German power metallers HELLOWEEN will embark on the “United Forces” tour of North America in May 2023. Support on the 13-date trek will come from Swedish metallers HAMMERFALL. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, September 30 at 10 a.m. local time.
HELLOWEEN singer Andi Deris comments: “We can’t wait to be back and celebrate our new album with our fans in the U.S. and Canada!”
HAMMERFALL says: “HAMMERFALL will accompany HELLOWEEN on their North American tour next year! The highly successful ‘United Forces’ tour will continue across the ocean in May and June, serving as the perfect prelude to the summer. You asked for it so here we go!”
HELLOWEEN & HAMMERFALL 2023 Tour dates:
May 13 – Dallas, TX – The Factory
May 16 – St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live
May 18 – Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore
May 20 – New York, NY – Terminal 5
May 21 – Worcester, MA – The Palladium
May 23 – Toronto, ON – History
May 24 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Hall
May 26 – Chicago, IL – The Riviera
May 27 – Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore
May 30 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
Jun. 01 – Las Vegas, NV – Brooklyn Bowl
Jun. 02 – Los Angeles, CA – YouTube Theater
Jun. 03 – San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
June 2021 saw the release of HELLOWEEN‘s self-titled studio album. Adored by fans and critics alike, the record catapulted straight to the charts, earning the No. 1 position in Germany and Spain, the Top 5 of seven countries, and the Top 15 multiple times worldwide. HELLOWEEN‘s new album saw the legendary German power metallers going “back to the roots,” with the band recording fully analogue and Löble playing the drum kit previously used by HELLOWEEN‘s original drummer, the late Ingo Schwichtenberg, on the legendary “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” recordings.
Produced by Charlie Bauerfeind and Dennis Ward, the new HELLOWEEN LP was recorded in part at the H.O.M.E. Studios in Hamburg (where everything started in 1984). The same recording console used for such HELLOWEEN albums as “Master Of The Rings”, “Time Of The Oath” and “Better Than Raw” was utilized to record the band’s new material. The effort was mixed at the Valhalla Studios of Ronald Prent (IRON MAIDEN, DEF LEPPARD, RAMMSTEIN).
The “Pumpkins United” lineup features returning singer Michael Kiske and guitarist/vocalist Kai Hansen alongside frontman Andi Deris, guitarists Michael Weikath and Sascha Gerstner, bassist Markus Grosskopf and drummer Daniel Löble.
The “Pumpkins United” tour marked the first time Kiske had played live with HELLOWEEN since 1993. Hansen, who departed HELLOWEEN in 1988, had been joining the band onstage on various tours and festival appearances throughout the years. The set featured several duets with Kiske and his replacement, Deris, along with many rarely played songs, including “Kids Of The Century”, “Rise And Fall” and “Livin’ Ain’t No Crime”. Hansen — who fronted HELLOWEEN until late 1986 — sang a medley of several early HELLOWEEN classics, including “Ride The Sky”, “Judas”, “Starlight”and“Heavy Metal (Is The Law)”.
HAMMERFALL‘s latest studio album, “Hammer Of Dawn”, was released in February via Napalm Records. The LP was produced by longtime collaborator Fredrik Nordström (IN FLAMES, OPETH),who handled mixing, mastering, drum recording, and shared the duty of recording guitars and bass with guitarists Pontus Norgren and Oscar Dronjak. Jacob Hansen (VOLBEAT) produced the lead vocals.
As one of the main forces in heavy metal, HAMMERFALL have dominated not only the Swedish album charts, but album charts across Europe throughout their extensive career, while earning gold status thrice. Faced with the daunting task of following up the band’s last studio album, “Dominion”, an album that fans and critics hailed as one of the band’s strongest releases, HAMMERFALL collectively met the challenge head on and have delivered what many early listeners are predicting as the best metal album of 2022 and a high point of the band’s catalog.
Singer Joacim Cans stated about the new album: “It’s hard to describe in words how extremely happy and proud I am about the outcome of ‘Hammer Of Dawn’. It was a struggle, for sure, but in the end we pulled it off and delivered a solid, vital and positive new album. Everyone is on top of his game and together we have created yet another milestone in HAMMERFALL history.”
Dronjak added: “We spent a long time creating the songs for this album, mainly due to the coronavirus but also because we began working on the material very early. That’s definitely evident in the result, the attention to detail is very big. Another thing that is quite palpable is the energy level, and that can be contributed to the extreme and forced downtime we all had to endure during the pandemic. The atmosphere in the studio was relaxed and laid back and the lack of stress created the perfect working environment for turning up the heat when the red light came on. It was easy to peak when you had to since there was no outside distractions or immediate deadlines. This album is a product of the pandemic in some ways, but more importantly it’s a strong statement that we are experiencing the high point in our creativity at the moment. I’ve said it before: HAMMERFALL has never sounded better than we do right now.”
