Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Gamma Ray
Label: Noise Records
Released: 2000
Length: 121:33
Rating: 4.5/5
The double compilation »Blast From The Past« is basically a collection of re-recorded versions of the best-known works of German power metal stronghold Gamma Ray from the era when Ralf Scheppers (now Primal Fear) sang in the band, plus remastered versions of the originals recorded with band boss Kai Hansen on vocals. So it gives you a creative cross-section of the Gamam Ray discography of albums released between 1989 and 1999. The band’s first decade, in other words!
Beautifully packaged and decked out with gorgeous artwork by the legendary metal cover artist Derek Riggs (from Budgie to Iron Maiden), who nailed the essence of the fantasy, sci-fi-crowned messages in the band’s lyrics – especially on the later works of the first decade, meaning 1995 to 1999 – this release landed in the right place at the right time. And for more than one reason!
In 2000, power metal was in the middle of a full-on boom thanks to its revival, which kicked off in the second half of the nineties with a landmark release – the debut album by Hammerfall »Glory To The Brave«. Over the four years that followed, the movement got a whole lot stronger, as new power metal bands popped up on the scene, while the classic ones that had started out in the eighties found fresh purpose and defiance again, which gave them the badly needed wings of new inspiration!
All of that goes for Gamma Ray too. The band started its career in 1989 and, with the albums »Somewhere Out In Space« (1998) and »Powerplant« (1999), released just a year later, soared toward a creative zenith, which is more or less capped off by the album “No World Order!” (2001) and the double live album »Skeletons In The Closet« (2003) after it. And it was precisely the lineup that recorded »Somewhere Out In Space« and, just a year later, the excellent »Powerplant« that was in extraordinary form and incredible creative freshness at the turn of the millennium.
So they decided to re-record and rearrange some songs from the era of the albums »Heading For Tomorrow«, »Sigh No More« and »Insanity And Genius« – the band’s early days, in other words. These songs now come dressed in the piercing, sharply serrated and coolly responsive vocals of Kai Hansen, who in this period showed off a successful quality leap as he turned into a confident vocalist, even though he had always been seen first and foremost as a seasoned riff-smith and composer of gorgeous guitar melodies and solos. Kai did leave his mark on Helloween’s cult debut »Walls Of Jericho« (1985) with his vocals, but most of his singing he visibly polished up fifteen years later.
And the result? The production from »Powerplant« has been carried over to this colorful Gamma Ray double-CD sandwich too! All of it. Kai Hansen’s excellent singing, which effortlessly conquers vocal lines aimed at dizzying heights, is harmonized down to the last detail with backing harmonies, backed by a wall of riffs, backed by twin guitar harmonies set in thirds. Henjo Richter’s arrival for the album »Somewehre Out In Space« was a huge relief for Kai Hansen, since he had finally got an equal partner on the team , someone he could trust in everything. So the combination of split solos in the instrumental sections, passages seasoned with solid twin harmonies in thirds, often plain old picking over the riffs (»picking«), which Kai Hansen of course carried over from his famous colleagues in Helloween, plus the addition of keyboard arrangements, showed just how important a new acquisition Henjo Richter was for the band. Suddenly an epic, bombastic element and a touch of symphonic grandeur had grown in Gamma Ray’s sound, though still heavily subordinate to the punchy power metal riffs and the lead melodies of picking over riffs.
But that’s not all. For »Somewhere Out In Space« Hansen kept only the loyal Dirk Schlächter by his side in the lineup, who switched from guitar to thumping bass. That freed up a spot for Henjo Richter on guitar, while behind the kit sat a particularly accomplished drummer, Daniel Zimmermann, the kind of drummer Hansen could only have dreamed of. So over two years of the completely revamped lineup, Gamma Ray caught lightning in a bottle: that rare moment of being warmed up to just the right working temperature, creating ideal conditions for the kind of creative chemistry between members that pulls the whole cart forward at full throttle.
And »Blast Form The Past« is bursting with that positive inspiration and freshness radiated by the lineup overhaul! The songs run in chronological order. That makes the first disc especially interesting, where a true Gamma Ray fan is genuinely floored by such a stark contrast, such a transformation and upgrade, not just in the sheer inventiveness of arranging old classics in new clothes, but also in the jump to a higher level of sound production, which developed a layeredness that under one roof combined a surge in metallic hardness and sharpened aggression, while on the other hand bringing that touch of symphonic bombast that a true power metal charge badly needs and demands.
The second CD covers the band’s output from 1995 to 1999 and offers remastered sound, except that there’s no audible difference between the versions of the three songs from the »Powerplant« album and what we hear on »Blast From The Past«. Given the gap of just one year between releases, Gamma Ray surely didn’t remaster those three »Powerplant« tracks. It would have been wasted effort. Still, ordering the songs from the oldest to the youngest album makes for a great ride, one that also reveals the band’s gradual artistic maturing.
»Blast Form The Past« is an excellent compilation that, at the time of release, pulled along quite a few similar cases among other power metal bands who took on similar projects, replaying old material. The compilation also foreshadowed that the band would take on remastering all the old pre-»Poweplant« albums, which is exactly what happened when in 2002, via Noise Records (a label long since defunct, by the way), they put out another strictly limited run of remasters in »digipack« packaging.
Considering that in 2012, as I write these lines, this album is very hard to find in CD shops, and on online stores it fetches a very high price, it’s pretty clear that a freshly baked explorer of the Gamma Ray catalog will complete the individual studio albums sooner than get their hands on this compilation. But every fan of German power metal has to have it. It’s a reflection of the time when power metal, for a stretch of some seven years, moved back into the focus of metal crowds. And a reflection of the exceptional strength of the Gamma Ray lineup of that time. That lineup is still considered the classic Gamma Ray lineup today, and it only changed in 2012, when Daniel Zimmermann left the band.
Lineup
Kai Hansen – vocals, guitar
Henjo Richter – guitar, keyboards
Dirk Schlächter – bass
Dan Zimmermann – drums
Production
Kai Hansen & Dirk Schlächter
Track list
CD 1.:
1. Welcome
2. Lust For Life
3. Heaven Can Wait
4. Heading For Tomorrow
5. Changes
6. One With The World
7. Dream Healer
8. Tribute To The Past
9. Last Before The Storm
10. Heal Me
CD 2.:
1. Rebellion In Dreamland
2. Man On A Mission
3. Land Of The Free
4. Silence
5. Beyond The Black Hole
6. Somewhere Out In Space
7. Valley Of The Kings
8. Anywhere In The Galaxy
9. Send Me A Sign
10. Armageddon
