Germany’s HELLOWEEN have been one of the most influential and internationally most successful acts of the global heavy metal scene and this year the Hamburg-based quintet, founded in 1984, celebrates its 30th anniversary. The band’s latest studio album, Straight Out Of Hell, charted at a sensational No. 4, HELLOWEEN’s highest German chart entry to date, holding this position for five long weeks. Additionally they made another five Top Ten entries in Europe and also cracked the U.S. Billboard chart.
Now HELLOWEEN returns to its old label home Nuclear Blast, where it released two albums — The Dark Ride (2000) and Rabbit Don’t Come Easy (2003), both of which have just been reissued with extended bonus material.
Nuclear Blast is overwhelmed to bring the band back into the fold. “We are more than proud, that HELLOWEEN is part of the Nuclear Blast family again,” label owner Markus Staiger states. “All those years we had a friendship-like connection and ways crossed on a regular basis at concerts and festivals. HELLOWEEN, to us, is a matter of the heart. There’s not only the two records to mention, but an act that influenced me and many of our employees. Together there are big plans and we are looking forward to having another productive and successful cooperation.”
The band itself is equally celebratory. Vocalist Andi Deris says: “As a label, Nuclear Blast is ‘heavy metal to the bone,’ and we are really looking forward to working together with a lot of familiar faces.”
HELLOWEEN is busy working on the follow-up to Straight Out Of Hell, which saw the founders of German melodic speed metal playing a total of 84 shows in 34 different countries. After the summer, the band will hit the MiSueno Studio on the isle of Tenerife with producer Charlie Bauerfeind (GOTTHARD, HAMMERFALL) to record a new album for an early 2015 release.