Concert Review: Helloween with Beast in Black from the House of Blues in Boston

Mark Kurtzner
12 minutes ago
4 min read

Helloween is out on their 40th anniversary 16-date North American tour which started on April 7th in Dallas and finishes on May 2nd, 2026, in Las Vegas.

Boston is a great town for a show; there are plenty of things to do plus the venue sits on the same street as historic Fenway Park. The show was close to being sold out; it honestly should've been. If you have a chance to check out this tour before they finish the North American run, definitely make a point to see this one!

Helloween has been one of my all-time favorites from the very beginning, releasing 18 albums from 1985 to 2025. Hailing from Germany, they were one of the pioneers of the new age of thrash/power metal and the Power Metal movement, which remains as strong as ever! There was definitely a buzz about this band before vocalist Michael Kiske joined and sang on the now legendary "Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part l," receiving rave reviews from every metal music magazine worldwide. The album took off on the charts and they were also gaining popularity in America by joining the MTV-sponsored "Headbangers Ball Tour." I was at one of the shows on October 1, 1987, and was lucky enough to photograph them; some of those photos are included.

In early 1989, founding singer / guitarist Kai Hansen left to form his own band "Gamma Ray," where he sang and handled lead guitar duties (they're extremely popular in the Power Metal world), but he eventually reunited with Helloween in 2017. Michael Kiske left Helloween in 1993 and went on to do various other projects, including a band called Unisonic which also featured Kai Hansen. Michael also reunited with Helloween in 2017 and toured the world under the "Pumpkins United World Tour." Being a huge Helloween fan, I saw this tour and it was outstanding to have everyone back from the early days. Andi Deris began singing after Michael left and has been Helloween's longest-serving vocalist, singing on 10 albums from 1994 to 2015.

After the Pumpkins United tour finished, Helloween guitarist Michael "Weiki" Weikath (1984), bassist Markus Grosskopf (1984), vocalist Andi Deris (1994), guitarist Sascha Gerstner (2002) and drummer Daniel Loble (2005) decided to stay together and record a new album with both singers and three guitarists. They've recorded 2 albums and for this year's 40th anniversary tour, they also released "Giants & Monsters" in August 2025.

Helloween has long been known for playing incredible live shows - usually 2 hours or more playing hits from their long history of songs. Tonight's show was two hours and 15 minutes.

Opening for Helloween is another power metal band, Beast in Black. Formed in Helsinki in 2015 by guitarist Anton Kabanen, the band has released three studio albums, including their first, "Berserker," in November 2017, which quickly gained them a following after the success of the band's 1st single "Blind & Frozen." I first discovered them partly because of ex-UDO guitarist Kasperi Heikkinen, whom I followed while he was with UDO. They were friends and discussed forming a band. Adding singer Yannis Papadoulous, bassist Mate Molnar, and drummer Atte Palokangas. This was the core 5-piece band before parting ways with Heikkinen in late 2025, replacing him with ex-Children of Bodom guitarist Daniel Freyberg. For this US tour, the band's founding guitarist Anton Kabanen decided to stay home and work on the finishing touches of their newest upcoming album. Therefore, Daniel Freyberg was the main guitarist tonight, and he performed excellently. They played a high-energy, 50-minute, 10-song set, featuring hits from their first three albums.

Helloween took the stage after an opening recording, accompanied by an intensifying light show and videos on their large screens to "March of Time." The band's video mascot is called "The Keeper of the Seven Keys," who told an ongoing story throughout the show. The show featured both vocalists taking turns singing together and sharing parts of songs. Founding vocalist Kai Hansen also sang backing parts and solo vocals for the older songs. Kai and Michael also played a lot of dual-harmony solos, with Sascha joining in as well. They did a great job using three guitarists, splitting the spotlight pretty evenly throughout the 2-hour set. Kai used his signature EBG Red Panther anniversary guitar throughout the evening. Sascha Gerstner also played a custom guitar he designed with VIV Guitars in Germany called the "Pace," which he used for all songs. Michael Weikath also played a variety of VIV guitars.

Set highlights for me were: "March of Time", "Future World", "Universe", "Twilight of the Gods", "A Tale That Wasn't Right", "Ride the Sky", "I Want Out", "Heavy Metal is the Law" and of course "Halloween". A highly visual, entertaining show full of energy that the packed crowd absolutely loved! A truly amazing performance - the band clearly has so much fun on stage, trading places, dueling solos and singing, all loaded with great visuals and sound. An all-around great show! The crowd loved it, I loved it, as did the plentiful crowd surfers.