2022-05-26 Metal Hammer UK

LIVE REVIEWS

Helloween don’t
fritter away their
two hours onstage

HELLOWEEN

HAMMERFALL

O2 ACADEMY, BRIXTON, LONDON

Europe’s triumphant tandem bring power (metal) to the people

IF YOU WERE dropped into tonight with guitarist Kai Hansen rejoined the fray in
zero context, you’d assume HAMMERFALL 2016, letting the Germans easily fill up
their stage. Add in a crowd so amped up
were the headliners. Their set is 75 of the that they’d probably kill on Kiske or fellow
vocalist Andi Deris’s command and you
most bombastic minutes Sweden can have a stadium-worthy show condensed
into an academy.
muster, while the stage is decorated
Skyfall, the 12-minute finale of 2021’s
entirely in their honour. We’re talking self-titled album, opens. However, tonight
swiftly becomes about the classics. Eagle
light-up shields and mallets flanking the Fly Free immediately follows and is the
first of five cuts lifted from Keeper Of The
drum kit. There’s also a backdrop depicting Seven Keys, Part II. Of course, whether what
they’re playing comes from last year or
an angelic knight wielding… guess what… the last century, it’s all maximalist power/
glam silliness: fast-fingered solos, wailing
a big fucking hammer. lead vocals and mythological worldbuilding
aplenty. And London’s here for it. 120 minutes
However, they’re actually jerking the of exuberance may sound like a slog to some,
but Helloween have the back-catalogue and
curtain this evening. London has a power Hammerfall: big rabid following to back it up. By the time
metal marathon ahead of it, with just two fans of Platoon I Want Out wraps up, everyone’s (almost) as
animated as when the band first arrived.
bands filling up these four-and-a-half
MATT MILLS
hours. Joacim Cans et al are ostensibly here to his Mjölnir-shaped guitar. They’ve not so much

help Brixton loosen up, yet it’s clearly limber warmed London up as torn the house down.

already, greeting the band with roars of delight. Then HELLOWEEN rock up and fucking

A maelstrom of power metal pageantry keeps hell. Everything goes batshit. Their drum riser

the momentum high, from the pit-inciting is a pumpkin! They have an LED backdrop that

Renegade to the pipe-shredding Last Man bombards with fever-dream-level imagery;

Standing. The bandmembers are just as think vegetables lifting weights and Valkyries

JAKE OWENS flamboyant as their tunes. There’s enough hanging from chains by their nipples. Also,

leather onstage to make Judas Priest go “Bit there are seven of them now. Classic frontman

much”, while Oscar Dronjak regularly flaunts Michael Kiske and co-founding singer/

METALHAMMER.COM 101









The first VV EP dropped in March FIVE MINUTES WITH when I see somebody’s had it tattooed.
2020 but then we heard nothing I was 19 or whatever when I drew the
until Loveletting came out in April. VILLE initial symbol and it’s travelled so far
Why the delay? VALO and gone to so many different places
“We released a three-track EP as I’m flabbergasted with the whole 00s
a digital release to test whether I was The ex-Him frontman on thing with Jackass and Kat Von D.”
able to record everything by myself wannabe witches, stalking
and make it sound good. Once I was David Hasselhoff and his When Him were coming up, how did
past that, it was also a) whether the you fit in with the rest of the Finnish
audience was still there and interested, new VV project metal scene?
but also b) to see if record labels were “Most of us were mates – we’d sit
interested. That’s why there was such WORDS: RICH HOBSON • PICTURE: JOONAS BRANDT around in bars drinking beer and
a gap, but it means I’ve recorded chatting shit. I never thought there
a 12-song album and got a record was like a caravan of Finnish music
label in the meantime.” going out to people, though, as we
were all so different – there’s no
Did you ever worry that people comparing Stratovarius to Impaled
wouldn’t care? Nazarene, or either band to Amorphis.
“I honestly think you can’t take We’re all black sheep.”
anything for granted. Nobody knows
if every project will be successful and What’s the weirdest interaction
a lot of that can come down to timing you’ve had with a celebrity?
– people change and the world “I was once hanging out with Andy
changes with them.” McCoy of Hanoi Rocks and Bam
Magera, getting fucked up while
Your final Metal Hammer interview watching paparazzi following David
with Him was during a hurricane. Hasselhoff around. For whatever
The first VV EP came out as the reason we ended up trashing Andy’s
pandemic hit. Is the universe being hotel room. It was rock’n’roll learning
a bit dramatic just for you? from the old guard, but when it
“I’m the drama king. I like a lot of comes to trashing a hotel room you
drama in my music too, I’ve always have to follow your heart – and have
been a melodramatic bastard. I’m not a manager who is wealthy!”
proud of it, but I get on because it’s
like a medical condition. Music is the You’re a modern rock sex symbol.
only cure for it!” What’s the scariest proposition
you’ve had?
The first time you performed solo it “They’re all a bit scary and weird. Back
was as Rambo Rimbaud. What was in the day, there were all these weird
that all about? semi-esoteric wannabe witches who’d
“Ha ha! It was a pseudonym that cut bits of my hair out and whatever,
I used for a weekend. I was actually which is crazy.”
thinking of using that for the project,
but I thought it might be too highbrow Which band can bring sexy back to
and I might get sued by Stallone! I did metal in 2022?
like two songs in Helsinki under that “Witch Fever. They’re not fake – they
name – playing Solitude by Black come across as very real individuals,
Sabbath with a shit-ton of reverb and with different ways of presenting
all sorts of weird stuff. It was a leap themselves and playing their
of faith; you’ve got to do things that instruments. They’re not a carbon
will keep you on your toes.” copy of what old-school metal was,
but I’m glad they still make bands
Where is the weirdest place you’ve like that. They have a similar bravado
seen a Heartagram pop up? to Queens Of The Stone Age –
“I keep seeing them in weird places, elegant recklessness.”
even today. The weirdest is always
You’re launching your solo tour next
“I HAVE January. Will you be nervous?
ALWAYS “I feel great about it. The last time
BEEN A I played rock’n’roll in English was at
MELO- the same venue [Tavastia in Helsinki]
DRAMATIC on New Year’s Eve 2017, going into
BASTARD” 2018. It’s been a while, but I’ve done
this most my life and it’s like riding
a bicycle, innit?”

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