On August 29, 1988, HELLOWEEN released Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II through Noise Records — the album that finished building European power metal. Recorded across May and June 1988 at Horus Sound Studio in Hanover in sessions that ran around the clock, it completed the two-part work begun the previous year and gave the genre its defining vocabulary: galloping double-bass drumming, twin-guitar harmonies, soaring clean vocals and choruses written to be sung by thousands of people at once. Michael Kiske was 20 and delivering one of the great metal vocal performances; Kai Hansen and Michael Weikath wrote the material. "I Want Out" became the band's best-known song and has been covered by GAMMA RAY, SONATA ARCTICA and dozens more. Metal Hammer scored it a perfect 7/7 and later named it the greatest power metal album ever made.
