 Jimmy K here, Metal Voice. Look at this. The Metal Voice shirts are now on sale. Just go to the video description to find out on how you can purchase one. Metal! Welcome to the Metal Voice. Today on the show, Allen, who do we got? Well, the long-term member of Halloween himself, Michael. How are you today? What we got. What we got here. We're spoiled again. Oh, no. In a year since we were able to to interview you in the back of the bus with that ever-present cigarette. Uh-huh. I think my clothes are still to have your cigarette smelling, I think. It's still the same cigarette I created. There you go. Jimmy, the new album. Let's talk about it here. Yeah. You made it to June 2021 release. So here we are. Let's just give it some... Let's give a date here. June 18th via Nuclear Blast Records. It's the Halloween's 16th album, of course, self-titled Halloween. How did everybody decide to heal and move forward to create this album? Yeah, I don't know that that just happened on the way. I mean, we've been doing the shows and then someone said you got to do a Pumpkins United track, which we did. And then, yeah, you know, I mean, it's simple. We had these concerts and everything went so well, you know, with like people crying in the first rows and stuff. And then you had to control yourself to not let it show yourself all the time, constantly. So then you had to sometimes turn around, wipe off a tear and turn around back, you know, go like, nothing happens. And that just, you know, that just worked so well and it kept going and it was enjoyable. And so, yeah, someone said, okay, because you've done the Pumpkins United recording and you proved that you can, you will have to do an album, right? Like the fans said so, you know, the media said so, record companies said so, and management said so. And then we said, so yes, you know, as well, fine. Okay, album. That's how it came about. But for those 30 years that you guys were apart on and off, what was the relationship like? Was it hard to get back together? Was there a lot of mending of the fences like Jimmy alluded to? Or you guys always stayed in touch and remained friends? No, Michael Kiske and me, we had never talked ever since back then. And I've sometimes had the idea to just call him because I had his number still, obviously. And then I just wanted to make amends or, you know, try and ask like, how are you, you know, sorry about what happened and all this shit and can we talk or whatever. But then I always felt like, okay, you're feeling good. You don't know if he's feeling good. And I mean, this is kind of like a call of a certain magnitude. And so I always chickened out. It was always like, no, you're not going to call him now. And he said that he had he would have just called but for what's fuck's sake, like, you know, I'm the one who got fired and I'm supposed to call him and so it went on for decades. You know? And then we were, I think, both happy when we met at the Matterfest France, which was like a festival where he was out with what's the name, Avantasia. And, yeah, there were some 10 minutes that we had to meet and talk quickly. Like I had a Jackie Daniels Coca-Cola in one hand while I was pouring another one with the other hand and I had a cigarette in the right hand and I lit up a cigarette in the left hand as well and then I realized how fucking stupid that must be. And I said, yeah, I mean, you look great. I'm happy you're fine. You look good. Nice outfit. You know, what was that thing that you would be angry about with me where you said you could possibly forgive me or so? And he said, I don't know. Maybe I've already forgiven you. I don't know. And then I said, hey, man, that's so cool. You know, I'm so happy to see you and healthy and everything. And he said, yeah, you know, maybe we should talk another time when you're not so drunk. I said, yeah. I'm not drunk as whole, but no, whatever. Yeah, we talk another time. Then we had a Skype call and talked about Garden the World and what have you and what has he and yeah, that was that. And so it just kind of grew together and we were all like mesmerized and we were kind of like thrilled in a way and always like with a eye, you know, could there be something coming out of the woodwork, you know, that would like suddenly be very unpleasant, something that no one would reckon with and what's going to happen next and when is he going to hit me like real mean again with something everybody thought, right? But nothing happened. And it was all good and we have that I don't know we have that feel to care for each other, you know, not to mistreat each other like we've done. It's kind of came along like them with their gamma rays and with the unison necks and the halloween everyone was busy doing something putting something on the way in the meantime. And then you got this together thing going and why hurt each other. It's so strange, you know, you don't really want to, we also don't know how that came about that. Yeah, so many years ago the Kiske said maybe it was demons or something you know in the evil rearm didn't want us to get along. And that's how it failed. It was like a vicious cycle and I don't know I didn't want any of that, you know that's called the mature and getting older and time time heals all wounds so nice rush t-shirt by the way. Thank you, thank you. Listen to that album with like the red logo was the first one right wasn't it working man Well, I'm going to say I'm going to try this, we've heard the album and I'm going to try to summarize this. Oh my god. I'm going to try to summarize this in one sentence. A European European power metal opera with a classic vibe and new twists. I thought you'd say powerhouse now I'm disappointed. A European powerhouse metal opera with a classic vibe and new twists. We did try to put some queen parts into it. Well you had the guys to do it right? Yeah and Kai Hansen he also has the software just like a Brian May audio plug in which he also used wherever he could and yeah that's the queen aspect of it that we always forget to mention in the past and there's a bit of Judas Priest in there because I wanted to have a look if maybe I can mimic some of their parts or things they are known for from like real old albums or something somewhere along the middle because when they did their their last album there was a fire power there was so that everybody was raving about it and we had that inside joke in Halloween where we said ah and for the next album we're going to do another Judas Priest record so that was merely a joke but I tried to keep the idea and say like that's something you always wanted you know mimic priest riffs or stuff and put that in there because it's so compatible with the Halloween stuff and so I tried and so we had kind of workshop time going for I don't know two and a half months of songwriting whenever someone would have started I mean there were some people who started in December the year prior I started in February and I went on for two and a half months when I got the three tracks finished and I said I'm not going to do much more than that and that's it and I try to optimize that stuff as it stands and then soon in April we would already have like the meetings where like we would get together and play each other stuff to each other right now you get some some some time to make another question to me and I'm sorry Alan I just wanted to know Michael Kiske I mean I don't see how he has any songwriting credits is it because you just everybody pulled all the best songs together and then you just said okay are these ones are better than yours or maybe he just wasn't involved maybe he didn't want to be involved I don't know it was a bit like that with songwriting capabilities I I guess I quit for this time I got so many ideas but it doesn't sound so much like Halloween it would have been more like a poppy or country stuff or something the way I understood that it's put to rest along the way for now something like that he said and then that was okay because like we had enough other stuff and I guess after all that time being involved in the full-fledged Halloween production as this he had enough to do you know also to to arrange with the deris like which parts whoever want to sing at best and so I guess that already was like a plethora of things to be done which would have been okay without yet one of his own tracks needed to be produced or whatever and then eventually I don't know whatever it comes up with in the future and how did the COVID situation affect this recording you're getting together and record luckily we were finished almost when it kicked in and we were here on the island with the Kiske and the deris and me and we were finishing what needed to get finished and that was basically all of the vocals and I've done lots of vocals here while the Kiske was still here then he went back home and I don't know if he recorded most of the remaining stuff himself or if he somehow did that somewhere else or with the Charlie but like majority of stuff was done here and we finished all the guitar parts and stuff and deris would sing what was needed obviously in his own very studio I don't even know when the process was concluded completely I can't say but it was some time when the lockdowns were going on and one night I had to stay in the studio at the studio because my taxi driver he wasn't permitted to leave his town was blocked by local police in the streets and they said I don't know you're not going as far here this night and so I had to stay there over the night it was so cold first I lay down and I felt like the one was the last time you took you had like an overnight experience somewhere and that was ages ago and I felt so insecure I was bereft my personal freedom and I was oh my god and then I fell asleep and I woke up again because it was so freaking cold I said you better take that cover that's over there and then it was morning and someone came and woke me up and said like yeah I went home did my stuff and came back in the evening as it was allowed it was like business measures and no one asked and so then I've done the stuff and that's it Michael how would you like okay I described it in one sentence and how would you summarize it in one sentence because I heard this album and I really trying to figure out if somebody asked me what how would you describe it in one sentence this album this is magic and some kind of nuclear blast analog because it's magic from the way it comes across the way it sounds and what it is and the sound created by Charlie Balfine and the Roland print analog too right analog yeah totally completely everything was transferred to analog tape or whatever mixed by analog means like some purely analog equipment there in his Valhalla studio was in New York and yeah they were they had that internet connection whatever so they could do it at the same time instantly they could do changes and listen back to what would be different and that took quite some time we had like three approaches to a mix or maybe four I don't know and the third approach was the final one and we had a few great results before and then someone said oh but there's some one kilohertz missing and all the mix or whatever or perceivably so and stuff and then we had the final mix and that's what you know now wow yeah it's a great album you know just the title itself simply Halloween we're far away from pink bubbles go ape it's simple Halloween and then the opening track without further glory I mean what a way to start the album it's so powerful and you've got everything sets a tone for the rest of the album I think oh thanks I was hoping so but then I've been working my ass of that melody existed another 15 years before after I had seen that inconvenient truce of the Mr. Al Gore I had finished watching it that melody it was called inconvenient truce and I thought what a stupid word to end the line with that can't go you've got to find a different title for that melody right and so ever since it's been there and I tried to do something with it during the seven sinners period but it didn't quite come along the way we wanted it and there was always one chord in the chorus that I didn't like and I thought this is so cheesy this is so phony it's a great melody you know it's gonna work but just how and then eventually I change one chord and it's the way you know it now I'll tell you what I love about this album every song there's vocals and different vocals and Kiske and then Darius and they're trading off it's complex yet it's familiar I just think you really guys you guys did a great job Fear of the Fallen it sounds like something straight out of hell best times trade-offs between the two singers Mass Pollution another Darius classic the solos are amazing the melodies are amazing I'm really impressed here the solos are as crazy on the Kipper albums like psychotic expressionist whatever crazy solos but still good I think even the Sasha has a vocal line on best time I guess he's on there somewhere singing something as well and Robot King wow I was really impressed with the Robot King Robot King was a stunning it was kind of like skyfall in a way but more aggressive it's a little bit shorter as well I had to keep it short it had amazing intro I'm gonna keep for one of any other seven minutes as keeping it short yeah I thought so but what I had laid out there was around 12 minutes and I was like that doesn't go so I cut the freaking intro the intro I had already lost because like I deleted some recorded versions on my computer my computer and then I was like now you deleted what you've done in the last one and a half weeks oh no and luckily I had a copy to like a certain degree of all that and a stereo file that I had recorded for my self-delectation and I could recreate the whole shit because I took it from Dropbox you know Dropbox to the rescue and there was some temporary file where I could reconstruct all that stuff and then after all it was too long and I went like okay now you're gonna cut short all the parts like you're gonna cut the second bridge I don't know why I say cut it's cut right and then yeah and suddenly it was just seven minutes did you like that track so much tell me I like it because I love the complexity of Halloween it reminds me of the first two albums but it has the aggression of the Daerys era so it's a the whole album is a combination of all eras and I think that's that's what you're aiming for and in fact for the first riff I was thinking classic priest with some flying V of KK Downing or whatever whatever Marshall sound the fuse there and then suddenly it turns into like a twin vocal frenzy which reminds me more of the Uli John Ross and the old scorpions and then when the Daerys kicks in in the vocals I think of the Klaus Meiner really you know and some I don't know whatever they did in trance or virgin killer or something and then I thought interesting interesting the way it proceeds and then I had to cut it all down that's that's more that's low instrumental part I thought you know for for people as a guidance if they're interested I was thinking first Peter Gabriel solo record with Andy Summers playing some nice melodies you know and like I thought it took me a week to put the freaking tempos into place there for that part and the tempo changes and coming out of it into the chorus again like what what kind of fucking scale do you need for this one well thanks I hope you like it great yeah the whole album it's just classic Halloween and you've got you got everything that you need you know you got the Kiske you've got Daerys you got Hansen for the vocals I mean it's just a draw and everybody that saw you on tour it's I understand why they wanted you guys to do an album because everything that everybody wants is right here on this album somehow fell into place like that story I told other people is like before we had that meeting for comparing the demos the Daerys and me we went down on the bench in front of the hotel where on the next day it was supposed to happen it was like you know do you want to hear my new tracks on my phone and I put on the headphones listened and I said uh huh someone had like an avalanche and tsunami of good ideas but so did I you know do you care listening to my tracks on my iPhone oh yeah sure and then we were like um it seems we're going to have a good album with the other guys also came up with some great stuff that we don't know yet and so it was and then we were pretty confident and we were like you know manager was going like but we need some people stuff and you know can't you write something like I want out or so and yeah but you know we got everything already we got everything and then eventually he also got what he wanted yeah he got his call and he got the best time and then that was it yeah yeah I agree you know um I don't know I guess because Hanson's there and Kiske's there and Daris is there and all you guys are there supporting them it just has a little bit of every era and you probably know more if it's got a little Judas Priest riff in there that you thought of but it really if I was to review this I might say this is like you know way up high in the catalog of you know Halloween time will tell if it will topple the Keeper of the Seven Keys albums but you know I think this way up there in the catalog you know some good quality in the production it sounds good man it sounds really good okay I really don't have that many expectations you know people are used to everything that's old and what they used to you know I don't really think it's gonna do like a big break out or whatever you know but at least it's a nice positive experience we had together of sorts you know yeah let's not overdo things let's keep it let's keep it low key alright so there you go I know you got another interview June 18th Via Nuclear Blast it's coming out pre-order now I guess right great album cover and the tour what's gonna happen is there gonna be a tour do you know we we ain't politicians yet so I don't know what's the plan for whatever we have the tour scheduled for next year whatever may come I I don't know how but then you know eventually we're gonna have to do like some rehearsals and get the stuff rehearsed so we can present life if there's going to be a tour over there next year over there I mean whatever hopefully yes but whatever means I'm not against it okay thank you for your time a great album the high quality that we come to expect from Halloween and just a I mean for me this is the album of the year so far this is gonna be hard to beat when it comes to our top 10 at the end of the year as far as I'm concerned the Halloween album of the year yeah thank you alright Michael thank you so much Michael thank you for your time yes thanks for your interest in everything and thanks for the support that goes out to the fans and everyone who tries so very hard to to support us and follow us and whatever things so of course without you none of this would etc etc alright Michael thank you so much thank you have a great day