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Concert Review – Helloween (Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Toronto, ON, 04/19/2026)

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The city of Toronto witnessed a majestic celebration of 40 years of absolute Heavy Metal magic by the most beloved pumpkins in the history of mankind.

OPENING ACT: Beast in Black

First and foremost, I have to start this review by thanking Mr. Noel Peters of Inertia Entertainment for bringing one of my childhood heroes back to Toronto. Secondly, although the crowd was not as rowdy nor loud as in Montreal the night before (and yes, I drove all the way from Toronto to Montreal for the show, and back), the cozy Queen Elizabeth Theatre was on fire for the unparalleled HELLOWEEN, supported by BEAST IN BLACK, for their must-see 40th Anniversary North American Tour 2026. My buddy Keith Ibbitson of Metal Paparazzi was also there to witness one of the most important bands in the history of Heavy Metal, and his shots of the concert will give you a very good idea of how bright, vibrant, well-produced and engaging the whole evening was. As a fanboy, it was a dream come true to finally se back to back concerts by my beloved pumpkins, something I had only been able to do before in my life with Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer and Megadeth, and I need to say this amazing “HelloWeekend” will forever stay in my mind and in my heart as one of my most cherished metal memories.

Before the mighty Helloween hit the stage, the opening slot was given to Helsinki, Finland-based Heavy Metal/Hard Rock brigade BEAST IN BLACK. Formed in 2015 by Anton Kabanen after he left Battle Beast, and having already released the albums Berserker, From Hell with Love,Dark Connection, and the EP Power of the Beast, plus the 2025 single Enter the Behelit, all available on BandCamp and on Spotify, the band put on a great show to warmup the crowd in Toronto (as well as in Montreal, by the way), proving why they’ve been gaining more and more fans in Canadian lands. Songs like Power of the Beast, Enter the Behelit and No Surrender worked really well live, with frontman Yannis Papadopoulos keeping the audience entertained the entire time, but the fact that Anton Kabanen himself stayed in Finland to finish their upcoming album, therefore missing their entire North American tour, was really weird and made their sound feel a bit thinner than usual. Well, priorities are priorities, and I’m sure Anton didn’t want to miss the tour at all, but you never know what surprises or challenges life will present to you, right?

Setlist
Power of the Beast
Hardcore
Sweet True Lies
Born Again
From Hell With Love
Enter the Behelit
Die by the Blade
One Night in Tokyo
Blind and Frozen
No Surrender

Band members
Yannis Papadopoulos – vocals
Daniel Freyberg – guitars
Máté Molnár – bass
Atte Palokangas – drums

HELLOWEEN

It was precisely 8:45pm on a very chilly night in Toronto (after a sunny and warm Saturday in Montreal, which is why you can never trust the weather in April in Canada) when the indomitable metal invaders Michael Kiske, Andi Deris, Kai Hansen, Michael Weikath, Sascha Gerstner, Markus Grosskopf and Dani Löble, collectively known as the Pumpkins United of HELLOWEEN, hit the stage of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre to celebrate 40 years of their undisputed, unparalleled career, proving to us all that Heavy Metal is the law, and it will always be. Their sound, stage and overall production were impeccable, with the big screen behind the stage adding a lot of taste to all songs, in special to the ones preceded by “The Keeper.” Not only that, their setlist was also a thing of beauty, a journey through all of their phases, from their 1985 masterpiece  Walls of Jericho, to their 2025 opus Giants & Monsters (and of course, you can stream them all on Spotify), showing it is possible to celebrate decades of music without forgetting or ignoring any period of their career. We got the usual classics, epic, long songs, new songs, and even some very welcome deep cuts. I think that, if they were allowed, they would have easily played for another hour.

There are no words that can be used to describe how amazing it is to watch Michael Kiske and Andi Deris sharing the vocal duties on basically all songs, plus of course Kai Hansen delivering his pure Heavy Metal power on Ride the Sky and Heavy Metal (Is the Law). In all seriousness, I don’t think there’s any other band in the world, of any music genre, with three phenomenal vocalists and frontmen like Helloween nowadays. I love the fact they sing each other’s songs without any bad blood; quite the contrary, it feels like they’re loving doing that, and of course us fans are the actual winners in this case as all songs sounded absolutely incredible. Just like in Montreal, I think I saw a few people crying every single time Kiske delivered his hypnotizing vocals, taking us all back in time like in the all-time classics March of Time and Future World, while also presenting us with the new masterpiece Universe (Gravity for Hearts), by far the best song of the new album both in the studio and live. What a stunning tune with magical lyrics, definitely reaching deep inside the hearts of us metalheads.

Deris was his usual one-man show, the “perfect gentleman” that keeps our eyes glued to the stage it doesn’t matter if he’s “just” singing or interacting with the other guys, always putting a smile on our faces, while Hansen, Weikath, Gerstner, Grosskopf and Löble kept their engine running flawlessly like one of those perfect German sports cars. That’s the reason why deep cuts like We Burn, Hey Lord! and Hell Was Made in Heaven work so well on this tour. Furthermore, the acoustic part of the show was also a nice touch to it, just like in 2023, with Kiske and Deris once again mesmerizing us all with their unique voices. In the Middle of a Heartbeat (preceded by a snippet of the classic “Yesterday”, by The Beatles) sounded excellent, inspiring all fans to sing it along with them, and having the beautiful A Tale That Wasn’t Right played half acoustic, half fully plugged was also amazing.

The show was already reaching the two-hour mark when the band decided to simply destroy our senses with an overdose of awesomeness that reminded us all why they’ve been on the road for so many decades, always strong, always metal. I guess the 13-minute work-of-art Halloween was by far the favorite of all fans in Toronto and Montreal, with simply everyone singing and screaming it at the top of their lungs. It was a collective catharsis of pure heavy music, and when it was over I wish they simply could start playing it again. The triumvirate of metal madness formed of Eagle Fly Free, Power and Dr. Stein, plus the outro to Keeper of the Seven Keys (and again, I wish they had played it in full), sounded beyond marvelous, and when the show was over you could see in everyone’s faces the crowd still had a lot of energy left for more, as well as the band, but unfortunately as you all know time marches on without us all. It never stops, and hopefully Helloween will never stop either. Needless to say, I’m already waiting for another pumpkin invasion in Toronto and Canada in general because, as you might have noticed, everyday is Helloween.

Setlist
Let Me Entertain (Robbie Williams song)
Interlude
March of Time
The Keeper
The King for a 1000 Years
Future World
This Is Tokyo
We Burn
The Keeper
Ride the Sky
Into the Sun
Hey Lord!
Universe (Gravity for Hearts)
Hell Was Made in Heaven
Drum Solo
I Want Out
In the Middle of a Heartbeat
A Tale That Wasn’t Right
A Little Is a Little Too Much
Heavy Metal (Is the Law)
The Keeper
Halloween

Encore:
Invitation
Eagle Fly Free
Power
Dr. Stein
Keeper of the Seven Keys (Outro)

Band members
Michael Kiske – vocals
Andi Deris – vocals
Kai Hansen – guitars, vocals
Michael Weikath – guitars
Sascha Gerstner – guitars
Markus Grosskopf – bass
Dani Löble – drums

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Metal Chick of the Month – Daísa Munhoz

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daisa01

How dare you look at me in the eye?

Time to fly back to South America, more specifically to the municipality of Bariri, São Paulo, Brazil, located about 300km from the city of São Paulo (and about 700km from the city of Rio de Janeiro), to talk about another Brazilian Heavy Metal diva, Daísa Munhoz, the beautiful and talented frontwoman of Brazilian Progressive Metal band Vandroya. If you’re simply fanatic for traditional Heavy Metal, I would say she might be the girl of your dreams.

Owner of a very powerful and melodic voice, Daísa started singing when she was only 9 years old, and at the age of fourteen she was already part of a “travelling band”. Our diva said that although she never actually took any singing lessons, she grew up surrounded by every kind of musicians, rehearsals and jam sessions every single day, as her parents are musicians too. That helped her a lot in terms of getting used to how the world of music works, and she learned a lot from every musician that was close to her, especially her mother. She also plays the piano, but “in a mediocre way” in her own words, mainly because she ends up using it more like a guide during her writing and composing process, or sometimes just as a distraction or to relax a little.  Daísa said she never really had any interest in specializing herself in the piano, nor the patience or discipline to do so.

It was when our Heavy Metal bombshell was around 18 or 19 years old that she founded Vandroya, having recorded so far with the band a 2-track demo entitled Within Shadows, in 2005, and more recently their first full-length album, One, in 2012 via Spiritual Beast Records and in 2013 via Inner Wound Recordings. And stay tuned, because the compositions for the next Vandroya album are 100% finished and the recording process will start really soon. By the way, Daísa explained the word “Vandroya” means nothing specifically: it was just a suggestion from a friend back in their early years, based on a character in Avantasia who is called Vandroy. The band just loved the way it sounded.

In addition, you can also see our diva in action in many other different bands and projects. She has been performing for years, including her one time all female band called Inlakesh, as well as a Led Zeppelin tribute band named Black Dog. Not only that, she recorded the vocals on track Song of Deliverance, from the 2013 album Exodus by Slovakian Progressive Power Metal band Signum Regis, as well as the vocals as “Judith” or “Judith, The Princess” in three different albums by Brazilian Melodic Power Metal band Soulspell (a Metal Opera project created by Brazilian drummer Heleno Vale): A Legacy of Honor (2008), The Labyrinth of Truths (2010) and Hollow’s Gathering (2012), winning the Best Female Vocalist award from Whiplash.net in 2010 for her work with Soulspell.

There are so many awesome songs with Daísa on vocals on YouTube you can spend hours and hours just listening and watching to our diva kicking ass, so in order for you to get a delicious taste of her unique voice and the mighty metal music played by Vandroya, my recommendations are the beautiful ballad Why Should We Say Goodbye, the Helloween-ish Power Metal tune The Last Free Land (which I’m pretty sure will inspire you so much you’ll buy Vandroya’s debut album after the first listen), the smooth acoustic version of No Oblivion For Eternity, a live performance of one of their first songs, Within Shadows, as well as their recent cover version for the song Heaven, by Canadian icon Bryan Adams.

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In regards to her main music influences, it’s important to say that Robert Plant is her biggest idol of all time, with the way he sings and moves having a huge impact on her onstage performance, which by the way is beyond superb. However, there are so many awesome artists and bands that it’s hard to name just a few. Sacred names such as Dio, Freddy Mercury, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Russel Allen, Robert Plant, Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, Doro and Ann Wilson are among her biggest idols, being also highly influenced by Iron Maiden, of course, and many German metal bands, especially Helloween, with the unique voice of Michael Kiske leading her into the world of heavy music. Vandroya playing one of my top Helloween songs of all time, the classic March Of Time, is truly outstanding and an amazing tribute from Daísa and her band to the best Teutonic metal band of all time.

In one of her interviews, Daísa stated she has so many idols it’s very hard to choose just a few for a “dream tour”, but that she would truly love to be part of a festival only formed by female-fronted metal bands. It’s about time someone from the Metal Female Voices Fest invites her and the other members of Vandroya to be part of any future editions of the festival, don’t you think?

Lastly, although Daísa grew up listening to a lot of classic rock and hard rock bands, always being completely fanatic for Led Zeppelin, when asked about the top 5 Heavy Metal albums that changed her life, she listed the following ones: Pink Bubbles Go Ape (Helloween), Cowboys from Hell (Pantera), …And Justice for All (Metallica), The Number of the Beast (Iron Maiden) and Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath), I guess not necessarily in this order. Take a good look at this list and answer me if this is not enough awesomeness to consider Daísa a true badass metalhead!

Daísa Munhoz’s Official Facebook page
Vandroya’s Official Facebook page

“…I actually started to search for more female singers and I discovered a lot of amazing and brave warriors that faced this male-dominated market and won it. You know what? I just realized I know so many female singers I could write a book about their careers!” – Daísa Munhoz