The German band Helloween helped forge a "Nordic" heavy metal, distinct from the Anglo-Saxon variety, combining frenzied thrash rhythms with majestic, operatic melodies. They were one of the bands featured on the Death Metal compilation (1984), which coined the term (later applied to a different genre, but descended from Helloween and others).

Their 1985 mini-album (Noise) already contained the blueprint for their style. In "Starlight" and "Cry For Freedom," the boiling rhythms, tumultuous charges, feverish solos, and epic atmospheres of the genre are stamped by Kai Hansen’s full-throated, unbroken screams and Michael Weikath’s guitar barrages, as frantic as they are melodic. "Murderer" is essentially a cabaret nursery rhyme transformed into a knife assault. Even in the more conventional songs, such as the grandiose fatalism of "Warrior" and "Victim Of Fate," the execution is highly effective.

This method achieved superb results on their first full-length album, Walls Of Jericho (Noise, 1986), with "Ride The Sky," "Metal Invaders," and their most famous chorus, "Guardians," as well as the two "Sturm und Drang" epics "Phantoms Of Death" and "How Many Tears." Amid armored cadences, wild staccato, guitar lashings, and impassioned declamations, a romantic Lieder-like quality emerged. Descendants of Amon Düül, Wagner, and, naturally, Hitler, they fused the darkest omens of Nibelungic culture into visions of a near-future medieval world.

The concept album Keeper Of The Seven Keys, released in two parts in 1987 and 1988, which were meant to elevate the leader’s ambitions, failed to capture the same energy, but nonetheless contained the “disco” march of "Future World" and the mini-opera "Halloween." In the meantime, new singer Michael Kiske had joined.

Pink Bubbles Go Ape (EMI, 1991) completed the conversion to metal-pop with the insipid "Number One," and Chameleon (1993) scraped the bottom of the barrel.

New singer Andi Deris and the guitars of Michael Weikath and Roland Grapow were far from obsolete on Master Of The Rings (Castle Communications, 1994) and The Time Of The Oath (Victor, 1996). The band guns through "We Burn," "Steel Tormentor," "A Million To One," and "The Time Of The Oath" before diving into the epic "Mission Motherland" (9 minutes). The ballads "Forever And One" and "If I Knew" betray a desire to sell to the AOR audience as well, but Helloween are doomed to be, above all, a nightmare.

In the meantime, a number of solo albums by members and former members of Helloween were released: Michael Kiske's Instant Clarity (1996) and Readiness To Sacrifice (1999), Andi Deris' Come In From The Rain (1997) and Done With Mirrors (1999), Roland Grapow's The Four Seasons of Life (1997) and Kaleidoscope (1999).

Helloween's Better Than Raw (1998), The Dark Ride (2000), and Rabbit Don't Come Easy (2002) failed to generate any interest.

Treasure Chest (2000) is an anthology.