In attendance at this year’s Earthshaker Festival, BW&BK caught up with HELLOWEEN guitarist Michael Weikath to discuss the current state of the band. During the conversation, Weikath revealed that the band has left Nuclear Blast after two albums – The Dark Ride and Rabbit Don’t Come Easy – and that there MIGHT be a Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part III after all.
With regards to switching labels:

“Yes, we have left Nuclear Blast. The business department of Nuclear Blast is responsible to EastWest, and someone at EastWest wasn’t happy with the figures so they offered us a new deal. We weren’t happy with the offer because it wasn’t much different from other deals we’ve seen before, so there was a lot of back and forth. We like the people at Nuclear Blast, but they came up with a deal that is tailor made for a typical German band that sells a lot of records in Germany but not abroad. They wanted to cut our percentages from foreign countries, but Helloween actually sells more in foreign countries than in Germany. A run-of-the-mill contract isn’t for us.”

The mixed reactions to Rabbit Don’t Come Easy:

“I really can’t conceive what would be mixed about the reactions to Rabbit Don’t Come Easy, because I don’t know what we could have done better on that record. Most of the reactions I heard said that it was closest to the Keeper records – not quite a Keeper record but very close – and there were comparisons to other Helloween records as well. Some people didn’t like it because it didn’t sound like The Dark Ride, but I can’t help those people because I didn’t like The Dark Ride and Helloween isn’t around to do albums like that.”

The Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part III…Maybe:

“We’re going to start rehearsals for the new album in October, and we’re going to try to do a Keeper III because we have a very good line-up now, where the vibe and spirit in the band is very similar to how it was when we did the Keeper I and II. I have to get used to the fact that nobody hates me right now (laughs). We couldn’t have done it while Roland (Grapow/guitars) and Uli (Kusch/drums) were in the band because there was a much different attitude in Helloween. It’s going to be fun to try it, anyway, but if the idea doesn’t come along as much as we expect it to, or the vibe isn’t right, we certainly won’t call the album Keeper III.”

The identity of Helloween’s new label is currently under wraps, but an official announcement is due to be made on August 9th.

 

Eagles