Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Bratislava / Majestic Music Club / Slovakia
Concert date: 22.03.2014
Attendance: 550
Ticket price: 27,00€
Anyone who listens to the kind of metal where clean, melodically crafted vocals dominate and melodic pomp soars above the crunch of the riffs knows full well that the old European continent, led by Germany, is the cradle of the finest power metal bands. Gamma Ray are definitely one of them! The band was founded by guitarist and singer Kai Hansen after he left Helloween, before the eighties were even over.
Gamma Ray hit the road at a time when their new studio album is all ready for release. It will come out mid-tour, and the tour is, of course, named after the album! »Empire of the Undead«! Gamma Ray visited Ljubljana last year too. For the first time in their career. Together with Helloween, on 18.03.2013, they played at CUK Kino Šiška in Ljubljana. Back then they had just put out the excellent EP »Master Of Confusion« and were opening for Helloween. A lot of people felt they wanted to hear Gamma Ray play for longer. Especially given Helloween’s years of dismal stage presence as the headliners, who really don’t deliver what you pay good euros to see at a gig. Since it’s obvious nobody is going to invite Gamma Ray to Slovenia as the headliner of a tour, the only option left is to catch the band on stage by traveling to the show nearest to Slovenia on a tour like that. You get at least an hour and a half of pure-blooded style from a band you love! This time in Slovakia’s Bratislava!
As support, Gamma Ray brought along no less seasoned veterans of Italian symphonic metal, which they like to call »Hollywood« metal, or just »movie« metal! That’s the famous Triestines Rhapsody Of Fire, who also released a new studio album last November, titled »Dark Wings Of Steel«. So a proper power metal feast was in the cards. The show, announced for 22.03.2014 in Bratislava, was only the third date of an extensive European tour through this March and April. Gamma Ray reached the Slovak capital from the Czech Republic, where they played Prague and Zlin.
Majestic Music Club is a gorgeous venue for this kind of show. It’s an older building on the edge of the city center. On the ground floor, right by the entrance, there are two pubs, one of which extends down into the cellar, where there’s also a passage into a smaller basement hall that holds about 150 heads and is meant for smaller club gigs. But when you climb from the ground floor up to the first floor, you find the entrance to a more serious hall inside the same building, which holds roughly 600-700 people by eye. It’s split into a balcony, the floor, and a seriously roomy stage, both wide and deep! This came after a few fortifying rounds of excellent Slovak beer, which, by the way, is half the price or even less than what you’d pay in your average Ljubljana pub, and the quality is far better than the downright toxic Union and Laško brands.
It’s eight o’clock. The place is packed. Literally. And it’s not Rhapsody Of Fire who step onto the stage, but yet another support act. Also Italian. The folk metallers Elvenking, whom we caught long ago in 2008 at a festival just across the border in the little town of Moraro (Morarock festival), near old Gorizia. Elvenking come from the town of Sacile, located in Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the province of Pordenone. So not far from the Slovenian-Italian border. In a half-hour set, the sextet presented their freshly released studio album »The Pagan Manifesto«. A mix of that recognizable bombast, which always gives the Italian take on metal its symphonic dressing, thoroughly backed by the theatrics of traditional Celtic folk melodic elements, was proof of the great musical experience of a band that knows its way around both musical arrangements and stage performance. Having seven studio albums under your belt is no small thing. The band more than earned its spot as the first support act on this tour! An extremely confident show.
Rhapsody Of Fire took the stage at nine o’clock and lifted the atmosphere in the hall to a considerably higher level. Even though the Slovak crowd wasn’t exactly temperamental in responding to the theatrical whirlwind of the band’s tremendously well-disposed singer Fabio Lione, quite a few overheated heads at the front of the floor perked up and even showed they knew the verses of some of the choruses. As expected, Rhapsody Of Fire backed the performance with backing tracks, which included some pre-recorded keyboards, choir vocal harmonies and, of course, whole orchestrations. Besides the original members, singer Fabio Lione and bandleader and keyboardist Alex Staropoli, today’s Rhapsody Of Fire lineup is rounded out by longtime German drummer Alex Holzwarth, guitarist Roby De Micheli and, new on board, Holzwarth’s brother Oliver. Worth mentioning that the Holzwarth brothers are extremely experienced musicians. Music gourmets may know their progressive rock band Sieges Even, which they were forced to disband due to too little interest, despite a great last studio album. Still, the exceptional qualities these two musicians have don’t go unnoticed or overlooked. Alex has been Rhapsody Of Fire’s drummer for years, and Oliver is the touring bassist of German power metal giants Blind Guardian. After the expected opener Rising From Tragic Flames from the newest album, Rhapsody of Fire completely surprised everyone by including their classic anthem Land Of Immortals from the debut »Legendary Tales« (1997). That was quickly followed by another sweet surprise from the older days, when the band launched into yet another classic, March Of Swordmaster from the album »Power Of The Dragon Flame« (2002). The band is wonderfully tight. The Holzwarth brothers’ rhythm section runs as precisely as the best-oiled cogs of a Swiss watch, and Alex’s famous double bass drum rolling is becoming a real trademark of the band! Then there’s the superb guitarist Roby De Micheli, who flat-out stunned with his damn speed and precision. Still, most of the attention went to the fully immersed Fabio Lione, with his trademark operatic approach. His voice served him great this evening, and all in all Rhapsody Of Fire put together an excellent one-hour journey through their rich discography, then closed the set with one more classic from the debut, the quietly expected Emerald Sword.
Gamma Ray kicked off at half past ten in the evening. First onto the stage was the new drummer Michael Ehre, followed by three silhouettes that slowly made their way through the dark purple lighting. Bassist Dirk Schlächter, the man who, alongside Kai Hansen, has been with Gamma Ray from the very beginning, then of course the bandleader Kai Hansen, who planted himself in the middle of the stage with his Flyin’ V ESP guitar, and on the far right the second guitarist Henjo Richter. The band devoted the opening part of the show to an immediate showcase of the album »Empire Of The Dead«, and with the third song, the classic Heaven Can Wait (»Heading For Tomorrow«, 1990), they got the hall on its feet and locked in with the band. Interestingly, the Slovak crowd by no means welcomes its musical heroes as temperamentally as, say, Italians or Croats do, even Slovenes. We can say they’re definitely lively, not at all as »anemic« as the Austrians, but still more reserved than our own crowd. Of course, plenty of heads that night were already seriously weighed down with alcoholic derivatives, and the legs were consequently seriously wobbly and staggering, which left people a bit less stable.
The setlist then lined up two outstanding songs. First came the excellent »Powerplant« classic Razorblade Sigh, definitely one of that album’s best songs, followed by a better moment from the weaker album in Gamma Ray’s discography, »Insanity And Genius« (1993), called Tribute to the Past, which was actually the biggest surprise of the setlist that night. The new Pale Rider hinted that we can expect some stylistic changes from »Empire of the Undead«. Let’s hope not too drastic ones. The album isn’t out yet, but given that Kai came on stage with a new hairstyle and his entire right arm tattooed, it’s clear the man is going through his third adolescence. Let’s hope the foundations of the band’s classic character and songwriting haven’t been shaken too much. That will be revealed in the review of »Empire of the Undead« in the coming days. After the superior stampede of the »Majestic« (2005) song Blood Religion, the thought from the previous sentence quickly drowned in oblivion through the newer Master Of Confusion and Empire Of the Undead, and Gamma Ray cleverly saved most of the dynamite of their live arsenal for the close of the regular set. In the »Land Of The Free« (1995) trio, the songs Rebellion In A Dream Land, Land Of The Free and Man On A Mission weren’t played in full, but as a deep and considerably extended medley, in which Kai called on the crowd several times to squeeze the last atoms of their strength into the chorus chants! The encore didn’t bring any particular peak. The newer pulse-raiser To the Metal, whose job was primarily to bring the atmosphere and the crowd-band interaction up another level while Kai routinely rested his vocal cords. They showed some wear, especially in the closing part of the »Land Of The Free« medley, when he deliberately took lower (adapted) vocal lines for the lead melodies. The band closed the show with yet another extremely beautiful song from their rich discography! Send Me A Sign (»Powerplant«, 1999).
The feels? You could tell the tour is just beginning, that the band keeps up an extreme level of routine and professionalism, and that there was plenty of room for the members to have fun during the show, but the crew couldn’t hide that they were conserving energy, as they didn’t squeeze out everything they’re capable of. You could feel it especially in some moments of vocal laziness from Kai Hansen, who still sang the key moments in the songs decently, with confidence and at the level expected of him, and some extra sloppiness also crept into the solos from both guitarists. The repertoire also shows the band tailored it to include songs that aren’t overly complex. There’s not a single classic from what is probably the best album of their career, »Somewhere Out In Space« (1998), which is definitely inexcusable!
However you slice it, every soul at the venue that night got their fill of pleasure, including us, who are getting a bit picky after all the gigs we’ve seen. The band plays fantastically, Ehre fit right into the lineup, Henjo and Kai traded some phenomenal duels in the solos, and Dirk remains a rock-solid figure of great reliability, as always, vocal harmonies included. Gamma Ray remain a bastion of German metal at its finest live, and it was well worth catching the band at a proper full-length show after that short encounter at CUK Kino Šiška in Ljubljana last year! On top of that, we didn’t have to listen to a famous Helloween song performed by Gamma Ray! The one everybody knows, I Want Out.
Setlist
GAMMA RAY:
1. Welcome (intro)
2. Avalon
3. Hellbent
4. Heaven Can Wait
5. Razorblade Sigh
6. Tribute to the Past
7. Time For Deliverance
8. Pale Rider
9. Drum Solo
10. Blood Religion
11. Master of Confusion
12. Empire of the Undead
13. Rebellion in Dreamland
14. Land of the Free
15. Man on a Mission
— encore—
16. To the Metal
17. Send Me a Sign
RHAPSODY OF FIRE:
1. Vis Divina (Intro)
2. Rising From Tragic Flames
3. Land of Immortals
4. The March of the Swordmaster
5. Unholy Warcry
6. Dark Wings of Steel
7. Lamento Eroico
8. Holy Thunderforce
9. Dawn of Victory
10. Reign of Terror
11. Emerald Sword
ELVENKING:
1. The Loser
2. Elvenlegions
3. The Divided Heart
4. Moonbeam Stone Circle
5. The Winter Wake
Photo gallery
