Helloween Hermeneutics

I arrived late to the Helloween game--as late as Straight Out of Hell, which was released in 2013. That’s 29 years after the band’s debut album and long after the classic albums that established the band for all eternity in power-metaldom. Last week, when Helloween released My God-Given Right, I found its cover to be an interesting text for interpretive exploration.

 

At first, I wondered if the image was intended to express anti-American sentiment. Helloween is a German band and Europe has its share of anti-American sentiment. On the album cover, the band has chosen to show the Statue of Liberty buried in snow up to her eyeballs against a frozen urban skyline suggestive of Manhattan, while a figure stands atop her head inciting a horde of minions that has triumphed in America’s downfall.

In this context, the title My God-Given Right would be an ironical jab at America’s belief in its divine appointment to conquer and civilize the world. This belief is explicitly stated in the doctrine of Manifest Destiny and remains operative to this day. The album art could be saying “Like Rome, your empire will fall. This is what will become of your hubris.”

But is that really what the cover is saying? Turning to the song “Lost in America” for a nitty-gritty critique of America, I instead find lyrics based on a true story about the group being drunk and high on an airplane with faulty gauges somewhere over the United States:

 

That’s hardly piquant social critique, but there is more than a “plunder the sky bar” mentality behind the image. Occasional Helloween cover artist Martin Häusler explained his thought process to Blabbermouth:

During my research, I stumbled upon the blockbuster Day After Tomorrow and the idea of just leaving the world to the “Pumpkins” was born.

In this light, it is not just America but all of human civilization that has fallen. The folly of those who pull the world’s strings has finally brought us to apocalypse, perhaps through nuclear war or environmental catastrophe. One song on the album, “The Swing of a Fallen World,” laments what may become of our world if The Powers That Be do not change their ways:

The treasure we had so crazy and mad
Was sold out by people who cannot be glad
A handful of greed
A contagious seed
A handful of assholes who never recede
This adverse evolution
Mankind knows no solution
It’s the swing of a fallen world

For all that, My God-Given Right is not a dark album. The cover suggests a brighter world to come, for when the mighty fall, little people rise up. In this case, the little people are the “Pumpkins”--humanoids with jack-o'-lantern heads that represent the band and its Pumpkinhead fans.

What would a world ruled by Pumpkinheads be like? Well for one thing, it would be crazy in true heavy-metal style: booze, loud music and late nights. Helloween sings about this lifestyle in “Stay Crazy.” However, according to lead vocalist Andi Deris, the song “My God-Given Right” was inspired by words his father said to encourage him in a life of music:

 

He said, “You’re my only son. If I see you happy, you make me happy and it’s your God-given right to do what you want with your life, or at least give it a try.

Freedom to do what you want. Comments made by Helloween’s band members suggest they have faced opposition throughout their lives and careers for being different, and this theme runs throughout their music, from lyrics to musical style. Like most metal bands, Helloween has come under fire anytime it does anything different, but for artists, exploring new creative avenues is the stuff of life. A world run by Pumpkins would be one in which people follow their bliss¹ and no one lets the bastards grind you down.²

Or is that all wrong? The video for “My God-Given Right” keeps the theme of individual freedom, but shows a lone female rebel fighting against shock troops in pumpkin helmets--which makes the pumpkins the bad guys. Furthermore, she eventually defeats them with grenades that briefly take on the appearance of the Statue of Liberty’s torch--which could be construed as pro-American.

 

Thankfully, interpretation as well as heavy metal is more about play³ than restrictive definitions and theories, so there is no need to search for the correct meaning behind the cover of My God-Given Right. The album rocks, the cover is cool, and both provide food for thought.


Footnotes:
1. Comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell's advice for fulfillment in life.
2. Drawing on lyrics from U2's "Acrobat."
3. A concept in the writings of philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer.