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No Halloween would be complete without, er, Helloween. Here’s an artifact from that band’s checkered past. It may be the first ever usage of the term “death metal.” In 1984, death metal hadn’t been invented yet, so instead we get artwork of a cannibal corpse eating guts that look like caramel apples — a Halloween delight, indeed.
This split has more historical than musical value. (For full details, see here.) It contains the only released output (thankfully) by Dark Avenger (Ger). It also features early speed metal incarnations of Running Wild and Helloween, long before the former went pirate metal and the latter went, well, weenie. Hellhammer, of course, wins by a neutral country mile. It’s kind of inconceivable that Hellhammer and Helloween would share a split. Evidently Noise Records thought having “hell” in their names was good enough. This compilation is long out-of-print, but you can download it at the link below.
I for one prefer the speed metal versions of Blind Guardian, Helloween and Running Wild to their power metal ones, so I love this stuff.
I know that the Possessed song, "Death Metal" was on the Seven Churches album in 1985 but the demo "Death Metal" was supposed to have come out in 1984.
Which one pre-dates which I wonder…
I'm not entirely sure which pre-dates the other either. Although, Tom G. Warrior had a short-lived fanzine called "Death Metal" according to his his biography "Are You Morbid?"
"To influence (head of Noise Records) Karl, we suggest the title Death Metal, the name of our former underground fanzine…" They were contacted about doing the Death Metal compilation in 1983 so, given this quote maybe best guess, is they named it in late '83?
Helloween was good up to Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt.2
Blind Guardian only recently became lack luster. The speed metal era up to Somewhere Far Beyond is great. The more ""mature" Power Metal era of Imaginations from the Other Side, Nightfall & A Night at the Opera are all great. It was with their last on A Twist in the Myth (first album without Thomen) where all interest in the band has been lost. Still one of the best bands in the world to catch live.