Written by:	D.T. Metal
Published:	October 15, 2013
Event:	Helloween: Hellish Rock Part II - North America 2013
Location:	Gothic Theater, Engelwood, CO, USA
Galleries:	Helloween - Gothic Theatre, Englewood, USA - 2 Oct 2013 by D.T. Metal (30)

Helloween came to the Centennial State aka Colorado! The last time on tour in North America ? "tour" being a 10 day plus/minus stint, they made it as close as New Mexico and a lot of Colorado fans just didn't have the time or means to get down there. So, "Are You Metal", Colorado? Apparently not as metal as I thought - the Gothic Theatre in Englewood was not sold out, not even close to be honest. Shame on you! But for those of us who did make it out that night, we had an awesome time.

The German powerhouse of the genre brought their A game, or rather their A+ game, and proved why, after almost 30 years in the business, Helloween is still a force to be reckoned with.

I totally missed the local opener and walked into the venue just as the touring support band, New York's thrash metal outfit Coldsteel, ended their last song. They actually sounded pretty good and I might have to check them out the next time they play in the Denver area.



As I made my way down to the stage, AC/DC's "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)" played through the venue's PA and I knew this was the sign for Helloween's grand entrance. People were singing left and right, since let's face it, who doesn't know that song or at least the chorus. As soon as the last trumpet from "Walls Of Jericho" was done - ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Helloween, and while Daniel Löble was already behind his kit, the rest of the band came onstage one by one, with Andi being the last. The crowd went absolutely fucking nuts.

Dum, dum, dum dum dum dum dumdum - crap, I suck at writing out tunes, but they started with "Eagle Fly Free" off the second Keeper's album and people probably thought, "great, they play their old shit". Unfortunately not really and Michael Weikath told me during our interview (click here for the link) that apparently the fans are sick of the oldies but goodies and want to hear the newer material. Hmmm, alrighty then, but the next couple songs Helloween played were from their newer releases, 2010's 7 Sinners and this year's Straight Out Of Hell. Honestly, no big deal and the audience sang most of the lyrics to "Straight Out Of Hell" anyways.



Helloween clearly fed off the audience's energy and the vibe in the room was fantastic. The extremely talented Markus Grosskopf was all over the place, rocking his bass guitar and making his ever so funny faces. Weikath and Sascha Gerstner didn't just do a phenomenal job on their guitars, nope, they were beyond awesome. Especially during "I'm Alive" with the trade-off between their harmony parts and Sascha's Kai Hansen solos, nice!

When I saw Helloween this past January on the 70000 Tons Of Metal Cruise, the incorporation of a drum solo seemed a bit dumb because of the limited playing time they had on the boat, but I have to say it did work out nicely during their set this time around. I guess it gives the other members a break while Dani is hitting the shit out of his drums. (hmm, when does HE get a break though?) Anyways, the crowd really liked it. And another thing they liked was the ballad "Hold Me In Your Arms" off Straight Out Of Hell as well as the follower, "If I Could Fly". Then right before the encore things went into high gear again with "Hell Was Made In Heaven" and "Power" from their back catalogue.



The first encore started with "Are You Metal?" and ended with the ever so popular "Dr. Stein". Some people actually started to leave after this - amateurs, the house light wasn't on, which meant there was more to come - and oh did it ever. Do I like "Future World" better with Kiske singing it? Probably. But this didn't take away from the fact that Andi Deris was on top of his game that night. He sounded great and his interaction with the audience was over the top. Front man extraordinaire. He engaged the fans earlier in the set during "Live Now!" with having a side to side competition on who sings "Live Now!" and who screams "oh oh oh oh" better. Pretty funny.

Sporting his KISS shirt, the one with Gene Simmons's tongue, he posed quite often for the fans with his own tongue sticking out just as much. Gene still wins in this department though. Seriously, Andi looked and acted like he had the time of his life on stage. Helloween ended their set with "I Want Out" and under tremendous applause from everyone, the band lined up in front of the drum kit and bowed to the audience.





It was a great night for power metal fans and while I would have liked a couple more "oldies", I was satisfied with the set-list. Some things could have been improved though, like bring more merch next time and also a better selection. Secondly, and this has nothing to do with Helloween themselves, but - dude - you don't start a mosh-pit during ANY of their songs. Never. Ever. Period. It's power metal. And the sad thing was it was one of the members from a band who also played that evening. Besides that, everyone had a great time and I sure can't wait until Helloween returns once again to the Denver region.

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