Lies", from Gambling With The Devil:
    I'd need a shotgun in my dreams tonight
    To terminate my rotten side.
  • Beast Fable: According to the liner notes for a CD reissue from 2006 of Pink Bubbles Go Ape (and journalist Dave Ling's interview with Michael Weikath published therein), it's all but outright confirmed that the lyrics of "Heavy Metal Hamsters" were meant to be an allegory for a legal/financial/contractual conflict between two different record companies and the band.extra details The song metaphorically refers to the band members as "hamsters" in danger of predation by "a 20th century fox", i.e. record companies.
    Dave Ling: My understanding is that 'Heavy Metal Hamsters' was actually about Helloween themselves?
    Michael Weikath: That's right. We were the heavy metal hamsters.
  • Big Rock Ending: "Where The Rain Grows", from Master of the Rings.
  • Bilingual Bonus: "Lavdate Dominvm", from Better Than Raw, is sung entirely in latin.
  • Break-Up Song:
    • "A Tale That Wasn't Right", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1, talks about a relationship that just-finished, while the singer is in the duel phase and wishing to keep in touch with their partner.
    • "In The Middle Of A Heartbeat", from Master of the Rings, in contrast to "A Tale...", takes place just before the breakup, with the singer having some kind of argument with their lover.
    • "Forever And One (Neverland)", from The Time Of The Oath, is about a different type of breakup, finding the singer's lover with someone else.
    • "Fallen To Pieces" from Gambling With The Devil is a variation, as it's about somebody who commits suicide after his lover leaves him.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: "Just A Little Sign", from Rabbit Don't Come Easy, is about the singer going to a gig and meeting somebody they can't stop thinking about. However, the singer has problems spitting out what they feel.
    "Shouldn't I dare to talk to her
    But what is it I would say
    Surely I'd look like a clown
    For my smiles freeze on my face."
  • Compilation Rerelease:
    • Later editions of Walls of Jericho include the Helloween EP and the Judas single.
    • Some editions of the first two Keeper of the Seven Keys have both parts in a single package. In addition, this edition includes "Savage" and "Livin Ain't No Crime" as bonus tracks of part 1, and "Don't Run For Cover" and remixes of "Dr. Stein" and "Keeper of the Seven Keys" in part 2.
  • Concept Album:
    • The Time Of The Oath is about a Nostradamus's prophecy.
    • Gambling With The Devil isn't technically a concept album, but there's an underlying thread among its songs pertaining to various moral and spiritual dilemmas.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • A riff during the solo on "Back Against The Wall", from Rabbit Don't Come Easy, is one towards "Giants", from Chameleon.
    • The chorus of "Are You Metal?" from 7 Sinners has the chords of "Halloween", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1, at full speed.
    • "Who is Mr. Madman", from 7 Sinners is a distant sequel to 1994's "Perfect Gentleman", released on Master of the Rings. In addition to the Real-Time Timeskip, the song includes a Dark Reprise of the riff from the original song, and the intro describes how the narcissism of the titular "Perfect Gentleman" drove him to insanity. The song itself depicts his time in an insane asylum and subsequent plot to escape it.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: "Mr. Torture", from The Dark Ride, is a parody over Cold-Blooded Torture made by a man who sells pain.
  • Cool Cat: "Crazy Cat", from Chameleon, talks about an anthropomorphic cat who meets his gang, plays Blackjack and is addicted to chicks. It's based on Fritz the Cat.
  • Cover Version: "Something", "The Hellion/Electric Eye", "I Stole Your Love", "I'm Your Captain (Closer To Home)", "Blue Suede Shoes", "Magnetic Fields", "Rain", "Sheer Heart Attack" and "Fast As A Shark". Also, during the "Master of the Rings" tour, they did a version of Pink Cream 69's "Where The Eagle Learns To Fly".note 
  • Cover Album:
    • Helloween themselves have Metal Jukebox, which contains purely covers from bands such as Jethro Tull and Faith No More. The japanese version also has "Rat Bat Blue".
    • On the inversion side, they have four tribute albums to their name: Keepers of Jericho (two volumes), The Eastern Tribute to Helloween (made by Eastern Europe bands), and the brazilian HelloRay, shared with Gamma Ray.
  • The Cover Changes the Gender: "Lay All Your Love On Me", from Metal Jukebox. The original was sung by female singers, while this version is sung by the male Andi Deris.
  • Darker and Edgier:
    • Master of the Rings came after the Lighter and Softer Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Chameleon, and it shows: the sound is more crude, the lyrics touch more mature themes such as War Is Hell ("Sole Survivor"), betrayal ("Where the Rain Grows"), faith crisis ("Why?") and so on.
    • The Dark Ride is the closer of the "rebirth" lineupnote , and the darkest of the four albums of the lineup.
    • Gambling With the Devil is more mature than their previous works, to the point it could be argued that Helloween (at least momentarily) Took a Level in Cynic.
    • 7 Sinners is even more Darker and Edgier than Gambling With The Devil. The two comic songs of the album ("Are You Metal?" and "Who's Mr. Madman?") are quite heavy; there're lots of Punctuated! For! Emphasis! in the songs; even in the normal verses; Dani Loble destroys his drumset in any of the songs, even reaching Death Metal and Black Metal speeds; "Not Yet Today", the intro to "Far In The Future" is chillingly dark, even the ballad, "The Smile of the Sun" sounds pretty heavy.
  • The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: "Reptile", from Walls Of Jericho is about the AIDS.
  • "Double, Double" Title: "Mirror Mirror", from The Dark Ride.
  • Downer Ending: "Dr. Stein", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2, ends with the eponymous Doctor being Driven to Suicide.
  • Dr. Fakenstein: The titular "Dr. Stein", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2.
  • Drugs Are Bad: "Starlight", from the Helloween EP, is a straightforward song about drug addiction that comprises the state afterwards as well as the damages drugs do to one's body. It starts with pills ("You swallow your pill, you want to feel free, a trip to a world made of games") and then gets to needles ("Now there's a needle lying in front of you, I'm frightened of those things, But I'll know what you'll do, You need it to escape from the night"). The song ends quoting The Metamorphoses as a metaphor for death. ("You feel the mind-blowin' stuff flow through your veins, you take off and fly to the sun, but when you get too near your wings will be burnt, you'll die in the flames and you'll fall")
  • Earth Song:
    • Among the many things "Paint A New World", from Gambling With The Devil, denounces, the song mentions global warming ("Poles are melting"), the ozone layer being widened ("Holes in the sky"), intentional forest burning ("Woods are on fire"), and city-based pollution ("Scary pollution").
    • "If A Mountain Could Talk" from 7 Sinners, meanwhile, adds natural resource consumption ("Resources will soon be consumed") to the list.
  • Eat the Camera: The music video for "I Want Out" features a shot in which a camera-zoom of this type is combined with a Chroma Key effect.
  • '80s Hair: During The '80s all the members got a pompadour in a different color, as seen in the back cover of Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1.
  • Epic Rocking:
    • The album version of "Halloween", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1, clocks at 13:18.
    • "Keeper of the Seven Keys", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2, clocks at 13:37.
    • Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 3: The Legacy has "The King for a 1000 Years" (clocking at 13:54) and "Occasion Avenue" (clocking at 11:04).
    • The Self-Titled Album Helloween closes with "Skyfall", which clocks at 12:11.
    • The mashup song "The Keeper Trilogy", from Unarmed, is a 17:06 orchestral rocking mashup between the first three songs.
  • Evil Laugh: "Who is Mr. Madman?", from 7 Sinners, ends with this.
  • Fading into the Next Song:
    • In Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt. 2: "Invitation" => "Eagle Fly Free"
    • In Better Than Raw: "Deliberately Limited Preliminary Prelude in Z" => "Push"
    • In Gambling With The Devil: "Crack The Riddle" (Intro) => "Kill It", and "Fallen To Pieces" => "I. M. E."
  • Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!: "Cry For Freedom", from the Helloween EP, is about a slave rebellion.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: The protagonist of "Perfect Gentleman", from Master of the Rings, is bound to a mental institution in "Who's Mr. Madman?", from 7 Sinners.
    "Sixteen years have passed since he, one perfect of his kind, the Casanova of his time, crowned himself to conquer the land in craving for lust. Lust, one of the seven deadly sins. Punishment he has suffered. Look at him what did he become, who is he now?"
  • The Gods Must Be Lazy: "Why?", from Master of the Rings, deals with a believer's crisis of faith as he keeps seeing all the evil going in the world and the "good deities" not doing anything to fix the situation.
  • Gratuitous French: "Perfect Gentleman", from Master of the Rings, has the following bit:
    I am "le d'Artagnan de coeur"
  • Gratuitous Panning: "Kill It", from Gambling With The Devil, killswitches the left and right guitar tracks for over a minute.
  • Greed: The overall theme of the lyrics of "Don't Spit on My Mind" (from Better Than Raw) is that, although right-wing economic policies have been promoted to the public at large using claims that those policies will improve the economy and thereby bring more wealth to the average person, those claims are really just lies told by ultrawealthy people whose true goal is to make themselves richer at everyone else's expense:
    Don't tell me of any wonders shitting gold
    Don't tell me of a hard way we have to go through
    Still we pay your warmth out of the cold
    Do you really think we're that blind?
    Don't spit on my mind
    The lyrics also say that those rich people have exploited nationalistic sentiment as a means of getting their preferred economic policies enacted into law
    In the name of country-love
    They enrich themselves apart
  • Grief Song: An Alternate Song Interpretation towards "Forever And One (Neverland)", from The Time Of The Oath, considering that the band dedicated the whole TTOTO album to their former bandmante, the late drummer Ingo Schiwchtenberg.
  • Insult Backfire: Michael Kiske wrote "Savage", from the Updated Re-release of Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt. 1 and the Future World single, as a Take That! towards Heavy Metal fans. However, fans took in stroll, and appropriated the song as a battlecry.
  • Heavy Meta: They have several songs dedicated to Heavy Metal itself:
    • "Heavy Metal (Is the Law)", from Walls Of Jericho, is a declaration of love towards the genre.
    • "Are You Metal", from 7 Sinners, on the other hand, is a parody.
  • Homage:
  • Hot Witch: Appears in the cover of Better Than Raw, cooking pumpkins.
  • Incredibly Long Note: In the lead-up to the final chorus of "I Want Out", Michael Kiske goes "Leave me aloooo...ne", and manages to hold that note while the entire chorus plays. That's almost 20 seconds without breaking.
  • Just One More Level!: "The Game is On", from Master of the Rings, is about someone who got so absorbed into a video game that he didn't even notice his house was on fire and presumably perished. The game is heavily implied to be the Game Boy version of Tetris, due to some lyrical clues ("with a grey box in his hands") and the fact that the entire main riff of the song is very obviously based on the Game Boy Tetris' Game Over jingle, and it even directly samples most of its sound effects.
  • Last Note Nightmare: The intro of "The Dark Ride", from the eponymous album, has a Merry-Go-Round tune that slowly fades into some random/creepy noises and a creepy voice telling everybody to "sign on the dotted line." The remaining song, however, is actually a pretty upbeat and energetic tune... until the very end, where the song fades out in the midst of a creepy-sounding chant.
  • "Leaving the Nest" Song: "I Want Out," is told from the perspective of someone wanting to escape their closely monitored life and embrace freedom and independence. There is a secondary meaning, however: guitarist and founding member Kai Hansen has said the song was written out of his desire to leave the band at that time.
  • Letters 2 Numbers: "Sun 4 The World", from Rabbit Don't Come Easy.
  • Lighter and Softer:
    • Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Chameleon are the softest albums of their catalogue, containing more ballads and more happy/optimistic songs than all the previous and successive albums.
    • Unarmed is an unplugged Milestone Celebration compilation where every song featured was reworked to be Lighter and Softer. The songs contain brass sections, child chorus, classical strings and other "non-metal" stuff.
    • Rabbit Don't Come Easy came after the Darker and Edgier The Dark Ride, featuring more happy/optimistic songs and a lighter sound.
  • Longest Song Goes Last:
    • Walls of Jericho ends with "How Many Tears" (7:16).
    • Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1 ends with "Halloween" (13:18) preceding the closer outro "Follow The Sign".
    • Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2 ends with "Keeper of the Seven Keys" (13:38).
    • The Dark Ride ends with "The Dark Ride" (8:48).
    • Rabbit Don't Come Easy ends with "Nothing To Say" (8:35).
    • 7 Sinners ends with "Far in the Future" (7:42).
    • My God-Given Right ends with "You, Still of War" (7:21).
    • Helloween ends with "Skyfall" (12:11).
  • Lyrical Dissonance:
    • Despite the presumably grim fate of its subject, the song "The Game is On" is enough of a typically catchy, bouncy, upbeat Helloween song that it comes across as "video games are fun!" That YouTube video is an absolute celebration of retro gaming.
    • "Star Invasion" sounds like a near-epic and entirely serious ballad with a cool solonote . Even after 1008 screwball squirrels teleport in.
  • Mad Scientist: The eponymous "Dr. Stein", from Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt. 2, who makes cloning experiments, and at one point "tried to clone himself", to no results.
  • Metal Band Mascot:
    • Jack-o-Lantern is a common sight in every release of the band.
    • They also had Fangface in the beginning, which Kai later appropriated for Gamma Ray.
  • Metal Scream:
    • Michael Kiske was a master at these:
      • In "Halloween", the "AAAAAH!" he belts out from the chorus are quite high-pitched.
      • In "I Want Out", he belts out "Leave me alone" for nearly twenty seconds.
    • Andi's screams aren't a slouch, though he sounds more like an old witch than a metal singer. This doesn't diminish his ability to belt put screams, though:
      • In the live versions of the aforementioned "I Want Out", he can keep up with Kiske's own screams.
      • As for his era, there's "Push", from Better Than Raw, which is sung almost entirely on screams.
  • Miles Gloriosus: The subject of "Perfect Gentleman", from Master of the Rings, is a narcissist who keeps boasting about his abilities to get chicks and look cool.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: There's a flute solo in "Raise The Noise", from 7 Sinners.
  • Number of the Beast: "Escalation 666", from The Dark Ride.
  • Ominous Music Box Tune: "Still We Go", from Master Of The Rings, opens with an ominous music box tune.
  • Or Was It a Dream?: "We Damn The Night", from The Dark Ride.
    Blood on my pillow.
    Blood on my skin.
    Am I going mad
    Or was this a dream?
  • "Pachelbel's Canon" Progression: "Eagle Fly Free", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2, has this progression as its main musical component.
  • Portmantitle: The band is called Helloween, a mix of Hell and Halloween.
  • Power Metal: Credited as the Trope Maker of the European style.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • "Rise and Fall", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 2, starts with the line "Once a singer sung some bullshit...". This is the only bit of profanity displayed in the entire song, and, for that matter, the entire album.
    • "Asshole", from Straight out of Hell is another very rare example of the band using profanity in their songs. Even then, they reserve this for the chorus:
    "You’re an asshole
    Typical human being
    You’re a sucker
    Sucking out energy
    Asshole
    Typical human being
    You motherfucker
    Stupid shit you make me flee"
  • Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: The cover art for Rabbit Don't Come Easy has a magician struggling to get a rabbit out of the hat.
  • Pumpkin Person: Jack-O-Lantern, the band's mascot, is basically this everytime he appears.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
    • PUSH!!! EN-FORCE!!! YOUR!!! IN-DE-PEN-DENCE!!!note 
    • I-WANT-OUT!!! TO-LIIIIIIIIIVE-MYYYYYY-LIFE-A-LONE!!!note 
    • Pretty much many verses of "Far In The Future", from 7 Sinners, have this.
  • Religion Rant Song: "Church Breaks Down", from Straight out of Hell, a rare case of a band leaving their beliefs in order to denounce the inquisition, even going so far as to cite Leonardo Da Vinci and how he suffered for trying to see what's beyond the bible.
  • Robot War: "Twilight of the Gods", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1, ends in one, with the machines that humans built to replace their deities now destroying them and the world.
  • Rock Me, Amadeus!: "Gorgar", from Walls Of Jericho, features a part of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" in the solo part.
  • Rock-Star Song: Inverted in "Never Be A Star" from Rabbit Don't Come Easy, which denounces the idea of rock-stardom.
  • Sampling:
    • The "Happy Happy Halloween" intro heard in "Starlight", from the Helloween EP, is taken from the movie Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
    • The battle sounds at the beginning of "Before The War" were taken live in Yugoslavia.
    • There are several pieces of music in the form of zapping starting "Occasion Avenue", from Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy.
  • Sequel Song:
    • "Halloween", "Keeper of the Seven Keys" and "The King for a Thousand Years", found on the albums Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1, Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2 and Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy respectively, are all considered sequels. While "Halloween" doesn't share a plot with the other two songs, it's still considered part of the band's "Keeper Trilogy", being a 10+ minute long multi-part Epic composed of snippets from all three songs. An orchestral medley of all three songs was made for the band's Milestone Celebration compilation album Unarmed.
    • A straighter example is "Who is Mr. Madman", from 7 Sinners, which takes place 18 years after the titular "Perfect Gentleman", from Master of the Rings.
  • Shout-Out: "Halloween", from Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt. 1, has one in a few lines to Charlie Brown:
    Bad luck if you get a stone,
    like the good old Charlie Brown,
    you think Linus could be right
    The kids will say it's just a stupid lie!!!
    • In "The Dark Ride", from the eponymous album, this line:
    • "Heavy Metal (Is the Law)", aside of being a Heavy Meta hymn, has this following paragraph:
    • The B-Side "Les Hamburgueois Walkways" is inspired by Gary Moore's "Parisiennes Walkways".
    • The rhythm section during Weikath's solo in "Cry for Freedom", from the Helloween EP, was taken from Mania's "Shadows Under Your Eyes".
    • "Crazy Cat", from Chameleon, is inspired by Fritz the Cat.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Unusually for a heavy metal band, Helloween is mostly on the idealistic side, even on the Darker and Edgier The Dark Ride and Gambling with the Devil (although the latter album was probably as close to the cynical side as the band had ever gotten).
  • Sole Survivor: "Sole Survivor", from Master of the Rings:
    "Sole survivor
    Of a kill without alert
    Sing your feelings out
    Your song remains unheard"
  • Speed Metal: On Helloween and Walls of Jericho, with The Dark Ride, Gambling With the Devil, and 7 Sinners also incorporating elements of this.
  • Start My Own:
    • After Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2, Kai Hansen left Helloween. Several years later, he formed Gamma Ray.
    • After being sacked from the band, after The Dark Ride was completed, Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch created Masterplan.
  • Take That!:
    • The fourth page of the Walls of Jericho remaster contains one towards many people. In the third and most of the fourth pages, many people receive "fangs", but the "Into Pumpkins" section has the band taking shots at many people for many reasons.
    • "Judas", from the Walls of Jericho remaster and the Judas EP, is one towards "all politicians who talk human but act like monsters".
    • When Kai Hansen couldn't handle being in the band anymore, he penned his resignation in the form of the song "I Want Out", from Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt. 2.
    • After Michael Kiske was fired, the next album (Master Of The Rings) had a song dedicated to him, "Mr. Ego". The song is full of lines such as "Don't wanna hear your slimy voice" and "Your brain is just a bloated dummy."
    • There's also "Are You Metal?", from 7 Sinners. Disguised as a Heavy Meta song, Sascha Gerstner, guitarist of the band, said that the song was meant as a parody towards metal elitism.
  • Taking the Bullet: "The Departed (Sun Is Going Down)", from The Dark Ride:
    "I would die for you would you die with me?
    No, you can't deny!
    Would you catch the bullet that was meant for me?
    Blaze across the sky!!"
  • Technician vs. Performer: Kai Hansen, Roland Grapow and Sascha Gerstner were all the Performers to Michael Weikath's Technician.
  • Trrrilling Rrrs: When speaking in Spanish, Andi can't avoid these.
  • Truck Driver's Gear Change: Towards the end of "I Want Out", from Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2, after the last line of the last chorus. Enter the 30-second Metal Scream and the band playing the main song in a higher pitch.
  • Unplugged Version: Unarmed is a compilation album where every selected song got this treatment.
  • Updated Re-release:
    • Walls of Jericho: The 2006 Expanded Edition adds remixes of "Murderer" and "Ride the Sky", live renditions of "Ride the Sky" and "Guardians", the two tracks from Death Metal ("Oernst of Life" and "Metal Invaders") and a christmas-based track called "Surprise Track".
    • Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1: The 2006 Expanded Edition added a Kiske re-recording of "Victim of Fate", a remix of "Starlight", an alternative version of "A Little Time" and the video/single version of "Halloween".
    • Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2: Many releases include "Save Us" as a bonus track. In addition, the 2006 Expanded Edition includes a bonus disc containing "Savage", "Livin Ain't No Crime", "Don't Run For Cover" and remixes of "Dr. Stein" and "Keeper of the Seven Keys".
    • Pink Bubbles Go Ape: The 2006 Expanded Edition includes "Shit and Lobster", "Blue Suede Shoes", "Les Hamburgueois Walkways" and "You Run With The Pack".
    • Chameleon: The 2006 Expanded Edition includes a bonus disc with "I Don't Care, You Don't Care", "Oriental Journey", "Cut in the Middle", "Introduction", "Get Me Out Of Here", "Red Socks And The Smell of Trees", "Ain't Got Nothing Better" and a demo version of "Windmill".
    • Master of the Rings: The 2006 Expanded Edition has a second CD with "Can't Fight Your Desire", "Star Invasion", "Cold Sweat", "Silicon Dreams", "Grapowski's Malmsuite 1001 (In D-Doll)", "I Stole Your Love" and "I'm Your Captain (Closer To Home)".
    • The Time Of The Oath: The 2006 Expanded Edition includes a second CD with "Still I Don't Know", "Take It To The Limit", "The Hellion/Electric Eye", "Magnetic Fields", "Rain", "Walk Your Way", "Light In The Sky" and "Time Goes By".
    • Better Than Raw: The 2006 Expanded Edition includes the tracks "Back on the Ground", "A Game We Shouldn't Play", a live bootleg version of "Perfect Gentleman" and an instrumental solo called "Moshi Moshi-Shiki No Uta".
    • The Dark Ride: The Special Edition includes "The Madness Of The Crowds", "Deliver Ud From Temptation" and the single cut of "If I Could Fly".
    • Rabbit Don't Come Easy: The Limited Edition comes with the tracks "Far Away", "Fast As A Shark" and "Sheer Heart Attack".
    • Gambling With The Devil: The Special Edition comes with a second disc with the tracks "Find My Freedom", "See The Night", "Never Surrender", a radio edit of "As Long As I Fall", and two videos: a trailer, and an enhanced video for "As Long As I Fall".
    • 7 Sinners: The Deluxe Edition comes with "I'm Free". In addition, the 2020 remaster comes with that track, "Faster We Fall" and "Aiming High".
    • Straight Out Of Hell: The Limited Edition comes with "Another Shot of Life" and the aforementioned Hammond version of "Burning Sun".
    • My God-Given Right: The Limited Edition comes with "I Wish I Was There" and "Wicked Game". In addition, the Earbook edition comes with those two tracks as well as "Nightmare" and "More Than A Lifetime".
  • Viewer Name Confusion: Invoked in the fourth page of the booklet of the Walls of Jericho remaster: invoked
    "WARNING! Everybody Who Will Be Writing HELLOWEEN With An "A" Or Tries To Distribute Pamphlets With An "A" Will Be Turned Into A Pumpkin!!!"
  • Vocal Tag Team: Hansen, Kiske and Deris all share lead vocals on "Pumpkins United", a song written and recorded for reunion tour of the same name, as well as taking turns during many songs on the Self Titledalbum.
  • War Is Hell: A common theme of the band, alongside religion and humor.
    • "Sole Survivor" from Master of the Rings is about a soldier who's sent to die in a war, and whose voice is unheard, as he has no power to change anything.
    • "World Of War" from Straight Out Of Hell crosses it with War for Fun and Profit, denouncing the evils of foreign invasion for riches and the aftermaths often involving "Mothers crying over losing their sons/Ripping out their heart for worthless gold". The cover of the album even has a bunch of pumpkin-headed people in the middle of a war.
    • Ditto for "Battle's Won", from My God-Given Right, this time the song is about the aftermath of a war, where the victor is counting the riches obtained for the event.
  • We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: "Star Invasion" has one such misunderstanding. An awful mess ensues.
  • Welcome Back, Traitor:
    • Kai Hansen quit the band over Creative Differences and went on to form Gamma Ray. After some successful tours between Helloween and Gamma Ray, he rejoined the band in 2017.
    • Michael Kiske also quit the band due to Creative Differences, which were sort in 2017, when he also rejoined the band.
  • Word Salad Title:
    • "Deliberately Limited Preliminary Prelude in Z", from Better Than Raw. All their other album-introduction tracks are single words beginning with an I.
    • Also the B-Side "Grapowski's Malmsuite 1001 In D-Doll".
  • You Can Run, but You Can't Hide: "Ride The Sky", from Walls of Jericho, deals in first person with an outlaw who has escaped.

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