Is Helloween planning on staying heavy as their 'BTR' album, or will you take a step back to their more melodic selves as in 'Time Of The Oath'?

No for the second...there are movements inside the band to keep it as heavy as it is...there nevertheless will be enough commercial tracks and ballads as well in the future.

Will Helloween tour South America before the end of the year?

I have heard from reporters I talked to...one has told me positively he has a friend who is a promoter and that he has already set a gig up...but I have no further confirmation yet.

Is there an Australian tour in the works?

Not that I knew of.I just know that people in our promo department are very close with the responsible ppl in Australia and the recent strong interest from over there is being watched.

Will the High Live or the Pumpkin Vid ever be available in PAL format for the Australian and European fans?

It's already been out in PAL ever since the first release.

Would you consider playing more older material from the "Keepers" era?

We have considered that all the time,but if we did that,the show would be around three hrs long...and apart from that Karl Walterbach of NOISE Records would be the only one to benefit from that financially...cos he still owns the rights for these tracks.Bear in mind a five minute track is being played in a hundred shows...that is 500 minutes...that is nearly nine hours of my life I work for him again...not counted the time to rehearse a particular track.Now add more minutes of more tracks and maybe even 'Keeper',not to talk bout ' Halloween', and make your calculations.Even the new members in the band don't feel like stressing this topic too much,which is understandable JUST from this point of view.

Who answers the email at the new AOL account?

I guess you refer to the email that has been used for the AOL chat we had done.I think it will be taken care of..I don't know tho.I for myself have an email address called wiznet@csi.com ,but usually there are so many mails coming in I can't possibly answer them anymore in my spare time.I nevertheless READ them all and I am happy and proud to receive 'em.

Is there a chance of more videos being released of any archived concerts/performances etc... or is there a possibility of doing stuff like that in an official fanclub?

I guess all this will be looked at in the future.First of all we still have no one taking care of fan club needs,apart from Harrie Smits,our personal manager,who put up the P.O.box you can find in the booklets. The last one who urgently wanted to do our fan club was from Switzerland but couldn't speak English.

What are the chances of a Pumpkin Box 2? With all the b-sides, there is a ton of leftover Helloween material.

Will happen,just that with the b-sides I think one should do an official A's and B's album.

What are your thoughts on the Kiss reunion tour of 96/97? Did you manage to check out any of the shows? What did you think of them?

I was not able to attend any of these shows because I spent time in holidays when they came to Hamburg..even tho I had ordered a ticket a long time ago...but this keeps happening to me.I know Markus and I don't know who else saw it,and they said it was great...well shoud have been.I think the reunion was about time,tho it was only for money reasons.I have heard the Carnival of souls as abootleg version,but I didn't like the recent outputs much anyways. So I hope that with the old producer and the old line up there may be another interesting record,maybe more.I DON'T think Kiss have to sound modern or actual,at least not for me.I know a lot of people say if Kiss are not coming up with sth new,they wouldn't be interested in listening to it.I was not interested in listening to the new things they had done.I personally regard Paul the most interesting and talented songwriter in Kiss,and so there should always be enough tracks on any future Kiss record...he could even go out solo,but that wouldn't earn him much or more than with a Kiss record.

There has been a lot of discussion on the internet about the resurrgence of heavy metal, with many people pointing to power metal bands as a prime example. Do you guys see yourselves as the new standard bearers for metal? Do you see yourselves leading the charge, along with other veteran artists like Judas Priest and Bruce Dickinson?

No, we just kinda feel a little alone out there,and it can't be that not a lot more bands come out with better records.Even if there were some to a certain extent,I still miss the real cult stuff being produced by 70's bands ...and the new productions would have to live up to it in my ears.Then you say 'other veteran artists'....we are NOT that old yet...and usually in the past the best stuff came out of young bands who had to prove sth.

Whose idea was it to open the new album with the classically tinged sounds of "Deliberately Limited?"

It was time for another intro,and Tommy Hansen and Uli and J÷rn Ellerbrock sat down for nearly two weeks to work at that piece.It was an old piece of Uli's he wanted to have done in a proper way.

A lot has been made in the American media about the new wave of rap/metal bands that are currently touring in Ozzfest. Do you guys like any of the so-called contemporary metal bands?

Er...not too much.I love Faith No More tho,and that's as far as I'm willing to go.I recently heard System of a Down cos Chip Ruggieri suggested it,and I think that's OK...Kilgore is pretty heavy,and I must admit they are doing interesting stuff...but I guess I will always remain a Beatles fan.

Do you have anything special you'd like to say to your internet fan base?

As usual,I have to say that the internet ppl rock and they have already done so much for the real world.Now we just need to gather the forces,which I think will take half or another year,but then I guess everyone will know wot it's all about...then we'll see.We actually didn't need MTV,but to get used to world wide free talk and interaction action is actually as unusual to the Americans yet as democracy to the Russians.Er...I always knew wot I like and where to get it.But this will take time and I'm positively sure that ROCK will come back as strong as ever.We should just hope that it's not just a matter of the true believers then,but will find more permanent access to run of the mill ppl's minds.That's all we ever wanted and we mustn't complain when finally that will be the case.Thanx for all.

I would like to thank the folks in Helloween for sitting down to answer our questions, and Chipster Entertainment for setting up the interview. North America is anxiously awaiting September 15th!

I would also like to thank the owners of Melodic Metal Works and Giants - A Tribute to Helloween for helping me come up questions.