Michael Weikath explains why Michael Kiske didn’t contribute any songs to upcoming Helloween album

Michael Weikath explains why Michael Kiske didn’t contribute any songs to upcoming Helloween album

Helloween‘s long-time guitarist Michael Weikath was recently interviewed by Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon for Canada’s The Metal Voice. Weikath was promoting Helloween‘s upcoming new self-titled studio album, which will be released via Nuclear Blast Records on June 18, 2021.

The new Helloween album is unique in that it marks the band’s first studio album with singer Michael Kiske since 1993’s Chameleon and first with guitarist Kai Hansen since 1988’s Keeper of The Seven Keys: Part II.

In terms of why Kiske didn’t contribute any songs to the new album, Weikath indicated (as transcribed by The Metal Voice with slight edits): “Kiske said to me, ‘I guess I quit for this time [meaning not contributing a song].’ He said, ‘I got so so many ideas but it did not sound so much like Helloween. It sounded more like poppy or country stuff’ the way I understood. And that was okay ’cause we had enough of other music and he had stuff to do being involved in a full-fledged Helloween production like this. He [Kiske] arranged with [Andi] Deris the vocal lines. So I guess that was already a plethora of things to be done without one of his own tracks being produced.”

With respect to the musical style of the new album, Weikath revealed: “We did try to put some Queen parts in it. Also Kai Hansen has a Brian May Audio Plug in which he also used wherever he could and that is the Queen aspect of it we always forget to mention. There is a bit of Judas Priest in there ’cause I wanted to mimic Priest riffs or things they are known for on their older albums because they are so compatible with Helloween stuff. The album is magic[al] in the way that it comes across and the way it sounds. Also everything was transferred onto analogue tape and mixed by analogue means.”

You can read other excerpts of the interview with Michael Weikath at The Metal Voice‘s website and/or listen to the interview below: