HELLOWEEN Singer Defends Decision To Revisit 'Keeper' Album Concept

ThatsSoMetal.com recently conducted an interview with HELLOWEEN singer Andi Deris. An excerpt from the chat follows:

ThatsSoMetal.com: Was writing and recording "Keeper of the Seven Keys - The Legacy" a labor of love or the biggest headache the band ever decided to take on?

Andi: "We are more than happy with it and very relieved also you can say, Hahaha. Yeah, you could hear the stones of relief hit the floor when we were done recording this. I mean, we never said we would or won't do it, we said we would try to and when we were done we were definitely satisfied. We knew it had to be complex and it had to have a lot of double guitar work, and be epic. We had to work doubly hard for this one to satisfy ourselves and the fans. We had a lot to live up to."

ThatsSoMetal.com: Why a double instead of a single disc?

Andi: "It kind of turned out that way because everybody had this pressure in the back of our minds that we wanted to do a 'Keeper' album, so everybody worked harder and brought in more ideas, more enthusiasm. After recording all the music, we realized we had over 80 minutes of music. Then the question was, if we do an 80-minute CD do we want to have data reduction, and does the record company want possible returns from people who have first generation CD players which would definitely not play the stuff. So if we were allowed to release a double CD, would the record company be able to sell it for the price of a normal one-CD package, and that's what SPV said we could do. So the fans are getting a double for the price of a single."

ThatsSoMetal.com: Of course this is going to be compared to both "Keeper of the Seven Keys" Parts 1 & 2, and the fact that Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske were not involved in any way. So what is the bands defense as to the decision to make another "Keeper" album?

Andi: "Well, first off, we have a guitar team that has a great understanding of the importance of the dual harmonies that are very important to HELLOWEEN's sound and to the 'Keeper' story. From the lyrical point of view we have all the political ties that go into the story this time around based on what is going on in the world today. That also involves the 'Keeper''s world, which is always parallel to the real world. The 'Keeper' character could not stand up and fight for mankind again in the fantasy world if, in the real world, there was not some miserable things happening. So we felt like bringing up the 'Keeper' again because the story is mostly about the key of greed which is being betrayed by a couple of guys by believing the sweet words and promises of the devil, who promises them to be 'King for a Thousand Years.' They really believe it, and worked for the devil and try to use the key to open the portals of evil. That's what happens in the fantasy world, so the 'Keeper' has to stand up again and fight."

Read the entire interview at ThatsSoMetal.com.