“They were very important albums, not just for us, but also in the history of heavy metal”: how Helloween invented power metal with Keeper Of The Seven Keys Parts I and II

Helloween in 1987.

The 80s saw metal splintering into several exciting new subgenres: thrash, death metal, industrial. And in Germany, a former thrash band called Helloween drew up the blueprint for power metal as we know it with two albums that would briefly turn them into metal’s Next Big Thing: Keeper Of The Seven Keys: Part I and Part II.

“We knew we had come up with something special,” says Kai Hansen, Helloween’s founding guitarist. “They were records which we knew would make an impact – take us to the next level.”