HELLOWEEN To Release New Studio Album Next Year

Blitzkrieg Metal Magazine conducted an interview with drummer Dani Lble of German power metallers HELLOWEEN at this year's edition of the Wacken Open Air festival, which was held August 4-6, 2011 in Wacken, Germany. You can now watch the chat below.

When asked if HELLOWEEN is planning to take a break now or go back to the studio to begin work on its next album, Dani said, "We're already talking about ideas for the next album, which is planned to release by the end of 2012. When this tour is finished, we're heading to the studio to write and record new material so that it's ready for [release] at the end of next year."

Professionally filmed video footage of HELLOWEEN's performance at this year's edition of the Wacken Open Air festival can be seen below.

Featured songs:

00:00 "March Of Time"
05:20 "Where The Sinners Go"
13:00 "I'm Alive"
17:42 "Keeper Of The Seven Keys"
25:19 "Helloween"
32:28 "Future World"
36:19 "Dr. Stein"
43:06 "I Want Out"

"7 Sinners", the 13th studio album from HELLOWEEN, sold around 1,900 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 7 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

"7 Sinners" is definitively one of the fastest and hardest albums in the HELLOWEEN's history and it bursts with vitality. That might partly be due to the versatility of the various songwriters within the band, who over time have become so homogenous, that the 13 songs formed a unity on their own in the studio, but it may also be due to the fact that the album was recorded completely without a click track, which, considering the extreme speed of the songs is an impressive feat. Especially Dani Lble, who proves that his technique is at a world-class-level. Following his excellent inner clock, bass and drums drive tracks like "Are You Metal?", "Long Live The King" and "Who Is Mr. Madman?" to dizzying tempos. "7 Sinners", with its typically strong melodies and the tangible joy of playing, is a true metal album whose range reaches astonishing dimensions.

It has become a cliche for metal band's to tout their newest opus as their "fastest" or "heaviest" album ever made, but in HELLOWEEN's case, "7 Sinners" is truly a return to form and is indeed their fastest and heaviest release in years. HELLOWEEN bass player Markus Grosskopf stated about the band's new material: "For all those out there who found our special best-of [CD] 'Unarmed' to be too smooth and calm, I have great news: The new album will hit you right in the face! It's gonna be very heavy and contain all [the classic] HELLOWEEN trademarks! Some songs are very powerful and hymnic, others contain the fastest bass-drum patterns our drummer Dani ever played, and this means a lot!"

Interview:

Performance footage: