Label: earMUSIC
Release date: September 10, 2021
Genre: Heavy Metal / Power Metal
Rating: 9.0/10
Gamma Ray is the band German guitarist Kai Hansen founded in 1989 after leaving Helloween. A “shocking” revelation that anyone can read on the internet, and yet… Since 2014, Kai has mostly been focused on other things. Still, the band managed to pull off a tour behind their latest studio album “Empire of the Undead” (2014), wrapping up their shows in 2016, after which Gamma Ray went into hibernation. Hansen went back to Helloween, where he’s always earned better and a whole lot more.
That Gamma Ray are a phenomenal German power metal fortress isn’t exactly “shocking” news anymore either, but what’s maybe more interesting is that the band celebrated 30 years last year, and their chief Kai decided to mark the jubilee with a special concert event streamed online (keep in mind the “lockdown” rules were in force), and earMUSIC gave it the green light to come out as a new live document too (3LP, 2CD/DVD).
So it was August 27, 2020, it was Düsseldorf, and it was Gamma Ray. In the empty hall of Düsseldorf’s ISS Dome, the band played this show live over the internet, and divisions of their loyal followers watched it in a live stream.
There are two more “little things” to keep in mind. Last year the band’s studio debut “Heading For Tomorrow” turned thirty, and this year the last album of the band’s classic era, you could say, celebrated its own anniversary: “No World Order!”, which came out on the same day as this live album, just 20 years earlier, September 10, 2001 to be precise. That one carries a ton of symbolism in today’s times too. This live document opens with two classics taken straight from that album: Dethrone Tyranny and the title track. The lyrics are a real prophecy of the times we’re living in. And then some. Anyone who knows the album knows the vivid cover shows a space fleet of invaders heading for planet Earth, with ships shaped like the American dollar. And just one day after the album came out, the infamous 9/11 happened. On that score, we can crown Gamma Ray a prophetic band.
Nice, then, that Hansen didn’t forget about his band after all. The setlist’s only minus is that it’s too short: you’d want at least seventeen songs, not a measly 14 (intro included). Still, the man dutifully covers the band’s key eras, though, surprisingly, material from one of the best Gamma Ray albums, “Somewhere Out In Space” (1998), dropped out of the set entirely. The emphasis on “Heading For Tomorrow” grabs your attention, and on all three songs from that album, original singer Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear) steps in on lead vocals as a special guest. Scheepers doesn’t disappoint in the slightest. He’s kept his incredible vocal charisma and phenomenal range, especially in a few ear-piercing screams in the title track, which is audibly inspired by the Judas Priest classic Victim of Changes.
No need to say the band plays the material fantastically. The songs have grown in the new arrangements, artistically, performance-wise and in maturity. Loads of added finesse, solo flourishes, extended solos. Hansen even gave a bit more room to the keyboards, which stand out in the sound more than you’d expect. Vocals? Frank Beck is the band’s fifth member, since 2015. He covers all the higher registers and sounds quite decently like Hansen back in the days when the legendary musician tossed off the Helloween classic Ride The Sky with feather-light ease. The two coexist in duets, with Hansen still covering the lower registers on lead vocals, especially in those parts of the songs where his timbre is pretty much an essential element in getting the live version as close as possible to the studio original.
Only the parts where the crowd is canned (at the end of songs) feel a bit cheesy. The recording is always the same, and the band members’ thank-yous and comments fade out with no audience “feedback”, since they’re of course aimed at the viewers who watched the show live. So? The only really annoying thing is that this isn’t a classic live album, since it’s well known how passionately and proudly the crowd howls (at least the choruses) at Gamma Ray shows. But we have to cut it some slack this time. It couldn’t be done any other way, and under the circumstances the band squeezed out the maximum. They delivered an excellent performance. Only a shame they didn’t stretch the show by some 20 minutes and at least three Gamma Ray classics.
Considering that seven years have passed since the band’s last studio album, that HElloween, with Kiske and Hansen back in the lineup, released a new album this June, and that touring is still strictly conditional, the ideal moment has actually arrived for Hansen to maybe refocus on recording a new Gamma Ray album. Let’s be surprised.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1 Induction
2 Dethrone Tyranny
3 New World Order
4 Avalon
5 Master of Confusion
6 Empathy
7 Rebellion in Dreamland
8 Land of the Free
9 Lust for Life
10 One With The World
11 The Silence
12 Armageddon
13 Heading for Tomorrow
14 Send Me A Sign/Outro
Line-up:
Kai Hansen – guitar, vocals
Henjo Richter – guitar
Dirk Schlächter – bass
Michael Ehré – drums
Frank Beck – vocals
Special guests:
Ralf Scheepers – vocals
Corvin Bahn – keyboards
Če se prav spomnim je bilo za ta koncert v prodaji 100 kart, fani so pa sedeli v nekih separejih po 4 (ali nekaj podobnega). Nisem še gledal posnetka celega koncerta, če jih kaj pokaže. So pa lani Gamma ray zbirali posnetke fenov kako kričijo ob koncu komadov in to je šlo zgleda v mix.