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Helloween: Bands
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Helloween\'s watershed performance at that year\'s Donington Monsters of Rock Festival proved to be their crowning glory, but for Hansen, his dream come true ... represented the culmination of his ambitions for the group. Shockingly, the guitarist soon announced his departure from the band he had helmed to the top, claiming that Helloween were now too big a beast for him to control. (He would soon make a fresh start with a new outfit called Gamma Ray, which, to no one\'s surprise, sounded remarkably like Helloween.) But the remaining members of Helloween weren\'t about to let their shot at stardom slip away, and after drafting former Rampage guitarist Roland Grapow, they got right back to work with a sold-out tour of the U.K. Impressed by the band\'s momentum, giant EMI stepped in and offered to sign them away from the ever troubled Noise Records, but in doing so, wound up igniting a legal dispute that would sideline Helloween for nearly two years. Several live albums (Live in the U.K. for Europe, Keepers Live for Japan, and I Want Out: Live for the U.S.) were released to distract the fans during this hiatus, and the band obtained added support from the mighty Sanctuary management team (Iron Maiden, W.A.S.P., etc.) to boot.
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Besides the Scorpions and Accept, Helloween are one of the founders and one of the most popular bands ever in the German rock and heavy metal scene. Helloween managed to be one of the few German bands to break into the USA, and have sold almost half a million records there with such classics as "Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 1 and 2."
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In 1985 Helloween goes into the studio with producer Harris Johns and releases their debut, a self titled 5 track EP ... known to many fans as “The Mini LP”. In October of 1985 the band then releases their first full length album, “Walls Of Jericho”, also produced by Harris Johns. The band also recorded the “Judas EP” which contained a new non album track entitled “Judas” and a compilation of live cuts. Helloween captured the media’s attention and received great reviews all over the world. In November of 1986 while the band toured, Kai Hansen found it difficult to sing and play guitar at the same time so when the tour was over the band began searching for a new singer. The band recruits 18 year old ex-Ill Prophecy singer Michael Kiske and begins work on a new album.
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In 1998 Helloween released Better Than Raw, one of the band's heaviest albums since the full-length debut. A cover-album called Metal Jukebox was released in 1999. 2000 saw the release of The Dark Ride (2000 in music), a more experimental and darker album than their previous releases. According to Helloween, their manager wanted them to come out with something heavier and more "Black Metal" sounding, which almost caused the band to implode. As vocalist Andi Deris said, Helloween plays "happier music." Immediately after the following world tour, Helloween parted ways with guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch who together formed Masterplan. Replacements were soon found in guitarist Sascha Gerstner (ex-Freedom Call, Neumond), and drummer Mark Cross (ex-Metalium, Kingdom Come), currently in Firewind who was later to be replaced by Stefan Schwarzmann, former drummer of Running Wild and Accept.
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Confident that they\'d accumulated little, if any rust from their extended layoff, Helloween finally returned to action with the oddly titled Pink Bubbles Go Ape in 1991. But no amount of EMI or Sanctuary muscle could compensate for the scattered, unfocused songwriting that dominated the album. Furthermore, the band\'s quirky attempts at humor had grown so forced that fans weren\'t sure what to make of furious metal anthems with names like the title track and "Heavy Metal Hamsters." The record bombed in no uncertain terms, as did its even more schizophrenic follow-up, Chameleon. Recorded in 1993 by an obviously shell-shocked band, its poor showing only exacerbated growing internal dissension, which culminated with the ousting of both Kiske (off to launch a solo career) and Schwichtenberg due to drug-related physical and mental health issues. Fair-weather friends EMI and Sanctuary ... decided to cut their losses at this time, leaving the shattered remnants of Helloween to fend for themselves. Attempting to regroup as fast as possible, Helloween brought in new singer Andi Deris and drummer Uli Kusch to record 1994\'s Master of the Rings, a small but determined step in the right direction.
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Helloween returned in 1994 with former Pink Cream 69-singer Andi Deris as their new lead singer, and Uli Kusch, formerly of Kai Hansen's new band Gamma Ray, on the drums, releasing their successful comeback Master of the Rings. However, in 1995 the band and its former members were badly shaken by the tragic suicide of original drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg, who never managed to recover from his illness. Dedicated to his memory, 1996's The Time Of The Oath re-established the band as one of the most popular European metal bands (see 1996 in music). Following another world tour, a double live album called High Live was released.
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