German power metal giants Helloween rocks Kohima

Our Correspondent KOHIMA, DECEMBER 7 Renowned German power metallers, Helloween rocked Nagaland’s capital Kohima Monday evening in their maiden show in India staged here at the IG Stadium, producing one of the biggest and the loudest nights in the history of the 10-day annual Hornbill International Music Festival. The metal giants wooed their fans with their power-packed set ranging from their 1980s to 2015 music and they probably convinced many people that metal is still a genre to be reckoned with, in this day of new age music. The godfathers of melodic speed metal stormed into the arena with ‘Eagle Fly Free’ from their 1988 second Keeper album, apparently a crowd favourite, and went on to play their early hits like ‘Dr. Stein’, ‘Halloween’, ‘Keeper of the Seven Keys’ to more recent ‘Steel Tormentor’, ‘Mr. Torture’ and from their latest album (2015) ‘My God Given Right’ and ‘Lost in America’. The crowd spontaneously responded to the show and by popular demand, the band, towards the end of the show, performed ‘Future World’ and ‘I Want Out’, their two classics which almost every person can relate to. Since the mid 1980s, Helloween has played more than 1000 concerts around the globe, touring Europe, North & South America as well as Asia and Australia numerous times but has never before performed in India. The band is observing their 30th anniversary this year and they have had changes before, the current line-up which includes singer Andi Deris, guitarists Michael Weikath and Sascha Gerstner, bass guitarist Markus Grosskopf, and drummer Daniel Löble has been together since 2005. Helloween’s albums Keeper of the Seven Keys I & II, Master of the Rings and The Time of the Oath are considered masterpieces of the power metal genre, a genre which they are considered the pioneers. Earlier this evening, the show was opened by Pulse Pundit from Manipur, and Nagaland’sThe Hornbill Project and Incipit.