Two different releases of "Helloween" exist:
Helloween is the debut EP by German heavy metal band Helloween. It was released on 1 April 1985 on Noise Records. Although it is a speed metal rather than a power metal album, the record is significant as the first effort by the group that would redefine the power metal genre. Helloween was followed up later that same year by the band's first full-length album, Walls of Jericho.
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Helloween is the sixteenth studio album by German power metal band Helloween, released on 18 June 2021. The album is the first released with the "Pumpkins United" line-up, which marked the return of original member Kai Hansen on guitars and vocals and Michael Kiske on vocals in 2016, in addition to the five-member line-up active since 2005.
Helloween is the first album to feature Hansen since 1988's Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II and the first one with Kiske since 1993's Chameleon. Released six years after its predecessor My God-Given Right (the longest gap between two albums from the band), the album is also the first to feature more than one singer, as Hansen, Kiske and Andi Deris, all of whom had performed as sole lead vocalist on previous albums, share lead vocal duties. The album reached top ten positions in several international music charts.
In January 1989, guitarist Kai Hansen left Helloween and founded Gamma Ray, with whom he has played and recorded ever since. Vocalist Michael Kiske did the same in 1993 and focused on a solo career, aside from taking part in projects such as Avantasia. While Hansen remained in good terms with both the band and Kiske, the latter had not spoken to the remaining Helloween members for decades.
In 2013, guitarist Michael Weikath approached Kiske in the backstage of a festival and asked him: "What did I do that you can't forgive me?"; such question made Kiske realize he had already forgiven Weikath but failed to notice it. Following some encouragement from Hansen, by that time his bandmate at Unisonic, he agreed to join them for the Pumpkins United Tour.
Former guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch were not asked to re-join, with Grosskopf stating "it would be too many people". This new line-up released an original song, "Pumpkins United", on 13 October 2017 on which Deris, Hansen, and Kiske all share lead vocals. The Pumpkins United World Tour started in Monterrey, Mexico on 19 October 2017.
About a potential studio album under the new line-up, Deris stated in March 2018: "We certainly have lots and lots of talks . This summer, if the chemistry goes on like this, then everything is possible. After recording that particular "Pumpkins United" song, we realized that it's easy working together. Yeah, it was no problem at all, as if we would have worked together for decades already. So, I could see an upcoming album for the future. If the chemistry stays the way it is now, I definitely would say 99 percent yes, we're going for it." When they were interviewed together in June, Weikath stated: "We don't really feel like starting with it because it's going to be a lot of work and it's going to take a lot of time and right now, we are kind of comfy with what we are doing, so to say", while Hansen stated "There's a lot of ideas in the room for what we do next and so on. But, nothing is kind of decided. Nothing is ripe for the decision. We leave that open, kind of." Kiske was initially apprehensive about working with Deris, but was relieved to find that they had an "instant connection", and later said that sharing and assigning vocal duties was "very easy", because they were able to "very quickly hear what works best".
On 21 August 2018, the band announced that, at the request of their label Nuclear Blast, they would all remain together and that a new studio album would be recorded later in 2018 for a planned 2020 release, with Weikath, Hansen and Deris acting as a "songwriting trio". In March 2021, the album's title and release date was announced.
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